If you went to Harvard Business School in the 1990's this would have been the mantra for MBAs role in society. Take the time at business school to learn, go out into those first post-mba jobs learn some more, then put yourself in the position to earn. After you have drank your fill, then it will be time to be a philanthropist. Actually this is the way most of our ultra-rich have behaved (Buffet, Gates, Rockefeller, Carnegie), and are expected to behave. I wonder if Rockefeller had treated his employees (and other stakeholders) with fairness and justice, would he have a) accumulated as much wealth as he did and b) if he would have felt compelled to give so much charity?
Learn-->Earn + Return
This is the mantra that was put forth by one of my professors this year. That returning to your family and community should be a continuous process and should happen at all stages while you earn. Sadly this too is a dangerous idea because it separates out earning and returning as two separate notions. My friend Charlie pointed this out to me and said that we have the wrong impression of what it means to earn here at business school. We think of earning as monetary gain for oneself.
It is funny that at HBS where value creation is taught as the outstanding principle of a good business, that students go out and only measure their success by value capture. In the business world we often blur the lines between value creation and value capture. I would posit that 80% of bank activities are directed towards value capture, 100% for insurance companies (honestly they provide zero value in society, except maybe employing people as a value add.)
Thus the mantra should be to learn and return to society. For the greater your return to the society the greater your reward will be in what you earn (don't go and use backwards logic and say I made $10 million dollars that must mean I returned a lot to society, no this isn't Calvinism! Every action is with its intention)
This isn't a novel concept, in fact in Islam, God uses a lot of economic phrases to get his message across that good work, charity, and upholding justice are the profitable endeavors in life. Further more this is not a novel concept in business. I had the privilege of working for the brilliant Joshua Boger, and hearing him on several occasions echo the core principles that were the foundation of Merck and his own company Vertex (once the most admired company in America for something like 9 years in a row).
As I am on my 5th day of fasting and I think my writing is deteriorating by the minute. I will let Mr. Boger tell you the story of Merck.
This is from Josh's talk to Phi Beta Kappa inductees at Wesleyan 2010
In 1950, George Merck, CEO of the multinational pharmaceutical company, Merck, that would go on in subsequent decades to become not only fantastically successful but also, by the 1980’s, America’s Most Admired company, addressed the graduating class at the Medical College of Virginia in Richmond. A main topic of his speech was the now-accepted idea that great and original research could indeed take place inside the walls of a company. But he went on to lay out some principles of the business of Merck as well.
Noting that business even then was often mis-perceived as being all about profits (although he clarified unapologetically that there can be no business – and no future – without profits) he uttered the famous lines,
“We try to remember that medicine is for the patient. We try never to forget that medicine is for the people. It is not for the profits. The profits follow, and if we have remembered that, they have never failed to appear.”
Now if that wasn’t radical enough…and by itself it could be dismissed as social responsibility when convenient: country club liberalism…he went on and made the quantitative economic assertion:
“The better we have remembered …[that medicine is for the patient], the larger [the profits] … have been.”
So, George Merck claimed, patient centered drug innovation isn’t just a possible business model, it is the best business model. And wading right into what sounds like a 2008 campaign statement on healthcare reform:
“How can we bring the best of medicine to each and every person? It won’t be solved by wrangling with words and it won’t be settled by slogans and by calling names. We will fall into gross error with fatal consequence [fatal consequences!!] unless we find the answer – how to get the best of all medicine to all the people.”
Then calling out to his fellow industry leaders:
“… We cannot step aside and say that we have achieved our goal by inventing a new drug or a new way by which to treat presently incurable diseases…. We cannot rest till the way has been found, with our help, to bring our finest achievement[s] to everyone.” read the full speech at: http://www.pbln.org/vision-for-a-new-year-from-pbln-co-chair-joshua-bogers-address-to-wesleyan-university-phi-beta-kappa-class-of-2010/
Also for all you business student consider joining the Progressive Business Leaders Network (PBLN.org) it is the only counter weight in the business community to the shamelessly self-interested chamber of commerce.
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