Why Richard Branson and Other Billionaires Are Attacking the Way We Do Business

Geoff Colvin / Fortune

There's a crisis of capitalism

“This is a very dangerous moment,” says telecom billionaire Mo Ibrahim. “This is like the 1930s. We must take action.”

He’s talking about a crisis of capitalism, a topic that emerged from the opening moments Friday of the Fortune/TIME Global Forum in Rome.

It’s rare to hear a hyper-successful businessperson tear so vigorously into the standard behavior of businesses, but he believes that if business leaders don’t do it, companies’ futures are in jeopardy.

Plenty of others think the same thing, including another billionaire, Richard Branson, who also spoke up at the Forum’s opening session. But Ibrahim, an entrepreneur who launched Celtel, which operates in 14 African countries, was the most unsparing.

“Corruption–are taking a proper stand against it beyond statements from the board, while we ask consultants to do the dirty work? Taxes–are we paying taxes where money is actually made, or are we playing games, which enrages people? Executive pay–last year in the U.K., raises were 2% or less for most people, but executive pay in the biggest companies rose 10%. For an executive making £5 million a year, that’s a raise of £500,000. Is that fair?”

Ibrahim belongs to a group of business leaders called The B-Team, founded by Branson, which among other things argues that so-called anonymous companies, in which corrupt leaders can hide their ill-gotten wealth, should be eliminated.

These and other business leaders are attacking their peers because they’re worried deeply by the global rise of populism reflecting the anger of millions who feel they’ve been left behind economically. These leaders realize that if they don’t fix the world they’ve helped to create, populists will fix it for them–a fate they dread. After Brexit and Donald Trump, and the prospect of more such upheaval in countries worldwide, the race to fix that world is officially on.

This article originally appeared on Fortune.com.

Monday, November 28, 2016

Amazon Worker Jumps Off Company Building After E-Mail Note by Spencer Soper

Amazon Worker Jumps Off Company Building After E-Mail Note

Spencer Soper, BloombergTechnology

November 28, 2016

An Amazon.com Inc. employee was injured when he leaped off a building at the company’s Seattle headquarters in what police characterized as a suicide attempt.

The man, who wasn’t identified by authorities, sent an e-mail visible to hundreds of co-workers, including Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos, before the incident occurred, according to a person familiar with the matter. The man survived the fall from Amazon’s 12-story Apollo building at about 8:45 a.m. local time Monday and was taken to a Seattle hospital, police said.

The man had recently put in a request to transfer to a different department, but was placed on an employee improvement plan, a step that can lead to termination if performance isn’t improved, said the person, who asked not to be identified discussing company personnel matters. More than 20,000 people work in multiple buildings at Amazon’s headquarters.

“Our thoughts are with our colleague as he continues to recover,” Amazon said in a statement. “He’s receiving some of the best care possible and we will be there to support him throughout the recovery process.”

In the e-mail, the man expressed criticism of how the company handled his transfer request, and he hinted that he might harm himself, according to the person.

Suicide was the 10th-leading cause of death in the U.S. in 2013, with 41,149 people taking their own lives that year, for a rate of 12.6 per 100,000, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The online retailer has taken steps to soften its image as a difficult employer since a New York Times story last year portrayed the company as a bruising workplace where employees were encouraged to take advantage of one another to get ahead. Amazon disputed the characterization of the company.