TED Conversations

Remington Barrett

The Pathfinder School

This conversation is closed. Start a new conversation
or join one »

Corporations that make profit from peace

What if there was a corporation that made more money during peacetime than wartime? Something like a defense contractor that was paid to be prepared for war, but the corporation would be ultimately unprofitable during war. They could hire lobbyists to push for peace. I would really like input on this idea, because obviously right now it is not worthwile.

Topics: peace war

Showing single comment thread. View the full conversation.

  • May 18 2011: Often times, corporations donate funds and solutions to solve issues in the real world. So it is in the duty of the investor to take into consideration the outcomes of these business decisions and quantify the value of these decisions to translate them into monetary gains.

    The ultimate goal of a corporation is viewed as generating the largest profit while mitigating the most risk in a venture. So to quantify the impact of it's business decisions that are not normally tracked could turn things around. For example, if a bad corporation dumped chemicals in a lake, this decision should not be forgotten or hidden, it should be tracked to see how much damage the decision has caused in the environment. The impact to the environment should be tracked to see how much the clean up would cost as opposed to if nothing is done. The damage dealt to the environment as well as affected businesses and individuals should be accounted for to get a more complete cost analysis of the situation.

    When looking at this 'crisis' in a Chinese proverbial manner, this is an opportunity for another corporation to step in and solve the problem. The trick is for this new corporation to provide a more cost effective way to solve the issue. If this corporation's solution is less than the cost of the crisis if left unattended (which causes the ripple effect to occur where subsequent business are affected are left to clean up the mess), then the corporation at fault as well as the surrounding businesses who would otherwise be affected should invest in the new corporation to attend to the matter. My idea is not fully thought through since there is no profit gained, however this business model would minimize cost expenditures which in turn would bring a monetary value to the new corporation's service in the form of savings.

    Unfortunately, we leave these types of accidents up to the governments who are not for profit, or insurance companies who overcharge and are also overcharged themselves.

Showing single comment thread. View the full conversation.