I was lucky to get to talk with Roman this morning. He shared how he is a Seattle native like me — but then clarified how he grew up in St. Louis. Roman then paused, and I could tell that he was really happy living in Seattle, as he wanted to share more.
Roman said that industry in Seattle has traditionally “paid it forward” to the local community. Companies like Boeing, Microsoft, and Starbucks all give back to the region in ways that prevent economic disparity from getting out of hand. He went on to point out that in contrast, when he was growing up in St. Louis, they had many successful companies in the region like Ralston-Purina, TWA (a once prosperous airline), and a few other companies I used to hear about. According to Roman, these companies didn’t actively give back to the community — which resulted in four classes: the rich, the richer, the poor, and the poorer. Roman shared his look of being puzzled as to why one city would behave one way, and another city could behave a different way. He gave a shrug of reluctance and said, “I wish the mayors of cities like mine knew what the other mayors were doing — to have avoided their own city’s demise.”
As a fellow 50-plus year old, listening to Roman’s wisdom was a special gift out of the blue. It was a stark reminder of how important it is for companies to protect the commons — to grow the communities in which they exist — for not doing so is at their own peril in the long term. In the short term, wealth can be made — but if it is at the expense of the commons, then the proverbial tragedy (of the commons) will not be far away. —JM
1 Comment
Hi John,
The recent story about the incident with the two gentlemen in Philadelphia regarding Starbucks, is exactly what I was talking about when companies step up. Starbucks took 100% responsibility of what happened with one of their stores even though they cannot control every single little incident that happens in over 2000 to 3000 of their stores throughout the world they did take responsibility. Not only did the CEO go down to meet the two gentlemen but they will lose revenue by closing every single one of their stores to do ethnic training on how to handle and manage incidents with the patriots. This makes me very proud once again of Seattle-based company doing the right thing.
Not only did the CEO go down to meet the two gentlemen but they will lose revenue by closing every single one of their stores to do ethnic training .This makes me very proud once again of a Seattle-based company doing the right thing.
I wish that I could be a spokesman for them.I recently took a picture with 25 Starbucks cups that I collected when I visit states throughout the country,it’s the one thing that I collect when I’m in different cities. Even though I have never experienced what the two gentlemen went through I can tell you I have visited over 300 stores throughout the country without a single incident.
Finally I would like to say thank you to all the residence of Philadelphia Who stood up for the two gentlemen to bring this story to light.
But please recognize what the company did in response following the aftermath of what happened.
Roman