Ralph Windle

Since Wishes, as we young were taught,
Are often Fathers to the Thought;
And Thinking, for the businessman,
Is worth avoiding when he can;
And since our Board had had their fill
Of all this Corporate-Planning swill;
We’d drawn, at last, our clear conclusion -
All cerebration is delusion !

Henceforth we would value higher
The cause of Corporate Desire,
And decimate the competition
By force of Positive Volition !

Just one whisper of a mention
Of this laudable intention,
Brought Press and Television news
All pestering us for interviews,
With brokers rampaging amock
And hyping up the company stock.

Nor were the Twitterati slow
To tweet-it for our ‘ Wish-and-Go !’
While neuroscientists galore,
fMRI scans to the fore,
Delved for the source of this new Credo.
Deep in the Corporate Libido.

Major Business Schools were billing
Seminars in Collective Willing,
Exploring Shinto or Islamic
Sources for the Wish-Dynamic;
And in a rash of books rehearsed
Which one of them had found it first.

The Unions, too, were keen to claim
Fraternal interest in the game,
Excited that the wages bill
Be settled by Collective Will;
And moved that plant negotiation
Be based on Mass Desideration.

While Governments, whose every act is
Fashioned on free- market practice,
Lost but little time in hiring
The Heads of Corporate Desiring
From friendly, donor corporations,
To brief their Wish-Tanks on Inflation.

***************

I’m sure you’ll all be chuffed to hear,
They’ve named us BUSINESS of the YEAR !