We all know the Golden Rule from our childhood – Do unto others as you would have them do unto you, or love thy neighbor as thyself or any number of other variations.
Then somewhere in our business life we learned another version of the Golden Rule that read – “He who has the Gold rules.”
This is so indicative of our current orientation to business; it is all about the gold, profit is the ultimate determination of winning. How did we get things so turned around?
I am not going to argue that profit is unimportant. In fact I will argue it is critically important – as a metric, and that is all it is meant to be – a metric. It is not the end goal and it certainly is not the reason businesses exist.
It seems that we have lost touch with the underlying purpose of profit and the underlying purpose of all companies. I live by a very simple rule when it comes to business
- Products/Services that offer value are purchased which produces Revenue
- Resource applied in the most efficient manner minimizes Costs
- Revenue Less Costs = Profit
- Profit reinvested produces growth which means we are serving more of our market
It is being in the service to a specific community that is the ultimate purpose of any given business. We provide goods and services to that community (we call it a marketplace) in an effort to better those members of that community. If our goods and services are accepted by the community we are acknowledged b y the receipt of revenue. The amount of revenue is a direct reflection of the value recognized.
And so the true golden rule of business is the same golden rule that we learned as a value to live life by. Do unto others, be of service to others, offer yourself to others provide the other s valuable service that betters their lives. After all don’t you workwithsuppliers who provide you something of value? Or do you buy from those who make the most money?