NASA announced yesterday that asteroid Apophis will not strike the Earth for at least another 100 years. That’s good news, given that the impact we had feared for 2036 could have killed more than 10 million people. The question is, will we prepare for an eventual impact?
The last time we lost tens of millions of humans on the planet, it was 100 years ago, during the pandemic of 1918. We knew it was going to happen again, but we didn’t really prepare for it.
Near-term catastrophes seem to light a fire under our chairs, but far-away ones leave us apathetic.
For publicly traded companies, the next quarterly earnings report is the near-term catastrophe. For politicians, the next election is the near-term catastrophe. For NGOs, the next round of funding is the near-term catastrophe. All resources are marshaled to avoid an impact. Few resources, if any, are allocated to preparing for the 100-year events.
And so today we see pandemics and social injustice.
And so tomorrow we will se water shortages, and food shortages, and natural disasters caused by climate change.
Prepare for impact.
This post was originally published on The Ethical Leader and is reprinted here with permission.
Writing as “The Ethical Leader,” Yan Tougas draws on 15 years of experience as a compliance & ethics officer at a Fortune 500 company, sharing insights, wisdom and lessons learned. This post originally appeared on “The Ethical Leader” and is reprinted here with permission. Views expressed are that of the author. Visit him at YanTougas.com, connect with him on LinkedIn or follow him on Twitter.
Yan Tougas, Global Ethics & Compliance Officer, Raytheon Technologies Corporation
Yan Tougas oversees Raytheon’s global ethics programs, supporting a network of nearly 300 Ethics & Compliance Officers, managing the company’s Ombuds program, and ensuring that best practices are adopted across Raytheon’s business units. Ethical culture and leadership is the focus of all activities under his responsibility.
Yan joined Raytheon in 2000 and held positions of increasing responsibility at several of its business units. He took his current position at the Corporate Office in 2012.
Yan holds a LL.B from the University of Sherbrooke School of Law (Quebec) and a LL.M. from University of Connecticut School of Law. He sits on the Board of the Ethics & Compliance Initiative and on the Advisory Board of the Hoffman Center for Business Ethics at Bentley University. Yan currently lives in Connecticut with his wife and three children. 
