Notes on Noble Business

Once a year, we get to celebrate the birth of America and the freedom that makes our country a beacon for other people and whole countries. The power of the human spirit in its desire for freedom results in many inspiring stories of how freedom is gained. We have our own in the U.S. But in this blog, I’d like to share briefly the stories of two other countries, for these stories exhibit the depth of that desire and the power of its expression.

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When people hear about “Noble Enterprise”, they often think, “Well, that would certainly be nice, but not in our business, not in our industry.” They think it too lofty a goal that can’t be reached because Reality interferes – the need to sell to demanding customers without losing your shirt, the need to control waste and keep employees focused on the proverbial “bottom line” etc. “We can’t afford (the thinking goes) to serve some lofty purpose, or to be honorable because it’s just not practical and stands in the way of profitability.”

Yet when a business is shaped and led as a Noble Enterprise, it can actually achieve traditional business results far beyond the norm.

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With a New Year starting, it’s a great time to step back from your business and take a fresh look at something most business leaders take for granted or seldom work on – your “business model.”

What is your company’s business model – and how’s it working for you? I don’t mean its strategy – that’s different. The “business model” is the very core definition of your business – WHY it exists, to Serve WHOM – and what those NEEDS really are.

The traditional business model focuses on things like: 

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An amazing coincidence happened in 1776 that changed the world. Two different documents on two separate continents each published that year made the case for individual freedom, each in its own way. The ideas in both documents have had a huge impact on the world, one in terms of the spread of political freedom; the other in terms of the advancement of economic freedom – and prosperity.
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Last week, I participated in a two-day conference on Conscious Capitalism, a term describing both a business philosophy and a way of operating that goes beyond the narrow financial focus of historical Capitalism.
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In its most recent issue (March 23-30), Business Week offers “Game-Changing Ideas for Business” with an impressive array of examples of companies using both well-established and new ideas to improve their performance.
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With financial companies in shambles and the rest of the economy reeling, the business education community is asking themselves where they may have gone wrong in training the MBAs who headed for Wall Street, rose through the ranks, and were at the helm of many of the companies that lost their way.
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Tired of waiting for the Federal Government to stimulate the economy? One Alabama business owner took matters into his own hands, creating his own private stimulus program that provides an interesting model for other business owners to consider.

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I often hear human resource professionals and business executives talking about the challenge of dealing with multiple generations in the workforce. How can we motivate and reward our workforce when it’s made up of people from the older generation, the boomers, the Generation X’ers, and the Generations Y’ers or Millenniums – all with different needs and desires? It’s a seemingly impossible quandary. Or is it? (more…)

A Report from the Field

“I love coming to work here! I’m challenged. I contribute. And I’m fulfilled by both my job and my company.”

How would you like all your employees to say this? (And do you even know how they really feel about their job and their company?) (more…)