Trade is probably one of the oldest activities of our civilization. Because of the age of the activity, it would probably be difficult to determine the genesis of business. What could have triggered this activity could be credited to the human traits of being self-preserving and political. In order to survive, a method of increasing our resources had to be devised. In order to gain power, resources were translated to wealth. That is, the more the resources, the wealthier and more powerful we become. Alternatively, business could be our way of expressing self-worth; that we can produce something or that we are of value. “Through working on external things we literally create ourselves; we make the world a human world. We identify with our productions. They are our very soul externalized, the essential thread that connects us to the rest of human society,” as Geoffrey Klempner puts it, crediting to Marx’ philosophy. There are countless theories on how business started.
But how should we really view business? Is it a healthy human activity, benefiting the largest portion of the inhabitants on earth? Or is it just an agent of destruction drawing us closer to the end of everything? For me, it seems that the latter is true.
What I’m aware of is that there has been an over-commercialization of the earth’s resources. Capitalism, that system which widens the gap between the rich and the poor, continues to operate in the present day despite of everything evil that’s known regarding it. What more? The business industry is the No. 1 contributor to carbon emission. And those in the lead are the ones who seem to remain skeptic about the environmental hazards of carbon. Now is the time that we should reconsider the basics of business – its purpose and relevance. It’s the time to realign our perspectives to the philosophy of trade and rearrange our priorities. Like what Gordon Brown, Chancellor of Exchequer said in Corporate Social Responsibility (an update from UK’s Department of Trade and Industry):
Today, corporate social responsibility goes far beyond the old philanthropy of the past – donating money to good causes at the end of the financial year – and is instead an all year round responsibility that companies accept for the environment around them, for the best working practices, for their engagement in their local communities and for their recognition that brand names depend not only on quality, price and uniqueness but on how, cumulatively, they interact with companies’ workforce, community and environment. Now we need to move towards a challenging measure of corporate responsibility, where we judge results not just by the input but by its outcomes: the difference we make to the world in which we live, and the contribution we make to poverty reduction.
I know that’s too big a thing for small businesses to care about. After all, small businesses are not the ones that contribute largely to the whole garbage of crises happening in the present. In fact, it could even be the other; small businesses are one of the groups affected. In whatever way you put it, small businesses are still involved and therefore should act on it. Know that however small a drop in an ocean could be, as the clichéd metaphor goes, it could still create momentum in the water in the form of ripples. But actually, that goes far beyond the metaphor because small businesses make up over 90% of businesses worldwide. And in the US alone, Small businesses, defined as for profit enterprises with fewer than 500 employees (U.S. Small Business Administration 2009), constitute the overwhelming majority of businesses. They represent 99.9 percent of the 29.6 million businesses in the U.S. (including both employers and non-employers). Just imagine how much difference small businesses could make if everyone would take a step higher in their business philosophy.
Image Source: Bloomberg Businessweek
And by the way, it need not be a huge project. Small efforts could mean so much. You can simply give back to the community, support causes, track your carbon footprint, disclose sustainability reports, etc. One of the things that you should also mind of is how you manage your employees. Make sure that their concerns are heard, and that they work in a healthy workplace. Anyway, the effects of these efforts will not only benefit the environment but the business as well. It could be a good strategy for branding.
Here is yet another borrowed statement from Klempner on a post-economic age:
Our wealth is not just the totality of our money or possessions but the quality of our human relationships, the values of the society in which we live, the physical environment which all human beings ultimately have to share. As a consideration determining consumer choice, as well as the decision about where to seek employment, these are the factors that money can’t buy. Narrow minded cost benefit analysis is giving way to humanity and a new idealism. It is time that economists woke up to the reality of a post-economic age.