Read Aloud the Text Content

This audio was created by Woord's Text to Speech service by content creators from all around the world.

Text Content or SSML code:

In the eyes of many, business is unfair. Many of us get the impression that companies and their executives are entirely focused on maximizing profits at any cost. They mercilessly disregard anybody or everything that stands in their way, including the environment, consumers, and employees. However, this isn't always the case. These blinks demonstrate that if a company is only interested in making money, it will never succeed. Having a set of values or purposes that give them the motivation and desire to achieve is the only way they can get there. Almost all of these ideals result from centuries of tradition and philosophical discussion. These chapters provide you with an overview of the most common types of purpose and illustrate how organizations like IBM and Walmart have successfully used them. This will spare you from having to slog through the writings of Nietzsche and Aristotle. The following chapters will show you: The reasons why Warren Buffett isn't motivated by money; Why did Henry Ford's autocratic behavior help him prosper; and Why the well-being of others is a primary concern for many of the finest leaders. Chapter 1 - You may secure the long-term success of your business by creating a set of moral principles to live and operate by. Why do some people have more business success than others? Yes, economic acumen and charm have a significant role, but they do not tell the entire tale. The moral principles that govern a company's mission are essential for long-term success. The purpose is the moral compass that guides our decisions, whether they are made in routine situations or when the stakes are considerably higher. With intention, we may distinguish between decisions that are morally appropriate and beneficial vs those that are simple or legally valid. Let's consider this in concrete terms. Do you want to maximize your profits or service your customers? Sam Walton, the man who founded Wal-Mart, could respond to this query without hesitation. Walton was committed to helping his clients because he was motivated by compassion and generosity. His feeling of purpose was palpable across the entire organization. Everyone at Wal-Mart, from senior management to shop employees, was prepared to put the needs of customers first. This provided Wal-Mart an advantage over its rivals, which it consistently outperforms. Without a purpose, you'll just consider the short term while making judgments; strategy alone won't cut it. Consider Enron, a company whose demise was one of the greatest corporate bankruptcy cases in American history. They had plans, but no clear goal. All they cared about was generating money, and they would stop at nothing to do it. Poor decisions were made as a result, resulting in risky tactics and hiding losses. Predictably, Enron's activities ultimately came back to haunt them, demonstrating how risky an aimless strategy can be. Chapter 2 - Discoveries-driven leaders take ownership of their decisions and are always asking new questions. You now understand the meaning of purpose and its significance. So how do you get it? Well, there are four distinct ways that purpose may be expressed, and each of these ways derives from ethical traditions that have evolved through the work of many philosophers from Classical Greece to the current age. Let's begin with the motivation for discovery. This goal is related to the existentialists' and Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard’s work, which provides compelling justifications for the ethic of choice. It is simply insufficient, according to Kierkegaard, to conceal oneself behind laws and customs and place the responsibility there for problems. Individuals are in charge of their own decisions instead. To demonstrate this idea, Kierkegaard draws on the biblical story of Isaac's sacrifice. You may be aware that Abraham, encouraged by an angel, decides to offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice. Abraham asserts that God is the one commanding him to do this, but in the end, it is Abraham's decision and only he can be held accountable. The only people who can be held accountable for our actions are us. So what does this concept have to do with discovering new things? In any case, French existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre expands on this notion and suggests that since we are accountable for our acts, we should continually reflect on the situation and make the best possible decisions. We should constantly be prepared to inquire, innovate, and consider the best option available to us by utilizing the goal of discovery as our compass. This very mentality is what drove IBM's Tom Watson on his quest for something "beyond our present imagination." Watson's quest for knowledge motivated him and his colleagues to approach problems from several perspectives, as existentialists advise. THINK was chosen as IBM's catchphrase to emphasize the significance of breaking with precedent and convention to come up with fresh solutions to customers' challenges. IBM even made the deliberate decision to hire primarily recent college graduates, ensuring that the status quo was consistently challenged. Chapter 3 - Strive for excellence and cultivate the qualities that will help you perform at your highest level. You must put new and creative company ideas into practice as effectively as possible after you have found them. Let's talk about our second goal, excellence. Aristotle, a Greek philosopher, devised the virtue ethic that is associated with it. Aristotle concluded that humans develop virtues as a method to prosper and reach their ultimate end: satisfaction. The condition of contentment, prosperity, and thriving was specifically described by Aristotle as eudaimonia, and according to him, this was the purpose of Man. Eudaimonia may be attained by doing your job or function in a community to the best of your ability. But to get there, you had to cultivate virtues or good qualities; these may vary from bravery and dignity to wit. Although the specific list of qualities varies based on your current environment, the time investment required to acquire them is what matters most. Warren Buffett, a successful investor, is a beautiful illustration of the meaning of brilliance in action. He has worked hard to cultivate the qualities that the finest investors require throughout his career to find fulfillment in his community. His primary responsibility in life is deploying funds in a way that maximizes return on equity. Buffett defines success as doing that position to the best of one's ability; he pursues greatness, not for financial gain but its purpose. For example, in comparison to his contemporaries, he earns a pretty small wage. Buffet devotes his entire life to making outstanding investments. He improved his mental math abilities, for instance, such that he can now recall all 7,500 stockholders and 2,000 annual reports. Buffet has made $40 billion because of his commitment to perfection. Chapter 4 - Altruistic leaders work to make as many people happy as possible. David Hume, a Scottish historian, and philosopher is best known for creating a compassion ethic. This relates to the goal of altruism. Hume believed that the primary reason for any activity is to make others happier. Although it may sound hedonistic or selfish, our ability to make others and ourselves happy ultimately determines how happy we are. We have a built-in capacity for empathy, according to Hume. Through his utilitarian philosophy, which holds that the proper course of conduct produces the greatest amount of pleasure for the largest number of people, Adam Smith expanded on this idea. Therefore, the possibility of causing others pain or pleasure motivates our behavior. In this approach, successful decision-making, especially in a corporate environment, depends on the capacity for empathy. We learned how Wal-Mart reaches its level of success in the first blink. To make as many consumers as possible happy, company founder Sam Walton took judgments that were in line with his altruistic motives. Walton was born and raised in a rural, underdeveloped part of Arkansas. His upbringing instilled in him a strong feeling of empathy that drove him to want to assist as many people as he could. How? through expanding access to affordable, high-quality items to raise living standards. Instead of raising his profit margins if his buyers received an unusually excellent bargain, he would pass as much of the benefit forward to the clients as he could. He made sure that this objective was communicated to lower levels of the organization. To allow managers to concentrate on the needs of regional clients across the US, management information systems were created. The clients are at the core of everything Wal-Mart does, making Walton the David Hume of contemporary American business! Chapter 5 - Heroic leaders utilize their foresight to take humanity into uncharted territory. The German philosopher Nietzsche's writings may be difficult for some of us to understand, yet they include one of the most important ethical principles for business leaders: heroism. This is more than just the drive to triumph; it's also the courage to take a risk and do something that no one else has. Nietzsche thought that only a small number of individuals are fully free and so capable of governing. People who lack these talents tend to follow people who have leadership qualities. But those who do show them will understand that they should use their influence and assume a leadership position with desire. Henry Ford is a fantastic illustration of a leader who has heroism as his goal. He wanted to use his car to change society, and his ambition drove him to utilize his business to carry out his agenda.