What is a business?

BRIAN H MEREDITH REMINDS US OF THE TRUE MEANING OF A BUSINESS AND HOW AN ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE SHOULD BE FUNCTIONING DOWN THROUGH EVERY LAYER.

What is the reason and purpose of a business? To make money?

To make money at the expense of anything and anyone? With the CEO totally committed to facing towards a business’s shareholders?

And with the customers being perceived as nothing more than a source of dollars?

Is a business an entity that will do whatever it needs to do to acquire the sums of money it wants to? Or has to?

In a classic organisational structure, is it God (or Goddess) at the top with a bunch of layers below that end up, eventually, at the bottom of the structure where the only people who deal with customers are? Sales teams, waitresses, bank tellers, flight attendants, call centre operators, etc?

And between God (or Goddess) and the bottom layer of the structure, is it just a bunch of layers comprising people who are hired to do what they are told, when they are told and how they are told?

Are many businesses like this, to one degree or another?

I recently had a conversation with the CEO of a District Health Board and asked him when he last spent time moving around the hospital that the DHB managed – talking to patients, catching up with staff, offering support and commitment to helping the clinical and non-clinical staff, checking out the facilities, the functioning of those facilities, the cleanliness of the buildings and all that was in them. Making sure, overall, that everything was as it should be, and if it wasn’t, talking to the appropriate team members about how to resolve issues and problems.

The CEO’s answer was gobsmacking. I haven’t done that since I’ve been in the role. I have been far too busy.”

Every business and every organisation, profit or not-forprofit, private or public sector, exists, yes, to make money but, in doing so, the CEO has responsibility to every stakeholder group in and around that business or entity.

Yes, shareholders are one important stakeholder group. But so are staff, staff’s families, suppliers, the local community and, you may think bizarrely, competitors too.

Every business or organisation operates in a community – small or large, it is still a community.

And the stakeholder groups are any group of people who rely on the business or on whom the business relies, or both.

So why don’t more businesses and organisations recognise this, work hard to identify and understand the needs and wants of each stakeholder group and do their utmost to meet those need and wants?

Businesses and organisations, to one extent or another, contribute to the building of and caring for communities. Every stakeholder group is a community in itself. Small or large. If any stakeholder group is ignored then the business will underperform on some level, not just on sales and profit.

Yes, shareholders are where a lot of the original and ongoing money comes from. But they want it back. Plus some more.

Customers are the only place the real money comes from and every stakeholder group can influence customers – for better or for worse – including your competitors.

And this all comes under the heading of marketing.

If marketing means nothing more to you than the development and implementation of an advertising and social media campaign, based on what you believe are the benefits of your products and/or services (or, worse, based only on the price of them), then you will, at best, suboptimise your performance and, at worst, fail.

Any business or organisation must operate with integrity; operate with commitment to all stakeholder groups; and operate with honesty.

And equally important, operate in a way that is designed to help build, nourish and nurture each stakeholder group and not simply look for the best way to extract stuff (mostly money) from them.

This is how the organisational structure should function, with God (or Goddess) leading the Vision and Mission and the rest of the organisation using their own skills and talent, together with their commitment, to help the organisation accomplish what it wants and needs to accomplish.

So, the answer to the question “What is a business?” is that it is a part of society, a part of a community, a contributor to human beings comprising each stakeholder group, and is an entity that operates with honesty, integrity and enthusiasm.

“Every business or organisation operates in a community – small or large, it is still a community.”