The Internet Movie Database summarizes the plot of Taxi Driver as follows:
A mentally unstable Vietnam war veteran works as night time taxi driver in a city whose perceived decadence and sleaze feeds his urge to violently lash out, attempting to save a teenage prostitute in the process.
Last evening, I took a ride from Regent Street to Barking in a black cab with a 30 year ‘knowledge’ certified gentleman. I always talk to black cab drivers, they’re the salt of the earth and often what I see as representing the last vestiges of ‘old London town’ – where I was born. I asked how things are going. Cabbies always moan about something but this fella had good reason. He’s worked all his life, often on the dangerous night shift, having gained the coveted ‘knowledge.’ For those that don’t know, the knowledge is the black cab driver’s equivalent of passing your ACA/AICPA final exam. He’d done everything he’d been told, worked and saved hard. He told me that at 60 years of age he could not see himself ever being able to afford to retire. Why? Despite doing his bit, his pension had evaporated. He was surprisingly (to me) aware of the details around the financial crisis but had lost faith in anyone speaking the truth or making things right. He’d voted all his life but said that at the next election he could not be sure whether it was worth scrawling that all important cross on a piece of paper designed to help us all choose those we believe will serve us best. Tragic.
This evening I saw the reprise of a BBC Panorama show where my good friend Richard Murphy talked about the tax avoidance issues pertaining to the Channel Islands in Banks Behaving Badly. Richard is a Chartered Accountant with a long history of campaigning for fair tax treatment for all. He also argues the economic issues albeit many of his critics say he is blowing smoke.
Then I see my good friend James Governor putting his weight behind Responsible Enterprise 2.0. In his piece James says:
Dennis Howlett has already come out and slammed us for using the “2.0″ suffix. Frankly I’d be a lot more worried if Dennis didn’t have that reaction. He will come around.
James is so wrong on that score. I hear the 2.0 tech part of that equation but it is a side show. Anyone who has followed my blog for any extended period of time will know that one of my big themes is the issue of professional ethics. I argue that while the profession may have had a moral and ethical compass at one point in time – in my youth – it has been lost in the pursuit of greed. 2.0? How about 1.0?
It seems to me that despite all the rhetoric about making things right, the only way that people are brought into line is when their pocketbook is threatened. The alternative view is that sustainable economies can only work where there is a clear economic benefit in pursuing particular policies.
The profession has sold its soul. It is in a quiet crisis that may only become resolved when enough lawsuits bring the Big Four to its knees. So…while I admire James’ efforts at tree hugging enterprise into some sort of moral/ethical compliance, the reality is that economic advantage will dictate the pace. Concentrate on that and you have a path to follow that others will see.
Why should professionals care? As I’ve said for the last 4+ years, the profession is in big trouble. It can save itself and deliver back on its promise of impartial, value driven help to business. But it needs to change. In other words it needs to put itself in the shoes of my taxi driver. Why? Because it is in all our interests and it makes for good business. Those who take that path will prosper, the rest will subside into irrelevance.
