How can businesses survive in our ‘post-truth’ world?

Friday 07 April 2017

‘Fake news’, ‘post-truth’ and ‘alternative facts’ are all phrases that seem to have appeared in our newsfeeds in the last year and Business Connect decided to ‘chow down’ on the topics to see how businesses can approach these changing times.

Last year, the Oxford Dictionary declared the word of the year to be ‘post-truth’…

POST-TRUTH - adjective-

“Relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.”

... and in a world of fake news and alternative facts, you might not be wrong to think we live in a ‘post truth’ world. 

So yesterday, at their monthly CHOW luncheon, Business Connect discussed just that: ‘Life After Truth? Business, politics and life in a post-truth age.’

Pictured: Ben Shenton presenting at the Business Connect CHOW lunch.

Ben Shenton, a finance director, media commentator and former politician was one of the guest presenters at the lunch along with London-based entrepreneur and linguist Tim Nash.

They touched on the history of fake news, where our society is today and how individuals and businesses can approach the reality of our ‘post-truth’ world.

Mr Nash said: “For me, the challenge for businesses is what’s going on underneath. Let’s get away from the sort of ‘debating hall, I’m right you’re wrong’ kind of discussion and let’s actually deal with the underlying issues and the underlying concerns that ordinary people have.”  

“You cannot pin all your hopes or your fears and insecurities being solved by one person who doesn’t even know you exist because they are sitting in the White House and that is where a business can really step in” 

Pictured: Tim Nash speaking at the CHOW luncheon.

“The government is one step removed but the businesses are actually embedded in the community. They interact with people, they are made up of the people so start there. Listen to what their concerns are, listen to what the concerns of their families are. Listen to what the society thinks of their business and are they adding value to the society or not? If they are not adding value they might be making money now but sooner or later their business is going to be turned on by the rest of the community and the business won’t exist anymore.” 

Speaking after the luncheon, Paul Milbank, Director of Business Connect Trust said: "As usual the mixture of themes and discussion that our speakers explored today [5 April] was very stimulating and thought provoking. Ben Shenton's talk was very political, as one might expect, while Tim Nash went for more philosophical and spiritual themes.”

“We always struggle at CHOW with how to fit everything into the lunch hour and sometimes I feel bad about interrupting the lively discussions that are being had on the different tables. But we don't aim to completely answer the difficult questions that our session try to address, but rather to provoke further discussion and to give people a better framework for thinking about the issue in the context of their workplace or communities."

"Our next CHOW is on the 3rd May from 1-2pm and is called "The Virtue of Failure: Making good of mistakes, rejection and loss".

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