Ben discovered something important last week. When he said companies
didn't exist to make money, a bunch of people he works with got mad at
him, and he lost credibility with them for even saying it.
The reality is that companies are very confused about this issue. Ben
used the example of people having to breathe, but that is not the same as
saying the exist to breathe. On the other side, though, companies
frequently _do_ say that their goal -- primary goal or only goal -- for
next fiscal year is to make $xxx profit or $yyy sales, or some other
profit-oriented goal. This is very much equivalent to me saying that my
goal for next fiscal year is to take 63,100,000 breaths (2/minute). Well,
I could set that as a goal, but it would be a pretty boring year if I
spent much time tracking it and responding to variances. But this is what
companies do.
The good companies understand this, and they set different goals. Someone
said that you can sell washing machines to make money, or you can sell
washing machines to provide people more free time to spend with their
families. Bean sells goods to help people enjoy the outdoors. I can
relate to that, and the vast majority of people who work here can relate
to that.
--Rol Fessenden INTERNET:76234.3636@compuserve.com
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>