Populism and opportunism — from corporations to politics
On a global stage we are witnessing similar developments in political parties as we have seen in many corporations. Populism and opportunism form a mix which is eroding the principals of conservative and liberal parties, just like it continues to erode business principles around the globe. No later than when these populists started to gain votes from conservative and liberal voters, these parties have started to embrace the populist and opportunist principles. This created a shift from ‘what is in it for us’ prioritizing the establishment towards ‘what is in it for me’ prioritizing selected individuals at a political stage, with similar impact and consequences as we are seeing in corporate leadership in the past 2 decades. The growth of this kind of political leadership and agendas might not have been as explosive as it is seen in the corporate boardrooms, but it has become the common model for the next decade(s).
Populism- and opportunism-based leadership at any stage tends to seize the moment with a strong single-dimensional message about a common enemy or objective to rally behind. In corporate populism- and opportunism-based leadership this is in most cases the foreign competitor that is used as the subject of the slogans. In political leadership, the populist and opportunist agendas are based on using foreign economies and immigration as the catalyzer to round up votes.
In the United States that might be growing economical competitors like India and China, or what we have seen happening in the form of ‘the danger from the South’ in which Mexican immigrants are showcased as the cause of all problems. In reality, the entire US economy is based on cheap labor and products from either Asia or Mexico.
For the European Union, the common foreign enemy might even be the European Union itself, especially from countries which generate GDP growth by exploiting cheap labor from within the European Union and benefiting from the single market.
This was (and still is) the battle cry that led the United Kingdom to leave the European Union, only to discover that life is tough without the (cheap) foreign workforce at the core of your consumption driven economy, and the benefits of the single market are no longer there once becoming a third country. But it is not that any of this was unknown before or after the campaigns. In fact, it was and is publicly available information. It just wasn’t part of the populist slogans, and apparently nobody cared enough to even check.
The impact of short-term opportunism and populism noticeably eroding the previously so successful corporations, is also being seen and felt on the political stage. Just like the corporate giants that eat their reserves and resources to serve the short-term hunger of their populist executives and shareholders, countries run by opportunists and populists will go through a wave of recessions that will damage the economies for decades. Not at first because at first everything will be great, and some success will even be visible when not looking at the details behind these successes.
That is the main risk of opportunism and populism. Everything tends to look great at first. Until the first minor crisis hits, and the real damage will become visible. At the corporate stage, people have and will continue to lose their jobs. Private investors have and will continue to lose their savings. At the political stage, recessions will impact generations across borders. Opportunism- and populism-based leadership is a dangerous short-term ‘solution’ with long-term consequences!
