Is good intention enough?
Column: Strong brands sometimes do good and change the world, but:
Column Strong brands sometimes do good and change the world, but:Microsoft has fundamentally changed our world in recent decades: our working methods, our information, entertainment and communication behavior and, last but not least, our social coexistence. The brand has become one of the most valuable in the world. This brand success has made its founder the richest man in the world. This amassed wealth is now setting out to massively change the global landscape in the healthcare sector. And with tax breaks: The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has become the most important and influential player in the world's healthcare sector - in terms of annual spending volume and in comparison with the World Health Organization, for example.
In the Financial Times, Michael Schrage appropriately describes the current wave of foundations as epochal "tax-supported ambitions to change the world". He points out that these philanthropic institutions are spending their billions to change the work and outcomes of usually responsible public policy institutions. They no longer operate modestly and complementarily in the shadow of political institutions such as parties, parliaments, authorities, governments and international institutions. They are becoming their rivals and competitors. The Gates Foundation decides to a greater extent and with a more drastic effect than the United Nations, the body actually responsible for this, which diseases appear worth fighting worldwide. Schrage summarizes this succinctly as "philanthrophic imperialism" and correctly misses the corresponding democratic control mechanisms.
Historical observations make it clear that this altruistically driven desire for change goes back a long way and that foundations have always accompanied the development of the modern world in large waves. The institutions from the last of these large waves of foundations around the turn of the century before last - associated with names such as Ford, Carnegie and Guggenheim - are very present in the development of our current societies. Nevertheless, some aspects of the current wave of start-ups beyond historical continuities seem remarkable.
Political scientist Herfried Münkler reminds us that foundations can also be seen as a "dictate of the dead hand". Founders are traditionally attracted to the instrument of the foundation not only by the tax aspects, but above all by the fact that their will can be fixed as influential beyond their death. To put it this way, foundation activities can still be controlled by their founders from the afterlife.
This seems to be of secondary importance to Bill Gates. He explicitly points out time and again that he still wants to use the instrument to improve the world in this world. He believes in its creative power here and now. For him, the foundation is the way to use superior entrepreneurial action for more efficiency and more effectiveness to change the world right now. As head of the foundation, he places his creative potential above that of the company boss and, as the latter, is stepping down at a time not even close to retirement age.
As CEO, Bill Gates recognized and used the value-creating function of the brand. His name is associated with one of the most valuable brands in the world. Now he is using this created value to create one of the most important institutions of our time with his name. This is also how brands change the world.
Jürgen Häusler is CEO of the Interbrand, Zintzmeier and Lux Group in Zurich and an honorary professor at the University of Leipzig.
In the Financial Times, Michael Schrage appropriately describes the current wave of foundations as epochal "tax-supported ambitions to change the world". He points out that these philanthropic institutions are spending their billions to change the work and outcomes of usually responsible public policy institutions. They no longer operate modestly and complementarily in the shadow of political institutions such as parties, parliaments, authorities, governments and international institutions. They are becoming their rivals and competitors. The Gates Foundation decides to a greater extent and with a more drastic effect than the United Nations, the body actually responsible for this, which diseases appear worth fighting worldwide. Schrage summarizes this succinctly as "philanthrophic imperialism" and correctly misses the corresponding democratic control mechanisms.
Historical observations make it clear that this altruistically driven desire for change goes back a long way and that foundations have always accompanied the development of the modern world in large waves. The institutions from the last of these large waves of foundations around the turn of the century before last - associated with names such as Ford, Carnegie and Guggenheim - are very present in the development of our current societies. Nevertheless, some aspects of the current wave of start-ups beyond historical continuities seem remarkable.
Political scientist Herfried Münkler reminds us that foundations can also be seen as a "dictate of the dead hand". Founders are traditionally attracted to the instrument of the foundation not only by the tax aspects, but above all by the fact that their will can be fixed as influential beyond their death. To put it this way, foundation activities can still be controlled by their founders from the afterlife.
This seems to be of secondary importance to Bill Gates. He explicitly points out time and again that he still wants to use the instrument to improve the world in this world. He believes in its creative power here and now. For him, the foundation is the way to use superior entrepreneurial action for more efficiency and more effectiveness to change the world right now. As head of the foundation, he places his creative potential above that of the company boss and, as the latter, is stepping down at a time not even close to retirement age.
As CEO, Bill Gates recognized and used the value-creating function of the brand. His name is associated with one of the most valuable brands in the world. Now he is using this created value to create one of the most important institutions of our time with his name. This is also how brands change the world.
Jürgen Häusler is CEO of the Interbrand, Zintzmeier and Lux Group in Zurich and an honorary professor at the University of Leipzig.
