Gone are the days when profit was the main objective for establishing a company.
After hearing the stories of various business leaders across different industries, and as culmination of all the reflections I have written so far in this blog, I would like to reflect upon the course title that started all of these things and ask the question – so what are the real trends and issues in business and management?
To arrive at a meaningful conclusion, let us first look at the different themes presented by the business leaders who I was able to talk/listen to or engage with during the academic term:
Dealing with the consequences of a hostage crisis, a shooting incident, and a global outbreak of an infectious disease (Kingson Sian, former CEO of Newport World Resorts);
Working your way up the corporate ladder despite having little to no background in some areas or functions of the business (Hazel Zaide Delos Santos, Country Manager of ING Hubs Philippines);
The challenges associated with managing a family business, most especially sanctioning a family member or relative for grave misconduct (Maret Follosco Bautista, CEO of CL Follosco Group);
Finding meaning and purpose in working for non-profit organizations or foundations as opposed to the lucrative benefits offered by for-profit businesses (Richard Anthony Tagle, President and Executive Director of E3 Alliance);
How people management can actually be the hardest part of being a leader (Chito Bustamante, CEO of VOXP Technologies & Innovations);
Realizing that sustainability is a core value that has been deeply ingrained in us Filipinos since time immemorial (Cris Roxas, Founder and Creative Director of Brave Story);
Knowing how to keep a promise can be a company’s source of sustainable competitive advantage (Rosemarie Bosch-Ong, SEVP and COO of Wilcon Depot), and
Creating your own personal branding and doing your homework by learning about the business in detail is essential to becoming a CEO (Dean Aragon, CEO of Shell Brands International).
If you notice, none of them ever spoke about technical business strategies that relate to low-cost leadership or product differentiation, nor did anything relate to how they outperformed their competitors and achieved superior profitability. They didn’t even focus on industry trends or driving forces that shape their respective firms’ competitive environment.
However, what is common amongst all of them are the values, principles, behaviors, and other ethical considerations that an individual or a business must live by to attain true prosperity. In other words, your passion for something will bring about success in your chosen endeavor, never profit. Profit should only be secondary in one’s hierarchy of goals because it will just follow or come in naturally when you excel in your passion.
Gone are the days when profit was the main objective for establishing a company. Given the real trends and issues in business and management, as presented by our guest speakers, businesses should serve as a means to promote and improve the quality of life for the people under their care. While shareholders are given ample returns on their investment, employees must also benefit and enjoy well-paying jobs with sufficient work-life balance, customers with quality products and excellent service, suppliers with enough profit as opposed to purely bargains, the environment with sustainable practices, and the community with corporate social responsibility.
This is what we call shared prosperity when we consider the welfare of all stakeholders affected in every business decision or action that we make. Of course, it is not as easy as it sounds, but I assure you, it’s worth it. At the end of the day, businesses won’t be remembered by how much profit they were able to generate throughout their entire corporate lifetime. Rather, the legacy they would leave behind is those products and services that changed our lives for the better or made the world a better place to live in.
The author is an MBA student at the Ramon V. Del Rosario College of Business of De La Salle University. He wrote this reflection paper for his class on Trends and Issues in Business and Management: CEO Series. He can be reached at charlston_sagaran@dlsu.edu.ph.
The views expressed above are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the official position of DLSU, its faculty, and its administrators.
