The law of unintended consequences is one of those nebulous laws of economics that most of us can intuitively understand. But many politicians ignore it. It states that actions, particularly of governments, have unexpected effects. Tweak one area of social policy in an attempt to influence people's behaviour and the chances are you'll end up encouraging an entirely different behaviour elsewhere.
This came up time and again in a discussion Director hosted with a group of entrepreneurs. There seemed little doubt that the government and both main opposition parties have noble intentions with respect to making the UK more appealing for entrepreneurs. But translating these ambitions into actions and policies hasn't always gone so well.
The result is that the entrepreneurs starting and running businesses feel put upon. There's more regulation, it's harder to get a business going and there is greater reluctance to employ people, not least because of the difficulties and dangers in getting rid of them if they fail to perform or the business hits difficult times.
There also appears to be a fairly widespread feeling that politicians are unlikely to ever do anything to help. As this month's profile, Addison Lee founder John Griffin, says: "Politicians don't run the country, businessmen do and I feel we have a duty to put our two bobs-worth in." There was universal agreement from our panel of entrepreneurs that the best thing government can do is get out of the way and let them run their businesses.
But governments want to govern. In the 24-hour news circus, politicians need to be seen to be launching initiatives and doing things to help. So this month Director, in association with Enterprise UK and leading entrepreneurs, is launching an Enterprise Manifesto. The idea is to start a discussion and get feedback from as many entrepreneurs as possible, with the aim of producing a set of proposals for whoever takes power at the next election.
Business and politics rarely mix well. But unless directors speak up and let politicians know what they need from government, the cycle of worthy initiatives based on good intentions but cursed with poor execution will continue. Have your say by visiting www.director.co.uk/manifesto.
Richard Cree