I'm sitting in a McDonald's drinking coffee, reflecting on the idea of business as a force for good. Is business inherently a negative force or a positive one? I can't decide, so like many tired coffee drinkers, I struggle to make a decision. I decide that it's neither. And the more that I think about it, the more I'm convinced that I'm right.
Business can do harm. There are too many examples to argue otherwise. Who can forget the story of Enron and how its fraudulent practices left everyone who touched it – employees, suppliers, shareholders and customers – wondering how it could do such harm to so many.
Business can also do good, as we've also seen. Think of Patagonia, a business that made a deliberate decision to become a force for good, not because it was required to, but because its leaders decided that was who they wanted to be. That choice didn't come from a board mandate or a shareholder resolution. It came from the top. And it changed everything about how that company showed up in the world.
The question for me is a fundamental one. What causes a business to head in one direction or another? And what causes a business to languish somewhere in the murky middle, neither good nor bad, committing acts that both benefit and harm society. What is the force that drives the actions of a business?
Businesses are, at their core, organizations. Large ones. Small ones. They come with structure — boards, C-suites, managers, line employees — and that structure grows more complex the bigger they get. But complexity isn't the point. The point is that every business, regardless of size or sector, is guided by leaders. And those leaders make decisions that determine its direction, its purpose, and how it shows up in the world.
It's not the shareholders. It's often not the employees (although many businesses give their employees a stake in decision-making, often a good sign). In the case of Enron, the vast majority of shareholders and employees had no idea what was going on until it was too late.
I have been in a leadership role in a large, public company and it's still my experience that most business decisions are myopic, rooted in self-interest and in the best interests of a small slice of stakeholders (generally senior executives and large shareholders). So how can this change? It starts at the top, when enlightened leaders recognize that their business exists to serve society, and that its own betterment is deeply tied into its commitment to becoming a force for good.
Where I struggle, and where most purpose advocates frankly struggle, is the convincing part. How do we convince a business leader who believes that a social purpose need not be at the core of business? A leader who is comfortable making decisions that provide short-term financial gain at the expense of its employees, suppliers and community. Is this business leopard capable of changing its spots?
In short, some are. But most likely, most are not. What we need is a new generation of values-based business leaders who understand that purpose drives profit, and does not undermine it. Leaders who understand that a healthy, just and robust society relies on its organizations and institutions (I'm obviously including government in this) to drive this forward.
Business as a force for good isn't just a nice concept. It is the foundation of a healthy society committed to positive outcomes for all who live within it.
