From Principles to Profit

INTRODUCTION

Why would two busy people decide to write yet another book about business when the shelves of bookshops are already filled with business publications telling us how to succeed in three, seven or ten easy steps?

Having both worked in business for forty years, we have learned at least one important lesson: the time to act is when you see a clear, explicit need in the market and when you believe that what you have to offer helps meet that need.

We perceive such a need – to remind those of you in business of the benefits of principled and ethical actions for yourself, for those whom you manage, for your company, customers, shareholders and the community and to suggest ways in which these benefits may be realized.

You do not have to be especially astute to notice that ‘something is rotten’ in the state of our business community. Although most businessmen are honest and upright, the numerous examples of dishonesty, greed and corruption that leap out of the pages of the newspapers make it clear that trust in business and business people is at a dangerously low ebb. This has affected not only the more affluent countries like the USA, UK, France and Germany but also the rapidly developing countries such as China, Russia and India.

As trust in business leaders erodes, the willingness of people to continue investing their savings in the stock market also comes under question. The implications of such a withholding of funds have already caused a dramatic response from many governments, in the form of yet more regulation, as any reduction in available capital could destabilize their entire economic infrastructure.

What the two of us have experienced in business, in addition to the greed of an active minority, is the good that comes from working together with colleagues in a shared partnership to build a successful business. We have seen how a business can begin by serving a real need in society. Through the application of intelligence, care and plain hard work by a cohesive and dedicated team, you can gradually attract a loyal customer base and well-motivated staff. Then profit flows in naturally. As your reputation grows, self-confidence is developed so that other people decide they would like to invest in or work for the company.

The great opportunity to engage in a worthwhile enterprise is being undermined by an increasingly sceptical, even cynical, view of business. Consequently, young people may well seek other ways to express their natural talents.

Business at its best is an instrument for the creation of wealth for the benefit of all, wealth that can be used for the common good. When business flourishes the fruits can be used to improve the working of society, including developments in culture and education as well as general prosperity and well-being. These lofty aims are well worth the effort of pursuing them.

Both the potential and the problems are widely recognized and increasingly well documented. In attempting to address the need for a new direction, we shall present a perspective that considers the lessons learned from history as well as an analysis of current conditions. We shall look at the moral issues as well as the economic results and examine the impact of our actions on ourselves, our families, the community and society overall.

It seems important, as concerned members of the business community, that we demonstrate not only that the selfish actions of a few are damaging all those engaged in enterprise, but also that there is a better way to do business; one that is based on the fine principles of life, and which, when put into practice, will be profitable for all concerned. The events of recent years have provoked considerable discussion on subjects such as moral values, business ethics and corporate social responsibility (CSR). According to critics, some views have come across as too ‘righteous’ without reference to the practicalities of business life, while others have justified the pragmatic approach at the expense of moral values. We hope to strike a better balance and to offer some practical suggestions on how to tread a path that embraces both principles and profits.

What experience do we have to call on? Paul holds a BSEE (Elec Eng) from the New Jersey Institute of Technology (USA), and an MBA from Drexel University (USA). He has worked in business for more than forty years, first for Control Data Corporation in the USA and Europe in sales and marketing management roles and then as General Manager of a European businesses unit. After a sabbatical year at Oxford University, where he gained a Diploma in Education Studies, he began a new phase of his career in the UK as a self-employed consultant in his chosen field of technology-based training, now called e-learning. Eighteen years ago he founded a company focusing on financial awareness training for managers in industry. In 2001 the company was listed on the AIM market as Intellexis PLC with Paul as Chief Executive. Since that time the company has made several acquisitions and is now called the ILX Group. Paul is now President of the Intellexis business unit, helping to establish global partnerships in China, India and Brazil.

Chris graduated from the University of St Andrews with an MA in Logic and Metaphysics and Political Economy. He has been in business for forty years, beginning with IBM in technical and training roles. He worked for a computer time-sharing company in the USA in the early 1970s in systems and product management. Returning to the UK, he joined Logica, the IT systems company and rose through systems, consulting and product management roles to be Managing Director of Logica Software Products Ltd. He then spent eleven years as a Partner with Deloitte Consulting, advising finance industry clients in the UK, Russia and Eastern Europe. He left Deloitte in 1996 to co-found Charteris, a business consulting company specializing in providing a bridge between business and technology. Charteris was listed on AIM in 2000. Chris is an Executive Director of Charteris plc, a practising management consultant and an expert in IT disputes.

In addition to our family and business activities, we have also both been studying practical philosophy for a similar period as members of the School of Economic Science, a London-based educational charity which has been running courses in economics and philosophy since 1937. Philosophy, the love of wisdom, is that ancient and modern study which attempts to discover the first principles, the fundamental laws governing a subject and then to apply them. For example, the understanding and application of the first principles of law could result in one becoming a wise lawyer. We believe that the same applies in business. One can become a wise businessman or businesswoman.

As part of our philosophical studies we have attempted to understand and put into practice the key principles of life as they apply to business activities. For the last three years we have run evening courses in Philosophy in Business, where these issues have been explored with business people of all ages, experience and seniority. The pressing questions expressed by these groups have been:

Can I work in business according to true principles and still be successful?

and

If yes, then how?’

These are real questions and the need is for each of us to answer them for ourselves. Our aim therefore is to help others to formulate a personal and appropriate response. It is our firm conviction that the answer to the first question is ‘yes’, and therefore a good part of our offering explores practical ways in which this may be brought about. While making no claim to wisdom, we have had some useful personal insights and experiences, which we offer together with words of wisdom from teachers representing various cultures along with commentary and observations by numerous business people, in the hope that they may be of some benefit to you.

We shall explore the conditions conducive to personal development and to good business that are created when principles and profits are in harmony. We shall examine how the quality of service offered is enhanced; how creativity can arise naturally in response to the need and how working for the common good expands one’s own happiness as well as that of others. We shall also look at how, when shared common values become a living reality in an organization, trust, loyalty and productivity thrive and how this environment allows for the fuller expression of individual talents and the flourishing of effective leadership.

There is obviously no neat single answer. While the principles are unchanging, the unique solution for now, for this time and place, must be discovered. This will be easier if the principles are known and then tested in practice. Another necessary ingredient, if the effort is to be sustained, is good company in the form of other kindred souls who are interested in the same quest and willing to work. We have already discovered a large number of like-minded people in all parts of the world, walking in the same direction. Some of their experiences are included in the book. We are confident that if you embark on this road, you too will find like-minded people with whom to share your journey.

We have drawn upon our own experiences to illustrate many of the points we make. The work is a joint product, and therefore we have written it in the first person plural, but we have used the first person singular when it is an individual experience.

From Principles to Profit points the direction. We hope that you will find the venture profitable at all levels.

CHAPTER 1 - THE ROLE OF BUSINESS IN SOCIETY

Business, commerce or trade is an integral part of any society. Some individuals or groups of people have, due to their nature or to geographical necessity, given greater emphasis to this activity. Business exists in society because individuals have a wide range of talents and needs and it is not practical for everyone to provide for all their own needs and desires, including such necessities as food, housing and clothing.

Therefore from the earliest days of organized society various specialities emerged. Some people were more suited to work the land to produce food; those with talent for building made shelters or produced tools while others made clothing. The need thus arose for a means to trade the fruits of each other’s production. This exchange of the fruits of individual talents is the basis for business.

As societies became larger and more spread out, and as the variety of products and services required by the populace expanded, some people naturally began to specialize in facilitating this exchange of goods. As this activity became the basis of their individual livelihood, it was necessary that enough benefit accrued to the trader in terms of the goods traded, or later when money was introduced, sufficient profit to purchase the goods necessary for the trader and his family. Thus profit is a natural consequence of business in society and essential to its operation.

As with any such activity, business must be sanctioned by society and given licence to operate. Being given this right brings with it corresponding duties and responsibilities to society. As societies have become more complex and dispersed it has been necessary to formalize the rules of engagement for business. For these activities to flourish a supportive atmosphere is required that in turn depends on the public’s attitude to business. We shall consider the question of the role of business in society initially from an historical perspective, because the attitudes and values that we have inherited play an important part in forming current ideas and attitudes to business.

But before embarking on this, it is also necessary to consider the key factors that are most conducive to trade at any particular time. There are five main considerations:

• STABILITY: peace between trading partners that permits the free flow of goods.

• TRANSPORT: the means to transport goods and services in a timely and cost-effective manner.

• DESIRE: the demand for the goods of another. This requires some knowledge of the existence of the goods, some experience of their value, possibly an acquired taste to have them again and again and a lack of an equivalent product at a competitive price available within one’s own domain.

• MEANS OF EXCHANGE: either through the medium of money or through the bartering of goods and services.

• FREEDOM: the ability to trade freely without excessive intervention by government agencies for financial, legal or security reasons.

As we shall see in our historical review, the degree to which these conditions are met in a society determines the extent of trade. These factors also influence ideas about business. For example, when there is strong desire in one country for the goods of another country and the merchants are successful in making the desired products available at a reasonable price, then these merchants will most likely be both well considered and well rewarded. The reputation of business rises.

If demand becomes excessive and supply is inadequate, then that situation may encourage greed on the part of the merchants so that they go beyond the bounds of morality either in obtaining the goods or, when obtained, in offering them at exorbitant prices. The reputation of business in general then suffers and corrective factors are applied in the form of more stringent laws and severe punishments.

So the two extremes of society’s view of business are that business is either an appropriate and necessary activity of society or that it is inherently wrong or sinful, inevitably linked to greed and corruption.

One can find an early reference to this debate in Aristotle (384–322 BC), who declared that:

… the life of money-making is undertaken under compulsion and wealth is evidently not the good we are seeking; for it is merely useful for the sake of something else.

Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, 1995 edn.

Ancient Jewish law made clear references to business, which in Judaism is neither sinful nor disreputable, provided that it is conducted morally. Of the 613 commandments in the Pentateuch, the observance of which is incumbent on male Jews, 100 are concerned with money and business and by comparison only twenty-eight deal with dietary laws and seven with Sabbath observance.

Christian thinkers in the third and fourth centuries were among the most powerful critics of business. They identified the wealth accumulation and greed associated with business as the prime source of the corruption that had contributed to the fall of Rome.

Certain trades also were condemned as being ‘unclean’ or ‘impure’, unfit for Christians. At the root of this approach was the belief that a Christian should concentrate on preparing his soul for the life to come. To focus on the things of the world was to be distracted from the real purpose of existence.

In reviewing the past, one does find useful parallels that if properly assessed can shine light on the present. In this way one can learn from history rather than just repeating it. For example, for those of us living in the twenty-first century there does seem to be much to be learned from the conditions that existed in society during the latter stages of the Roman Empire in the fourth and fifth centuries. The historian Edward Gibbon, in the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1977 edn.), summed up the state of the empire at that time in five characteristics that he claimed were common to all dying cultures:

• Extravagant display of wealth and outward show;

• Growing disparity between rich and poor;

• Unhealthy obsession with sex;

• Decline in military discipline;

• Universal desire to live off the bounty of the state.

Do they sound familiar?

The Middle Ages

In the 6th century a book was written which was to become one of the most widely read in Europe for the next thousand years: The Consolation of Philosophy, by Boethius (1998 edn.), a very wealthy and influential Roman. He was appointed Magister Officium (Head of Government) by King Theodoric the Great. But he fell from favour with the King, all his wealth was seized, he was arrested on charges of treason, imprisoned and later executed. While in prison he was visited by a personification of Philosophy who guided him through a reflection on his current state.

She, for Philosophy was a woman, told him, ‘the real source of your current unhappiness is that you have forgotten your true nature’. She then led him through a reasoned exploration of the question, ‘Are wealth, power, fame and pleasure the source of your real happiness?’ His conclusion, after careful self-examination, was that while they were highly valued in the society in which he lived, the acquisition and attempted maintenance of these transient goals would not lead to the unchanging happiness that is the heritage of all human beings. Once Boethius grasped this, he was ready to rediscover his true nature, one full of love, knowledge and bliss. The book concludes with this advice from Philosophy: ‘Avoid vice, therefore cultivate virtue.’ This advice is an excellent reminder of the importance of virtues and values that had been forgotten in Roman times.

In the early Middle Ages disdain for worldy things was prevalent. This attitude was known as contemptus mundi (contempt for the world). It was formulated as a doctrine by Pope Innocent III in De Contemptu Mundi in 1216 (cit. in Geary, 1977). It begins, ‘Man was formed of dust, slime and ashes,’ and it goes on to inveigh in colourful language against the sins of the flesh and the misery of the human condition. Innocent asks, ‘Of what advantage, then, are riches, food, and honours? For riches will not free us from death, neither food protect us from the worm nor honours from the stench.’ This doctrine was prevalent for much of the Middle Ages and very much affected attitudes towards business life and business people.

Among the most significant forces in the conduct of business in the Middle Ages was the Guild. Guilds were formed as early as the ninth and tenth centuries in England, France and the Low Countries, and in the twelfth century in Germany. They started as lay confraternities primarily for the protection and common support of members of a particular trade. Guilds always had a strong religious element, often with their own patron saint and church. They developed into a combination of a trade union and a cartel, setting and protecting standards of conduct, and organizing the training of apprentices. They regulated weights and measures and the quality of goods, and controlled entry into the trade as well as the level of imports. They also set wages and working conditions.

In London where the guilds were most highly developed, the liverymen who controlled them also played a major role in the government of the City, as they elected the Lord Mayor and the Court of Common Council. At their best they were a strong moral force for good, though inevitably there were abuses in a system which lasted many hundreds of years. Their commitment to education, the development