> Date: Fri, 27 Sep 1996 16:43:35 +0000
> From: Julie Beedon <julie@vistabee.win-uk.net>
>
> This part of Ben's message really had me chuckling.....
>
> >Earlier this week, in a management training seminar, I used this example
> >in a break-out session. Whew! I'm still pulling the knives out of my
> >chest! People went nuts on me. "If organizations don't exist to make
> >money, then what the hell do they exist for"? one participant screamed.
> >No one in the group would even entertain the idea. Stodgy farts!
>
> I had a similar experience with a client who found this whole idea to be
> outrageuos - they were American so they could write it off as a strange
> British thing!!! They worked on a mission -- it was something like "we
> work to meet our financial goals by ..... x.... to make money" (x is to
> protect the innocent) This was my turn to be outraged - I said they had
> made a money sandwich!!! These days they are moving beyond this
> articulation of purpose but it really was not easy ... what have we come
> to ....[At one stage they even had an eminent MIT professor come to speak
> to us..... he said "you are not in the x business...... you are in the
> money business"!!!!! - they all turned to chuckle at me at that point...
The way I have handled this is by emphasizing that, although they want to
make money, they are not in the money making business. Those who are in
investments are the only ones in the money making business, because they
use money to make money. But businesses use money to buy inputs, to make
things (or services), to sell them to outsiders at a profit. Then this
means that money for them is "just" an outcome of some system. I also
emphasize that, if they do not take very good care of the system (open to
wide interpretations), then they may not not get the outcome "money."
-- Ivan,
--*************************************************************** R. IVAN BLANCO, Ph.D. Voice 305 899-3515 Assoc. Prof. & Director Fax 305 892-6412 International Business Programs Andreas School of Business _________E-Mail Addresses________ Barry University Bitnet: Blanco%bu4090@Barryu Miami Shores, FL 33161-6695 Internet: Blanco@bu4090.barry.edu <<<<< ---------------- >>>>> "Si un hombre fuera necesario para sostener el Estado, este Estado no deberia existir." "If one man were necessary to sustain a Nation, this Nation should not exist." Simon Bolivar ===============================================================
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