Like everything else, businesses nowadays are evolving through adapting to the current times. There are many types of business models today apart from the traditional ones that have been digitized by the internet.
Profit is a big aspect of business. Entrepreneurs create businesses to solve people's problems for a profit. It is the monetary reward they're compensated for their work. Profit is clearly not the only aspect. There's much more to a business than making profits.
Philosophy often deals with the outlook of a particular domain based on its fundamental principles. Like seeing the big picture of a thing through understanding its essence. In the business domain, it can be debatable on what the fundamental principles are. But we can all agree that they nevertheless exist right?
When it becomes windy, leaves will fall and fruits may drop but the tree remains. Why? Because it has its roots firmly planted on the ground.
Anything that has roots on the ground can withstand the wind and not be carried away by it. And the things that don't will be carried away by the wind.
A business without a philosophy is more or less like the thing that's gone with the wind, being at the mercy of its direction. This doesn't imply that businesses shouldn't adapt to the changing times. Far from it, adaptation should be done. But adapting doesn't mean also abandoning fundamental principles altogether.
In the early days of the web, Yahoo was a pioneer in internet services. It was one of the first in search and email. However, it failed to define its core philosophy and kept changing its direction with every new development. This is one of the reasons why Google was able to easily increase its market share when it came along. Yahoo lost its competitive edge by not having a clearly defined purpose.
A similar thing can be said of Kodak. Despite having a terrific run on innovation in photography for decades, they didn't have any clear philosophy for the future when the digital revolution began. They were busy switching priorities from one project to another.
Both companies were leaders in their respective industries yet they weren't clear about who they were or what they want to do. And the wind gladly swept them away.
I'm more interested in a companies vision statement than its mission statement. Because the vision is the guiding principle on what the company is going to do. It powers the mission statement.
Nowadays, people are more aware of a business's message and have a knack to recognise when it is superficial. It's hard to connect with a superficial message.
A business philosophy provides a sense of direction for a business both in times of opportunities and challenges. And if people resonate with the philosophy, loyalty and trust develops from the consumers towards that business.
But the best part I believe is in growth and opportunity. Employees will want to work for the business and investors will gladly put in their money to support the vision.
Thanks for reading!! Share your thoughts below on the comments.
