Gene Bellinger emphasizes that business is not driven by profit alone by
observing that few corporations are in the illicit drug trade. I would
take the anaolgy a step further by saying that if wealth alone motivated
individual humans we would all aspire to be street-corner drug dealers.
Wealth is only one motivation of humans, and if we are to trust Maslow it
is not the highest. In my work I find that when you plumb just below the
surface, even the most avaricious entrepreneurs find their very identities
in the work itself.
I found find a delightful passage on this point in the new book by
Fernando Flores (with collaborators) called "Disclosing New Worlds." (MIT
Press. ISBN 0-262-19381-7):
"Business owners...work for the enjoyment of their competitive skill, in
the context of a life where competing skillfully makes sense. The money
they earn supports this way of life. The same is true of their businesses.
One might think that they view their businesses as nothing more than
machines to make profits, since they do closely monitor their accounts to
keep tabs on those profits. But this was of thinking replaces the point of
the machine's activity with a diagnostic test of how well it is
performing....Saying that the point of business is to produce profit is
like saying that the whole point of playing baketball is to make as many
baskets as possible. One could make many more baskets by having no
opponent. The game and styles of playing the game are what matter because
they produce identities people care about."
Cheers,
Tom Petzinger
Thomas Petzinger Jr.
new e-mail address: tompetz@msn.com
"The Front Lines"--Every Friday in The Wall Street Journal
"The arms of consciousness reach out and grope, and the longer they are, the
better. Tentacles, not wings, are Apollo's natural members." --Vladimir
Nabokov
--"thomas petzinger" <tompetz@msn.com>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>