Sustainable Business Business models 2/8
The wrong story?
When you boil it down, our convention-
al narrative for business is fairly straight-
forward. It relies, almost exclusively, on
the narrow pursuit of short-term growth
and profit; selling as many goods and
services as we possibly can, maximising
the price commanded by virtue of lever-
aging our customers (usually branding
seems to work well, here), and minimis-
ing resource costs (through consolidated
sourcing, negotiating hard with our sup-
pliers, and by extending payment terms
for as long as we can). Oh, and fending
off our competitors – by fair means, or
foul. And all this activity, regardless of
whether it leads to a sustainable outcome
or not, is justified on the basis of our sin-
gular responsibility to our shareholders.
For years, the popular narrative has been
driven by reference to Milton Friedman's
rather restricted view of business and
responsibility – that business is solely
about making profits for the benefit of
shareholders, and that the ends justified
the means. Furthermore, this view of
business is often backed up with reference
to evolution, natural selection, and the
laws of competition – as if these offer us
fundamental and indisputable truths.
What we need is the
biggest overhaul in
business thinking, ever.
