Review of Policy Document
The Great Transition A tale of how it turned out right By nef is an independent think-and-do tank that inspires and demonstrates real economic well-being

Abstract
The paper ‘The great transition’ by the nef talks about the great transition that we as a humanity has to take in order to reverse the harm that have been caused to the environment by our actions. In this report I try to analyse the policy and look at what suggestions that have been suggested by the authors is adoptable and what potential implications can it have on the world economy and businesses in general, and also what potential positive impact this can have on global warming and climate change. At the end of the report I make a reflection on the ethical and moral dilemma that I might face in future at my workplace.
Introduction
Our crude dependence on oil and the complete disregard for the environment has led us to this path of irreversible destructive impact on the planet and there is no less that 60 months left beginning in 2008 that climate change in the form of a 4C rise in temperature by the end of the century becomes irreversible. Also with the current economic crisis it has become apparent that the path that we are going forward in terms of value creation in terms of wealth and GDP output has not been efficient enough to target the real problems that we face today and most governments have been ineffective enough to give an optimal result. So the policy document shows us a process of this great transition that we need to undertake to create a sustainable ecological environment and also a growing viable economy.
Great Revaluing
In ‘Great Revaluing’ the policy suggests that the economic and social policies of the government should be directed at creating real value which is beneficial to the society and environment and not just focussed in creating monetary wealth towards its stakeholders. Stikkers(1992) argues that ethics must inherently be linked with economics and the economic policies being formulated by the state and the government. He states that ethics should wage a relentless war against economics and the policies of the government should be always challenged by ethics so that the question is always tested that as to what values it is creating in the greater good of the human life. He also argues that the economic values should be formulated as a greater good of goodwill virtue and thanksgiving as to what benefit it might bring to the society as a whole.
Great Redistribution
In ‘Great Redistribution’ the policy proposes that all the wealth generated in the economy should be equally distributed amongst all the members of the community. This can be done with policies such as the creation of an Endowment Policy which would give all members a valued sum of 25,000 GBP for all above the age of 21 to create a valuable future for themselves either in the form of an education or an independent business venture. The government would be able to generate this sum of money by taxing the wealthy in the form 67% inheritance tax. This would eliminate the uneven balance of wealth in society and create equal wealth redistribution. Like Kim et al.(2007) states in his paper illustrates many objectives in which this accumulated wealth can be redistributed, mainly in the form of giving individuals welfare benefits in the form of pension, healthcare, unemployment etc. In this manner the state will be taking care of its people most in need. Now to examine what impact this would have on businesses? In modern day capitalistic societies this might be demotivating towards businesses as they will not be able to accumulate substantial wealth although they might have generated them, they will not be able to pass them onto the new generation. But let’s look at the report where Okie (2006) suggests that how Bill Gate has attained a heroic status by committing much of his enormous wealth to fight the most important problems of modern day society but at the same time one always remembers him as the pioneering person who has led massive technological innovations and still has a very successful organization. This success story should inspire other businesses to charter the same pathway.
Great Rebalancing
In the ‘Great Rebalancing’ the policy argues that the government should facilitate a balance of direct provision, co-production and the development of strong local relationships to pursue the common goals and objectives. The policy states that the state or government should not be considered as a separate entity but as a part of the whole society as a general and all the policies that are formulated should foster a cooperative society where individuals come together to develop common goals of interest which would affect health, education and the environment. Wilkinson et al (2009) suggests that inequality is not only bad for businesses it is generally bad for the society at its core. It creates unhealthy environment in society for health, crime and inequality between all income grades and these in turn might be unhealthy for businesses to operate in so equality should be an essential objective for businesses to thrive on.
Great Localisation
In the ‘Great Localisation’ stresses the importance of subsidiaries in the form of villages, towns and communities where they become self-sustainable entities which can generate its own needs and necessities and not be dependent on importing things from outside. This activity would have an implication on trade as inter community trade would be diminished but these obviously lead to a decreased dependency on oil and thus lead to saving the environment with reduction in global warming. The political lobbying by the oil and gas companies would be against this, as the communities become self-sustainable they will not require to import commodities from the outside, this would lead to reduced dependency on transport in turn and on oil and also profits accumulated from inter-country trade would also be reduced. In Haines et al.(2007), the authors suggests that “The absence of reliable access to clean energy and the services it provides imposes a large disease burden on low-income populations and impedes prospects for development.” So although the oil companies might be against it, importance must be given to the importance of building alternative renewable energy forms that might be beneficial by not only causing minimal environmental damage but also creating business ideas and options which would stress the importance of local ideas and industries and involve the members of the community and not depend on energy sources that we know harm and cause irreversible damage to the environment in general.
Great Reskilling
In the ‘Great Reskilling’ the author argues that people of individual community should develop new skills than their mundane jobs to devote time to other activities that would help in making the community self-sustainable. Not only will these activities make the communities become self-sustainable not only in terms of production and consumption but also in arts and culture. In this way individuals might be able to become self-fulfilling and self-gratifying by the development of new skills and processes and to be stuck in their mundane works that might create frustration and depression and unhappiness. They would be creative and innovative and always willing to learn new things. This inevitably creates the environment for new discoveries and innovations which businesses can take advantage of and develop plans which would lead to successful beneficial business models. In Hahn (2009) suggests that there is so much potential in the bottom of the economic pyramid, western economies are shrinking and the potential of new ideas and creativity lies at the areas which have not been trapped. By encouraging innovation there might be root out some of the best business ideas.
Great Irrigation
In the ‘Great Irrigation’ the policy argues that there should be a differentiation between taxing and spending. There should be a viable consumption tax instead of the income tax which would tax commodities which causes harm to the environment or imports them from outside of the community. There would be setting up of a bank which would provide incentives to the people who would not have money to set up their own businesses that would encourage innovation and creativity. A consumption tax would be levied for consumption that are over the means of sources and would replace the income tax. A new housing bank would be set up to give loans to persons to build their own homes and green bank to give loans to set up environmentally sustainable projects. In Tiffen (2003) shows that how effective government policies are required not only to add projects in Africa for agriculture but also for urban planning to prevent mass exodus as agricultural society declines.
Great Interdependence
In the ‘Great Interdependence’ suggests reduction in export based economies and reductions in exports as much as possible and this would reduce the carbon footprint of transporting goods around the world. Inter country trade would reduce significantly and individual communities would become more self-sustainable internally and externally. This would also lead to poverty and global inequality will be reduced and the huge changes that needs to be undertaken. Indeed the is ‘Great Transition’ is necessary to bring about and stop the irreversible damage that has been caused to the environment and all the stakeholders should contribute equally either locally, globally and socially to bring about the best reforms in place to prevent a sustainable global economy with great regards to climate change.
Conclusion
In conclusion the strategies stated in the policy might at the first instant may be difficult to implement and might even have a negative impact on businesses as it suggests less consumption and less reliance on materialistic needs of today’s societies. But we cannot just continue to live our lives as way it is because our way of live has already caused irreversible damage to the environment changes to the climate and the world will not be a sustainable place for future generations. So I suggest that we do take some of the ideas of the policy document into consideration like creating self-sustainable communities and creating innovative environmentally stable industries which can serve its members in the long run without harming the environment. This would encourage new ideas that could be created into sustainable business models with more equality in terms of wealth creation and distribution in society.
Ethical dilemma that I might encounter in the future at work place and how I will deal with it
Coming from a developing country which is primarily agricultural based I have seen that there has always been a conflict between industrialization and agricultural development. In many ways the state or the government feels that it has to satisfy its urban vote bank via rapid industrialization and at times this comes at the cost of ignoring the primarily agricultural based community. This comes at the greater cost of increased misbalance in wealth distribution where the richer becomes richer and the poor becomes poorer sometimes there sources of livelihood being taken away from them.
In India the government has taken a lot of inputs into implementing ‘Land Reform’ where there has been pending legislation as how to implement these changes. There has been no consensus as to how to implement them. As the industry becomes more and more demanding for land for setting up industries there is enormous pressure on the government to make land available to them. So in many cases there has been the situation where the government acquired land at cheap prices from the farmers and sold the land to the industry at exorbitant prices. When these things become public knowledge there comes enormous pressure on the government to justify their actions. The agricultural community becomes hard done and becomes distrustful of the state’s actions.
The above actions causes mainly two problems, mass exodus of migrant agricultural workers from the farming communities to urban areas which in turn causes pressure on the limited resources in the cities and the loss of fertile agricultural land. There has also been issues of violence in certain area where there has been armed uprising where these communities have taken up violence against the state and also the law enforcement because they feel that their issues have not been dealt with in an effective way by the state. In many states in India this armed uprising have been a major problem and has caused a lot of headache to the government and has stood in the way of rapid development. As a member of the industrial community in the past and also in the future I feel I will also be faced with these ethical dilemma in the future as to how to address the above mentioned issue as to how to find a balance between industrial development but not at the cost of ignoring the agricultural community and this problem will only increase in the future if the government is not able to find the right solution to land reforms.
To illustrate an example as to how severe the issue has become, Bajaj (2010) states in article in the New York Times how the development of the tata nano or the people’s car had run into trouble since its inception because of poor land regulations. Bajaj (2010) states in the article that “But the Nano has been troubled almost from its inception. The company's production plans were thrown off kilter in 2008 when farmers, led by regional politicians, protested that the state of West Bengal had forcibly acquired land at low prices for a factory where the Nano and its parts would be made. Tata had to relocate the factory to another state, Gujarat -- causing it to take more than a year and a half to fill orders for the first 100,000 cars.”
So from the above example it becomes clear that not only can industries loose financially but it can also become a moral and ethical dilemma they may have to face while making sensitive decisions. As a future high ranking manager I would also be faced similar situations in decision making while setting up industries. Besley and Burgess(1998) suggests that in their research and analysis that how successful land reform has been fruitful in reducing poverty both by tenacy reform and removal of intermediaries. Another important finding was that how improving of agricultural wages can also lead to equal income redistribution.
In future I would be interested in pursuing a career in the public sector either taking up some role in the government or working with an NGO as I have done in the past. I think these issues that I have addressed above would be increasingly important if India was to sustain its economic growth. I think it has to answer the question would it seek development for one part of the population at the cost of the livelihood of others. I have already worked with a couple of NGOs who have been effectively working with the government to make the problems of the agricultural community be heard by the government and what necessary steps that needs to be made in the Land Reform Act so that there is a balance between agricultural development and industrialization. But from my previous experience I can clearly see that it has always been difficult to bridge the communication gap between the state officials and the local community, as they are often distrustful of the state officials and their intentions, because most of the time what happens is that the state buys the land at cheap rates from the farmers and sell them at ten times the price to the industry thus making a lot of money. Most of the times the promise of employment by the industry is not kept and this causes subsequent distrust between the two parties.
To state a personal example here, once I learnt about a plan that a big industrial company was considering setting up a factory in my locality, after buying land from the locals at throwaway prices. The company promised rehabilitation and jobs in the factory once the project was completed. Yet, all these were just empty promises without any legal commitments. With my NGO I tried to provide support to the locals. Not surprisingly, I faced a lack of trust, was seen as an ‘outsider’. This was partly the result of previous brushes they had had with politicians who approached them only during elections. My best efforts had got stymied due to my ignorance of local affairs.
Bridgman (2010) suggests that the best way to make moral and ethical decisions is to include more curriculums in business school to include cases where manager’s judgement is brought into question and I am experiencing how to make informed choices by the mindful manager and gsrm course. By studying and applying these thoughts to my future work in the non-government or public sector. This moral and ethical dilemma would only increase depending on whose side I start working as I have worked in the industry in the past and know about the situations and pressure that they undergo and also I would like to work in the public sector in the future and would like to explore their point of view. I hope to take the correct decisions for my organization for development and industrialization but at the same look at the consequences of my action on the livelihood of society in general

References
Bajaj, Vikas (2010) A People's Car That Few Want: [Business/Financial Desk] .New York Times [online]10 Dec Available at http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/10/business/global/10tata.html?pagewanted=all [Accessed 6 February 2012].

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Bridgman, T(2010) ‘Beyond the Manager's Moral Dilemma: Rethinking the 'Ideal-Type' Business Ethics Case’, Journal of business ethics Vol.94, p.311-322 [Peer Reviewed Journal].

Hartman, L P & DesJardins, J (2008) Business Ethics: Decision-making for Personal Integrity and Social Responsibilit’, McGraw-Hill.
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Kim, Wonik(2008)’Enfranchisement and the welfare state: Institutional design of unemployment compensation ‘The Journal of Socio-Economics, vol. 37, issue 4, pages 1660-1678.

Manpreet Sethi ‘Land Reform in India: Issues and Challenges’ [pdf] Available at http://www.foodfirst.org/files/bookstore/pdf/promisedland/4.pdf[Accessed 6 February 2012].
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Stikkers, Kenneth W. (1992) ‘Moral Sensibilities For The Social Economy: The Challenges Facing Social Economists in the Twenty-First Century—A Philosopher's Perspective’, Seattle University, Review of Social Economy, Vol. 51, 1993.

Tiffen, Mary (2003)’Transition in Sub-Saharan Africa: Agriculture, Urbanization and Income Growth’ Drylands Research, Crewkerne, Somerset, UK ,World Development Volume 31, Issue 8, August 2003, Pages 1343–1366.
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