Sir, – Business leaders are good at sticking to budgets and making difficult decisions that affect profitability and efficiency. They live and die by budgets, profitability and shareholder returns to an extent that would be unimaginable in the public sector.
However, the idea that business leaders always will possess the societal vision and wider related skills needed for political leadership is debatable.
For instance, if an employee is useless, they will sack him or her. If a market is unprofitable, they’ll pull out of that market. If a product or service is unprofitable, they’ll drop it. This is hardly ideal preparation for the public service aspects of running a country, where, by definition, you’re stuck with unprofitable people, regions and sectors that, wearing your business leader hat, you wouldn’t touch with a barge pole.
Equally, seasoned politicians have thick skins. They deal with harsh criticism, much of it peronalised and often unfair, on a weekly basis. By contrast, senior business leaders are afforded considerable respect by their staff and, inside their own businesses, they’re generally used to getting their own way. It can be a rude awakening to swap that “respect bubble” for the bilious slings and arrows of our social-media democracies, as Donald Trump is discovering.
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Business leaders running the country? Be careful what you wish for. – Yours, etc,
SEÁN MacCANN,
Trillick,
Co Tyrone.