Profit.

It’s necessary. Without it, businesses would fold. They need profit to survive and keep doing what they do. The problem comes when profit becomes the priority …all the time. I concede that it must be a priority when funds are short or other special needs beckon, but respectfully disagree that it should be the priority at all times.

When you are running out of gas in your car, getting fuel becomes a priority, but I suspect that the moment you fill up, it is no longer. Since profit is the fuel for business, why is it not treated the same way? Why is enough never enough?

I recently saw a post on LinkedIn on how improving the employee experience is related to improving the customer experience. Several comments were proffered in support, mentioning that this seemed like common sense. Then, one comment caught my eye. The gist of it was this: “Yeah, but is it profitable?”

As my mind reeled, I could only think, is profitability the sole arbiter of what business should be doing? Whether it is profitable or not, aren’t there things that are simply the right thing to do?

There is plenty of fine print that is legal that protects companies from losing money, but much of it cheats or misleads customers by keeping them blissfully unaware of some possible danger or potential issue. Is that somehow okay because it is profitable? By the strict letter of the law, the Titanic had enough lifeboats, yet they were not enough for the number of passengers on a ship that size. Was that okay because no laws were broken? Should we not be living up to some ethical or moral standard that is simply the right thing to do?

Stop for a moment and imagine if we only did things where we could profit. Think of all the things that would disappear. The list would include a lot of art, music, drama, literature, crafts, kindness, charity, and so on. Reducing life to a zero-sum math formula where everything must be measured as either profit/loss or winning/losing negates the fact that so much is immeasurable with no winners, losers, profit, or loss—in fact, no score whatsoever. Think of life without those immeasurables because it would seem, in so many ways, those are the things we live for.

Profit.

It’s necessary, but making everything subject to being profitable is inhumane. Taking care of employees and customers by trying to provide a good experience for them is the right thing to do. Why? Because we are all people, and business is for and about people, and people are messy, needy, emotional creatures that require more than a bottom line. Drawing our every interaction down to an equation on a spreadsheet turns our existence into a meaningless transaction. I am sure I don’t want that world… How about you?

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