Building Strong Business Foundations
"Taking a Personal Interest in Your Business Success"
Eric Mitchellette
Culture of Humanity vs Culture of Short Term Profit
- Conscious Capitalism -
Which one do you want to be part of to build and grow?
A culture of humanity places emphasis is on making decisions that not only advance the well-being of today, but ensure long-term prosperity for all stakeholders which will create an enduring business. Cultures of Humanity will make a profit and will profit over the long term.
When stakeholders come together to help create a new company or buildup an exiting company and believe it will be good, all stakeholders will put all of their collective efforts into that company; stakeholders will want it too succeed. Stakeholders include employees, their families, vendors and customers, and community and government. A culture of profit focuses on the short-term, (i.e. this quarter, this week, right now...) at the expense of the future, transactionally focused organizations do not prosper or survive the long term.
Why create a short term focused business; why would anyone waste a great future potential for short-term gain? When the focus of ownership or management is seen as short-term and transactional the true stakeholders will know they have been forgotten. A culture of profit doesn't value the stakeholder relationships, and as a result decisions only account for what leads to short term financial gain, at the expense of trust and goodwill. Disregard for stakeholder relationships leads to a corrosion of the very foundation of the business.
Which culture are you creating or working in? To better understand your company's culture, ask yourself the following questions:
- Does the business have a culture of respect and caring?
- Does Senior management and ownership visit locations often? Does Sr Management meet with the employees, the community and other stakeholders and listen to concerns and action on those concerns? Are concerns by stakeholder ignored or dismissed?
- Are discussion about maximizing short term revenues and profits? Do discussions include long term impact of decisions?
- Are business ethics discussed? How does a business integrate planning and executing discussion into its mission, vision and values statement?
- Before you speak or act, do you consider how this will affect the feelings or rights of other stakeholders? Do you feel that other stakeholders give your feelings and rights the same consideration?
- How are new ideas regarded by you and by others? Are they welcomed, or disregarded?
- Is there pressure to conform in meetings, or is a diversity of ideas welcomed?
- Is success shared?
- How do customers feel when they call with questions? Do they feel confident they'll have a good experience?
- Do you take pride in your work? Do others take pride in their work?
- Are you having fun? On the whole, do you and other employees enjoy going into work? Is there a sense of levity and passion in your work?
- Are there parts of your work that you dread?
- What would improve key aspects of your work? Do you feel that your company would be willing to carry out those improvements?
- How much of a role do you feel that organizational politics play in your company?
- Do you feel that you have a path of advancement available to you?
- What is ownership's exit strategy? Is there a succession plan in place?
- Is ownership reinvesting in the company, employees and the community?
While it seems simple to pick an organization built for the long run; it is easy to loose focus and pick a culture that is solely focused on short term financial results. Unfortunately a shiny object may detract us from our goals