Virtue and integrity are so vital in an economy because if we have people who are not ethical then we have a break down of a perfectly run and moral society. It's sad that we don't have a society that puts morals as a lead in how they run the company or government. Like last week where money is put in place then the interest of the people. A quote from "What's a Business For" is "To many, it seems that executives no longer run their companies for the benefit of consumers, or even of their shareholders and employees, but for their personal ambition and financial gain." Once people start turning towards how much money they can make and how can they become bigger and better as a company and as a person, we lose the focus. If people are running on a moral compass their "why" changes. They want to help others and focus on how to make it good for their customers or as a people vs the ambition to earn as much money as we can. Not all people and companies are like this but it feels like there are more often than not the "rule" instead of the exception.
Two quotes that I found that made me think that the justification for a business are: "The purpose of a business, in other words, is not to make a profit, full stop. It is to make a profit so that the business can do something more or better." and
Dave Packard once said,“I think many people assume, wrongly, that a company exists simply to make money. While this is an important result of a company’s existence, we have to go deeper and find the real reasons for our being. As we investigate this, we inevitably come to the conclusion that a group of people get together and exist as an institution that we call a company so that they are able to accomplish something collectively that they could not accomplish separately – they make a contribution to society, a phrase which sounds trite but is fundamental.”
Both quotes say basically the same thing. We don't have businesses to just make money. There has to be purpose to starting the business in the first place. Usually it's because there is a need or a passion by someone who wants to contribute. Sometimes along the way the money comes into play.
Two solutions I agree with Handy on are:
1. I liked in the beginning how he talked about lending to the poor. If we didn't have those opportunities then the poor would stay poor because they wouldn't have a way to get out of their hole. It's like education. If a poor person has no way to be educated then they must survive. Surviving is not living. It's not fulfilling someone and giving them a purpose. When they are given an education and a way to fund their endeavors, they have a purpose and they see a way to live better than they were or are currently. However, Handy says, "To survive, even to prosper, is not enough. We hanker to leave a footprint in the sands of time, and if we can do that with the help and companionship of others, so much the better. We need to associate with a cause in order to give purpose to our lives." So, to have a purpose, the "why" we do what we do, then that fuels what we do.
2. One thing that I always found annoying was how expensive medicine can get. I have asthma and inhalers can get crazy expensive. It is frustrating when I have to have the doctors keep changing to a different inhaler because the one I was using isn't covered by insurance anymore. Having pharmaceutical companies that are in it to help the people and not their pocketbooks would be amazing. The quote, "George W. Merck, the son of the pharmaceutical company’s founder, always insisted that medicine was for the patients, not for the profits." was a good way to look at it.
Comments
Post a Comment