The Business Strategy Analyst with Jules Nartey-Tokoli: Exporting failure: The hidden costs of global development models (2)

Market Disruption and Corporate Decisions

Heavily discounting products can disrupt the market. It undercuts retailers and partners, causing pricing conflicts. Flooding the market with cheap goods makes profit margins difficult to maintain.

Corporations also face tax and liability concerns. In some areas, donating food can lead to liability if recipients get sick. "Good Samaritan" laws offer some protection but may not be enough. Tax benefits from donations might not outweigh losses from destroying goods.

Logistics for donating or discounting products are challenging. Companies need infrastructure for transportation, sorting, and repackaging. For perishable items, safe delivery within expiration dates is complex and costly.

Inventory management is crucial in these decisions. Companies often want to clear space for new inventory. Holding unsold items incurs costs and creates accounting issues. Destroying excess goods can seem simpler than managing them.

Accounting practices influence corporate decisions as well. Writing off destroyed goods simplifies bookkeeping and offers tax advantages. This practice raises ethical concerns but often prioritizes profit maximization.

The Role of Political Leadership in Development

Political leadership is vital for true development. Karl Marx noted that history reflects class struggles throughout society's evolution.

Political entities often act despotically to maintain power over others. The poor remain vulnerable, oppressed without advocates across cultures worldwide.

Class struggles have led to new economic systems over time, as Marx explained using Hegel's dialectics theory. Conflicts between classes (thesis vs antithesis) result in a synthesis that ideally improves society.

However, power struggles often lead to violence and oppression instead of progress. Historical examples include wars for empire-building and the Trans-Atlantic slave trade.

Today, many nations seek democracy while others resist it through coercion or conflict. Citizens sometimes rise against oppressive regimes, as seen during the Arab Spring.

Yet does democracy truly meet humanity's needs? Western democracies struggle with poverty, crime, and moral decay despite their advancements.

Democracy has enabled freedoms but also promoted harmful behaviors contrary to human values. Society faces significant challenges due to these contradictions.

Can democracy resolve political leadership issues? The persistence of injustice raises doubts about current systems delivering meaningful development.

Rethinking Development Frameworks

Current global views on development may be flawed or incomplete. Despite advancements, Western nations still grapple with unresolved social issues like inequality and crime.

Adopting Western models without cultural adaptation risks repeating systemic failures elsewhere under modernization's guise.

Contradictions between development promises and people's realities suggest redefining what it means to be "developed." Metrics focusing solely on GDP ignore essential human dimensions like equity and dignity.

Wasteful corporate practices highlight the need for a people-centered approach to development. True progress must nourish both individual well-being and collective good rather than just wealth expansion.

Development requires reassessing values underpinning global systems today. We must prioritize sustainability over blind profit pursuit for meaningful change.

The challenge lies in whether developing countries will confront uncomfortable truths for a just future.

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The author is an entrepreneur with extensive experience in strategy and management across Ghana and the U.S., advocating for intra-African trade through NubianBiz.com.