My colleagues Pam Gordon, Michael Kirschner and I have been
writing
and
advising clients for several years about the European Union's upcoming electronic products directives, WEEE and RoHS.
Well, WEEE has up and come, and we've written an OpEd commentary in today's Wall Street Journal 'Business Europe' column: Wishing Won't Make It So
It begins:
The 'train wreck' facing the electronics industry this week -- owing to many companies' failure to keep up with increasing global requirements for environmental performance -- was completely avoidable. It raises concerns about the level of fiduciary duty exercised by business leaders who should have done a better job of seeing it coming, and of preventing it.
And concludes:
Sadly, this train wreck was not only both foreseeable and avoidable -- and perhaps avoidable at a profit -- it is not unique to the electronics industry. The electronics industry is just one example of an industry failing to keep up with increasing environmental-protection requirements; there are other potential train wrecks on the landscape as governments push inexorably to combat other perceived crises such as climate change. The challenge to senior executives and boards is to steer away from the collision course with a set of global trends that many have evaluated incorrectly.
You can read the connecting logic in the full article for the next seven days (at which point I think DowJones will charge you for it). And you can talk with us any time about >regulatory insulation and the business strategies that can provide it.
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