jonathan stegall

Do you remember CDNow? They were an online music retailer that was purchased by Amazon in the late 1990s. In that time, when I was getting used to the web as well as getting to know Jesus, I used CDNow and RadRockers.com (which is still around). The reason all of this is relevant is that today was the first customer service-related encounter that I remember having with Amazon, or CDNow before it.

My wife, as you may know, is a graduate student at Candler School of Theology. She purchased her books for the semester on Amazon (and saved lots of money). One of the packages was supposed to have three books in it, but when it was delivered it only had one.

After a quick search of the website, she found the Contact Us link, and the system allows you to give them your phone number and tell them when you would like to be called. At that time, it calls you and connects you with a customer service rep. Of course, she was able to give information to document the issue, and it was quickly corrected and the missing books will be shipped.

Normally, customer service does not stick out to me for good or bad, but for some reason this strikes me as significant. I’ve never had a customer service experience that was so convenient and easy, presumably on both ends, as that one seemed to be.

It’s that time again. If you make websites, you should take the survey from A List Apart. It’s a beautiful thing.

For some time, it has been clear to me that business is the future of activism. I want to say that again: business is the future of activism. It’s a shocking statement, if you really think about it.

Many people throughout the 20th century (and before) on all sides of the political spectrum believed, and still believe, that governments are the drive behind large scale activism. It has been a common belief that large-scale societal change cannot happen without government intervention.

We can see evidence of this in the rise of the Moral Majority, in which fundamentalist Christianity tried to achieve its various goals through achieving influence in government. Essentially, it failed in this. Lasting change that reaches beyond superficiality (and meets their goals) did not occur in society, and instead of influencing the Republican Party, conservative Christianity has spent the last several decades in blind acceptance of the Republican Party.

The political left also shows examples of this kind of thinking. Movements have tried to influence government for a great number of things in recent years, from nuclear disarmament to climate change. Essentially, it also has failed.

The interesting question that should arise from my statement is why business would want to be a catalyst for large-scale social change. The goal of business, at its core, is to make money. Business doesn’t exist to make the world a better place. Governments certainly don’t either, but it can be argued that they should do so better than businesses do.

I’m not entirely sure how to answer the question about why business would want to do this, but there is significant evidence that it does. Businesses of all sizes are finding it very desirable to put their resources behind causes that will not, at least in the immediate future, bring them a financial return. Issues from poverty to the environment to fair trade are being drastically changed by businesses.

Businesses are devoting their resources to causes from Kiva, where they can help other businesses in developing countries, to the Millenium Promise, where they can help end extreme poverty in the poorest of poor countries. Businesses of all sizes have the skills to achieve these goals. They know how to organize, they know how to get people behind something, and they know how to get passionate about an idea. Once these things happen, there isn’t a government on earth that will choose to accomplish the same things that are possible with these businesses.

I say all these things to mark a shift that has occurred, especially in the last decade or so. The business world endured a shock with scandals like Enron, and it was unclear if there could be a fast recovery of any kind. Businesses of all kinds, though, have begun to cause that recovery. Google has google.org, Steve Jobs wrote about a greener Apple, Microsoft has, among other things, made possible the Gates Foundation, and all kinds of companies have launched endeavors like Coke’s Corporate Responsibility strategy. I have no interest in white-washing large business. Certainly there are horrible things that continue to go on, and many businesses that don’t care at all about social responsibility, but the fact is that it is becoming a part of the business world to an extent that it never has. It’s a great thing to watch.

Recently, I finished reading The Wal-Mat Effect. It has been a thoroughly gripping and unique read, unlike any other business book I have ever read.

I read a decent number of business books. I enjoy a lot of the ones I read, especially the ones that really examine culture. The impact of business on culture, the impact of culture on business, ways to do business better, and so on. Many times, they are incredibly relevant to theology, ministry, and the church as well as business.

The Wal-Mat Effect does not have a surface relevance to these things. On the surface, it sets out to examine Wal-Mart and its impact. The impact that it has on business: its own business, the business of its competitors, the business of its suppliers, and the business of the rest of the world.

The reason that this is so gripping is that it reaches to the way Wal-Mart impacts me, in my shopping, my ways of spending money, my expectations of what things should cost, and the ethics and decisions of my financial life.

It seems that this is a bit dramatic, but after reading throughout the book about the scale that Wal-Mart has, and its power and influence and insistence on secrecy, it feels that the book’s impact is entirely justified. I want to recommend it.

Consider the following:

It’s time to do two things: To acknowledge in public policy terms that there is a difference between a $10 million corporation, a $100 million corporation, and a $100 billion corporation. We need to acknowledge that scale matters. And we need to start a fresh process of understanding by insisting on a level of information from megacorporations that they will vigorously resist providing. As with other shifts in corporate accountability, we can be absolutely confident that as soon as the new era of megacorporation transparency is in place, not only will we benefit, but the companies themselves will benefit.

There are many people who are aware of what this transparency, if it ever comes, will reveal about Wal-Mart. The interesting thing is that it will reveal much of the same about companies across the spectrum of large American business, from Target to Starbucks.

What I am interested to learn is whether or not this kind of knowledge will change us. Will more people make informed decisions about how, when, and why they shop? Will there be more real choices, with real differences, available to the consumer?

From A List Apart:

People who make websites have been at it for more than a dozen years, yet almost nothing is known, statistically, about our profession. Let’s do something to change that. Presenting A List Apart’s first annual Web Design Survey.