Business is a complicated business. It’s why it’s such hard work and why we tend to admire those people who make a success of it. To a large extent the world of business is viewed as a world of ‘dog eat dog’, where you can only win if someone else loses. It’s largely been about making profit and the more the better. I know I’ve been there. I’m a competitive person and profit has been an important way in which I and my colleagues have been able to measure progress. But I haven’t been able to do it at all costs. I don’t want the money that much and I believe you have to invest over the long-term if you want to create something sustainable and long-term investments don’t improve short-term profitability .
In many senses a business world where the only thing that matters is the financial success of those involved, is a simple world. The problem is that most of us aren’t motivated by money alone and once we’ve got what we consider to be enough it becomes even less of an incentive. We reach a point where the benefits of an extra 10% on our salary don’t outweigh the negatives associated with earning it.
Succeeding in a business environment when the motivations of investors and employees are at odds is never going to be easy. But the world is changing. Slowly, bit by bit, businesses or rather the people that form them, are starting to realise that if they run their business in a way that sits comfortably with them, it will be attractive to others. People will be more inclined to buy their products, more inclined to work for them, more inclined to invest in them or recommend them. Umair Haque refers to the shift as a move towards ‘Constructive Capitalism’
When the interests of all stakeholders (customers, employees, managers, suppliers, investors and the communities in which they operate etc.) are aligned and when we’re all pulling in the same direction
For a brief, very brief time, I was involved in the world of Corporate Social Responsibility or CSR. This was at the time when the CSR gig was something Directors tried to avoid. Why? Because it was a box ticking exercise, something companies did in order to say they’d done it and not because they believed in the benefits of it for the company or anyone else for that matter. Times have changed, companies like Marks & Spencer appear to be taking the idea to heart. They seem to genuinely believe that it will benefit the company if they do some good. Who knows one day the average company might even believe in doing some good irrespective of the bottom line benefits?
