What has been cool about the success of the industry’s new Better Satellite World campaign is the enthusiasm people have shown for it, especially people who, through their jobs in the satellite community, make these stories Reality. Since we asked you to give us your stories, they have been pouring out. They range as widely as the spectrum of human activities, but have a unifying theme: satellites really do make this planet economically and socially viable and, yes, better. What has been fascinating to me is how our story-telling has unlocked long-hidden urges! While people in our own industry know that satellites help drive cars, enable better wine to be made and improve education, it was if it had been a family secret that could not be told! I guess this reflects an “old school” mentality, built on professionalism, pride and perhaps an assumption that groups like the WRC know what we are really all about. As Michel de Rosen told me in an upcoming interview for Satellite Executive Briefing, it simply ain’t so. Not even WRC knows that a ruling for the cellular industry would actually work against it!
What is best about the campaign is that the stories and the “better world” they enable are not part of a charitable contribution of some unsold capacity, or VSAT dishes donated for an emergency or as a sophisticated PR stunt. These stories really are about how satellites enhance innovation, make money for shareholders of airlines and energy firms and help tackle our most dangerous, collective challenge: the sustainability of the place we all call home. So do not confuse the Better Satellite World campaign, and the investment we and others (including Milbank, ManSat and Intelsat) have made in our new Better Satellite World Awards program in London on 4 December, for example, as an exercise in CSR (corporate social responsibility.) For sure, we are a highly responsible industry; in part because we launch stuff that can blow up and put other stuff in orbit that is so complex, precise and important that there is no other way to be than “responsible” every hour of the day.
Yet when it comes to you being a part of this campaign, either through a no-cost endorsement or financial support for events like the one in London or the upcoming Future Leaders Dinner in New York, the idea of corporate social responsibility being embraced because it is “the right thing to do” is so ludicrous as to be almost laughable. Excuse me, but there is no obligation by anyone to do anything for anyone else except as it serves their own self-interest. You merely need to listen to an interview with Vladimir Putin or any national leader to understand quickly that “protecting the national interest” is a reflection of the physical, intellectual and moral borders we have built around ourselves as a means of self-preservation. This is not a condemnation or a surrender to cynicism. As Walter Cronkite, the legendary CBS news anchorman in the USA used to say at the close of each broadcast, “That’s the way it is.”
And we accept that. That is why we do not separate CSR from the economics of the satellite industry. As Hollywood does not separate the spiritual experience that a great film can offer from the fact that there is a box office to deal with. That’s the way it is.
So the campaign, which continues, and our new awards program, which debuts in December, will be the continuation of a narrative that I believe reflects the best of business and the moral code we want to live by. Stop using clichés like CSR and “doing well by doing good.” Read the stories; send us more. We prove that we ARE all of those things, not as a gesture but in our profession. I am proud to own that, and I hope that you are too.
To comment on this use Twitter hashtag: #SSPIbetter.