3 ms·

Facts-First Culture

• eesmith 6y ago
  "Facts-first results in better business outcomes." Let's test this, shall we? Suppose you are in Exxon in the 1980s, working in a a facts-first culture, and you learn that there's no real scientific uncertainty that use of your company's main product - petroleum - directly contributes to global warming. What do you do? "Stay focused on the goal" and continue to sell oil? Experience from the cigarette manufacturing companies shows that marketing and spin can go a long way to increasing profit, so it's not really speculation that running a disinformation campaign will be effective. And as we've seen, Exxon has profited well over the decades. So, while perhaps while it's true that "Facts-first results in better business outcomes" ... perhaps it's also true what we need as a civilization and people are ethics-first companies?