Profit
Eugene Taurman
interLinx
http://www.execpc.com/~ilx
Subject: Profit motive vs. LO LO23516
Replying to LO23511 --
On 7 Dec 99, at 20:34, Brian Gordon wrote:
> Also, I think there are many organizations and people that
> have made ENORMOUS amounts of money while actually degrading humanity. The
> Nazis, Michael Milliken (junk-bond king), and so on. How much good one
> does for society is not measurable by your income, though it may be an
> accurate value of the value that society places on you (professional
> athletes).
For these organizations profit was an indicator of how well they carried
out their mission. The mission was corrupt.
Again, what set of values do you bring to the business world? Do you
expect, or want organizations to act according to contributions to
society? If so, how does that balance with profit issues?
Right on the values management bring to the organization determine it's
behavior. Profit simply reflects how well an organization carries out it's
own mission.
The mafia and the Salvation Army and IBM all judge themselves by how much
is left at the end of the year. All operate with in financial constraints.
A friend of mine runs his company with a simple vision for his people. We
are here to "Have fun!" To have fun there must be more money coming in
than going out or profit. For that to happen the customers must be
satisfied. So find out what they want and do it well. We will know we are
doing that by the amount of money we have to share every quarter. This is
true for any charity or non profit such as United Way, churches and
business. The values of managers are the issue. Knowledge as plays a
role. Many companies caused pollution before they knew the problems they
were causing. Cars used to be less safe but now due to knowledge, customer
demand and legislation our truths have changed
--"Eugene Taurman" <ilx@execpc.com>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>