How to make life that bit harder

[harm_less]

I did a business ethics paper years ago as part of my business degree.  One of the fundamental issues in business ethics at the time was around just how much responsibility do businesses have to anyone other than the owner/shareholders.

There was talk of stakeholders and various entities that had some kind of interest in the business, think clients, suppliers, neighbours, tax dept etc (basically anyone affected by the business and it's operation). 

What I felt to be the general consensus back then was the only real responsibility of the business is to the shareholder/owners.  The rest of it (Environmental, reputation, being a good corporate citizen etc) was considered discretionary and only if in the best interests of the shareholders, unless required by law...

Yeah.. well I'm never going to be able to  agree with the view that customers don't really matter as long as they use whatever it is businesses are selling.

Just treat people - including customers of businesses - as they'd want to be treated. It isn't that hard; people can manage to exist without making massive profits. And what exactly is the point of mucking up the planet we live on, knowing full well that our descendants mayn't be able to exist thanks to our idiocy.
It comes down to fairness; & sadly that appears to be lacking these days.

And then add the situation where customers become your suppliers also. This is exactly what is happening in the electricity supply landscape as increasing numbers of consumers start feeding surplus solar generation back done the lines.

• The issues then become how much those customers are paid for the 'raw material' they are providing you? 
  
• How does the gen-retailer (and transmission infrastructure owner) address the use of their network by 'customers' whose monthly account is potentially drastically lower than non-generating customers? 
  
• How much return on distributed generation such as by PV is enough to entice customers to not jump to a better deal offered by another gen-retailer, or to increase their generation capacity to a level of self-sufficiency where complete disconnection from the grid becomes a viable option?
  
• How do these factors work for previously state owned generating companies who now have to answer to private shareholders?
  
• How proactive are TPTB in the electricity supply landscape in regard to continually falling costs of PV and battery storage products, and the rapid uptake of EVs?
  
• How to treat customers who either can or cannot afford to sidestep the electricity supply system equitably?
  

This is not an issue just for NZ. The death spiral of utility companies, as it has been referred to as, is real and being experienced internationally already.