WHY DO WE DO BUSINESS?

INTRODUCING PC MOB – THE PEOPLE-CENTERED MODEL OF BUSINESS

By: Ramla Akhtar | April, 2006 | Karachi | Ramla is a philosopher, entrepreneur, and teacher. | nextbyramla.blogspot.comPage 1 of 11

What They Won’t Teach You at Any Business School

Money.Money.Money.Money. The singular curse of those aspiring tosucceed in the world of business. The mosthated-loved thing of all. Yet most businessgraduates and common people would say: wedo business for money.At the end of a semester that I taught onentrepreneurship, I was feeling both relievedand excited in the last class. As I saw it, themen and women of the class had learnt theessentials about business. I had taught themabout vision, opportunities, the nuts & bolts ofbusiness, and I had taught them to do awaywith both the taboo and the fascination ofmoney. I had taught them to “see” the flow ofmoney in business – a trick that I learnt froma Memon businessman, and one that is abest-kept secret. I thought I had rounded it offwell.Was I wrong! In the last session, I quizzed,“Why do we do business?” I expected to hearback about vision, about changing the world,about finding and creating opportunities,about making oneself and one’s communityricher. But to my horror, the class broke in achorus: “For money!”My heart sank. Didn’t they know where thechasers of money end up? Weren’t theylistening closely to the secrets of the mostsuccessful men and women? Was that allabout money?And then my heart bounced back. There wasstill this last class to go. I turned to thewhiteboard, and decided to put it all together,for them, and for the integrity of theeducation that I gave them. What follows isan epiphany that I had at that very moment,and one that has taken months of after-thought to develop into this shape. It is amodel, still raw, that explains what occurredto me at that moment. It shows us why we dobusiness. It tells us something that they won’tteach you at most business schools.

The Works and the WordsThe Works and the WordsThe Works and the WordsThe Works and the WordsThis is the first draft of the paper – and a very rough version to be shared with a limited audience. More researchand work on the PC MOB is under progress. Yes, I have used some stuff – photos etc. – for which I am seekingpermission. The formal version of the paper will have unauthorized material replaced.This paper can be distributed freely provided credit is given to the author and the author’s current website islinked to. The paper is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License. Toview a copy of this license, visithttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/or send a letter to CreativeCommons, 559 Nathan Abbott Way, Stanford, California 94305, USA.

WHY DO WE DO BUSINESS?

INTRODUCING PC MOB – THE PEOPLE-CENTERED MODEL OF BUSINESS

By: Ramla Akhtar | April, 2006 | Karachi | Ramla is a philosopher, entrepreneur, and teacher. | nextbyramla.blogspot.comPage 2 of 11

Business for Money?

Why do we do business? While there areindividual reasons to start and operate abusiness – especially the entrepreneurial one– there are essentials to a business. Money,as is wrongly understood, is not the

reason

ofbusiness. It is the

dynamic

of a business.Saying that business is for money is likesaying that we live to be healthy. While wecannot live fully without health, and poorhealth can kill us, and we can always usebetter health – health is what

sustains

life.Health is not the

purpose

of life. Health helpsone achieve the higher and the more personalgoals that they have, whatever those might be.That is why an unproductive person with anathletic body is of no good use to themselvesor their community. On the other hand, aperson of average health with a solidcontribution to life is their own and theircommunity’s friend. Surely, they can usemore vigor. But fitness alone will not makethem successful. And interestingly, those witha purpose will, in the longer-term, findthemselves more content and invigoratedthan those without one.This is a serious insight. The best test of thistheory is to take up real examples, and learnhow the world’s most

sustainably

successfulcompanies and individuals became what theyare. Invariably, you will find that theirmotivation was other than money. You mayalso note the term “sustainable.” It isimportant, because there is sometimes atemporary success that can be based on falsepractices. It is ultimately not sustainable. Andit must not deceive our perception.So how do we look at business if not purely interms of making money?I propose the PeoplePeoplePeoplePeople- -- -CenteredCenteredCenteredCentered ModelModelModelModel ofofofofBusinessBusinessBusinessBusiness as an alternative way of looking atthe world of business. In one line, let this bethe mantra:

we do business for these people

.That’s the gist of this article in six words.