In a volatile market economy, companies seek stability and security by focusing their strategies towards core values and core purposes rather than immediate profitability. After all, money is not everything and often businesses fail to pinpoint the causative factors leading to their success or failure.
Certainty and reliability have become difficult to find in a market environment which has to constantly adapt to digitisation, changing consumer expectations and disruptive business. Therefore, a more traditional approach to business is evolving wherein trust and CSR play a bigger role. This was highlighted by Collins and Porras way back in 1994:
The proper first response to a changing world is not to ask, “How should we change?” but rather to
ask, “What do we stand for and why do we exist?” This should never change. And then feel free to change everything else. Put another way, visionary companies distinguish their timeless core values and
enduring purpose (which should never change) from their operating practices and business strategies.
This is further confirmed by Simon Sinek’s famous “Golden Circle”, where he equates a company’s success to its strategy based more on why than on how and what (Sinek, 2009). Why questions define a company’s core values and purposes and gives a company conviction and character that stays constant throughout market fluctuations.
As Gopalkrishnan, director of Tata Sons, puts it, “We do business the way we do, not because we have clear evidence it has a better chance of success. We do it because we know no other way” (Graham, 2010). This conservative business mentality works when we really believe in our core values, because shareholders and employees will always lean towards stability and integrity. This way a company gains genuine trust and public support.
Collins and Porras portray “core ideology” as a combination of core value
s and purposes. Core values are the organisation’s essential and enduring tenets—a small set of general guiding principles, not to be confused with specific cultural or operating practices and never compromised for financial gain or short-term expediency.
Core values are naturally present in the company’s management. Core purposes, on the other hand, are the organisation’s fundamental reasons for existence beyond just making money, not to be confused with specific goals or business strategies.
How can then we find core principles that will stand the test of time and tune in with our higher principles? This is where many businesses remain ambivalent, wanting to go with “what works” over what they naturally consider as inner values. The marketplace does not respect weak-hearted entrepreneurship. People can lose their confidence even upon the slightest indicator of irregularity. Take for example 2016’s Brexit poll of the British Parliament of not entering the EU.
Therefore, it is only by true positive intentions that companies pass the test of time. Their genuine desire for the welfare of society is felt by everyone. In short, their principles are based on dharma (spiritual duty) and not mental fluctuations.
Defining Meaning and Purpose
The principles that we try to balance, always remain common and sacred. Let us look at how youth affects us. Many people, when young, listen to a certain genre of music and their tastes never change. Throughout their lives they listen to the same bands and songs. Kids think what their parents listen to is completely out-dated and uncool.
Youth is a very deeply impressive part of our life. It deeply influences us and is different with each generation, especially in this modern age. Each generation has different priorities. In the great depression of America, it was in total poverty. Many teenagers had to drop out of schools in order to financially support their families. They were brought up in the same struggling environment. But those who grew up in the prosperity of the 1950s, after World War II, were more of middle-class. They would condemn their parents by saying, “Why are you so concerned about money all the time? Who cares about money?” There was no need to care about money. Being brought up in a different world, they developed different impressions.
Today, it is crucial that we balance our deeper principles. This balance is universal and affects our morality, values of compassion, of love, of family, and of the purpose of life. They should be harmonised; not one against the other. In a sense, a sadhu is one who walks away from the world to attain spiritual life.
He does have a family so that he can devote his/her entire energy for the human family. Everyone can be a dynamic leader at some level, in their personal life or society, by balancing morality with the necessities to go ahead in business. Business life is not always a peaceful affair. A spiritual businessman needs to know how to apply himself in a political and dishonest society, while keeping his spiritual ideals and not getting disheartened.
(The author is the spiritual leader of ISKCON)