Wither Business?

The mission of any business, it can be argued, is to make money. Simple and direct; and understandable. But is this all there is to it?

No. There is much more. A business must fulfill a need. It is not the need of the business, it is the need of someone external to the business. Thus a customer is born. Identifying needs is one thing, finding the person or persons with the need is another. Producing the product or service that fills the need is the other component. And if the business can do all of this and make a profit, so much the better. The needs of all involved are met.

So, profit may be a goal, but it is not the mission. The mission is filling a need. And building a business around that function provides the real intent and form of the business so it can operate, succeed and survive.

Profit is a measure of success. It allows us to do the work of the mission. If there is no profit the mission will go unanswered; the organization will dry up and die. Unless of course a non-profit organization takes on the mission and seeks other resources to survive and meet the mission.

Because of the above I see business life as a worthwhile human activity. Business life pulls talented people and ample capital together so they can build a functioning organization for the purpose of fulfilling a need. This is mission driven functionality. It rewards the receiver of the product/service, but it also rewards the doer in so many ways: salary, benefits, status, creative outlet, sense of self worth, belonging to something larger them one’s self; and being of value to the larger community.

Good stuff. We are not in business for selfish purposes alone.

Well that’s a nice statement, but perhaps that doesn’t describe modern business life very well. Vandana Shiva (www.vandanashiva.org) has said: “I think the American people should see that the corporations abandoned them long ago. That people will have to build their own economies and rebuild democracy as a living democracy. The corporations belong to no land, no country, no people. They have no loyalty to anything apart from…their profits. And the profits today are on an unimaginable scale; it has become illegitimate, criminal profit – profits extracted at the cost of life.”

Zowie! That position has impact. Not sure it is totally true, but worth examining further.

Where to start? How about…

• Big Oil: they own a few trillion dollars in assets; the big five among them earned about $140 billion of net income in the most recent fiscal quarter; they seek more profits; they invest in buying back their own stock to raise stock values and increase nest eggs of their own executives; they invest a very small share of profits for finding new oil deposits; they spend an even smaller share of profits in researching and inventing new energy sources that will eventually be needed to replace oil-based energy. What is their mission? Certainly not energy!
• Large international conglomerates, like General Electric. They have invented new technology, new products and services, have done very well. They have shipped jobs and technologies all over the globe and opened shop there. They have reduced employment in their home country. Indeed it is difficult to determine where their business actually resides to say nothing about where their profits reside. They, too, buy back stocks to boost share prices and executive compensation. GE used to be mission driven in their public advertising and image building. They still use that image in medical device engineering and sales. Yet, what really is their mission? Has it turned into profits only?
• Automotive Big Three – Chrysler, Ford and General Motors – appear to be returning to strong profits. That’s good. It saves jobs, American investments and research. Right? Uh, maybe not. Where is the product being made? Where is it being resourced, engineered, researched and reinvented? Isn’t it accurate to say this is now a global operation and, like GE, difficult to determine where the profits and assets reside? And the profits accrue to whose benefit? Is it the consumer? No. Is it the investor? Maybe, at least getting closer! Is it the share holder? Getting real close! Ah! Is it the executive compensation seekers? Target hit spot on! Where is the mission? Profits or quality of life?

Interesting ideas to consider from time to time. Mission. Vision. Quality of life. 

When the political landscape is viewed from this perspective it gets easier to see what is going on: Corporations are pursuing legislation in Congress and the several states that will serve their profit protection, not their mission protection. They also fund election campaigns, candidate surrogacy and in the process severely warp our American democracy. And its processes.

When will we say enough of this? Will you help refocus our national will on mission first, profits second? Quality of life is something we can all do something about. Including the corporations. Shouldn’t we expect their wholehearted support in this vision?

Or perhaps Vandana Shiva is correct.

May 2, 2012