The Worth Of Business

Take this test. Here are three words: boss, executive, CEO.What's your gut reaction? Positive? Negative? Neutral?

Now consider these three words: doctor, minister, author. Yourreaction? Chances are you reacted more favorably to those three thanthe first three. Further, you may have reacted negatively to thefirst three.

Why? Perhaps you have a low opinion of business leaders ingeneral. That would not be surprising, given the way they areportrayed on television and in newspaper and popular magazinestories. In fact, business in general is not given much credit forcontributing to society in what we see and read.

Yet, when we say "the economy" is depressed, what we really meanis that too many businesses are not doing well. "The economy" issimply the total of all sales of goods and services and theinvestments that fuel business firms. Further, every expenditure bygovernment, by schools and colleges and by tens of thousands ofnonprofits is fueled by business success. Almost all their fundingcomes from taxes on business transactions, business earnings andcontributions by businesses, their leaders and their employees.

Don't property taxes help fund government? Yes, but the values inproperty were created by businesses - developers and contractors.

Only businesses create wealth. Everyone else uses it. Yet, wehave this hang-up about profits. It's as if profit-making is alwaysprofiteering. The late Peter Drucker, the most respected commentatoron business and management, used to say, "There is no such thing asprofits. That's just an accounting term. There are only today'scosts and tomorrow's costs."

If a business does not earn tomorrow's costs and put them backinto the firm to fund both growth - and the future failures thatalways come with initiatives - it will flounder.

The attack on profits has long been led by the intellectual classin this country and in Europe, who long ago identified eminentlysuccessful businesses as society's No.1 enemy. Yet, if large numbersof the poor are to be lifted out of poverty, they will need goodbusinesses to employ them. They will need the revenues and earningsof business to build a tax base to support the social services theyneed.

It is not unethical to make a lot of money year after year. ThirdWorld countries crave businesses that do just that. States andcommunities reach out to bring in companies and facilities that willemploy people and contribute to the local tax base.

Business sets higher standards for conduct and for results thansociety itself does. Trust and integrity are such vital traits inbusiness that a firm cannot succeed without them. Through their ownauditing practices and the oversight of countless regulators and taxassessors, firms are always under a brighter spotlight than mostother organizations, individuals - or families.

Businesses are where you find sound ideals - creativity,practical realism, self-discovery and mutually assured cooperation.

Businesses are measured on output, while many other kinds oforganizations measure themselves by input. I admire most people inpolitical life. But I do not admire the lack of accountability andthe tolerance of incompetence that is laced through the executiveagencies and legislative branches in which they work. A companywhose budgeting process and financial acumen matched that of ourfederal and state governments would be out of business in shortorder

Look around the world, and you will see that it is primarilybusiness that knits the peoples of this planet together. The socialmovements are not doing it. The bureaucrats are not doing it. Peoplewith a common interest in commercial success are doing it, usuallyin collaboration with people they will never meet. Business createscommunity.

Three years ago, my wife and I had the privilege in Gdansk,Poland, of meeting and hearing from Lech Walesa, the founder ofSolidarity and the democracy movement that brought down thecommunist Polish government. One of the telling points he made wasthat European nations will never again go to war against each other.They are too interdependent because of commerce. Not only that, theyoung adults are as much citizens of Europe as they are of theirhome countries. "English is their language. The Internet is theircoffee house."

"So", you might say, "It's OK to be pro-business, but how can Ifeel good about the people who run businesses?"

My answer: "Because those people are to be admired for what theydo and how they do it." (Put the outliers - the crooks, the greedy,the incompetent - off to the side, for they are a small minority.They aren't at all typical.) Managing in business is hard work thatdemands sustained energy, good judgment, sound business practicesand deft handling of crucial personnel matters. Leaders who havethose skills are rare and valuable and should be paid accordingly.

Businesses have responsibilities: To create and re-createcustomers. (If they don't, they will fail themselves and society.)To create new jobs that can be done better here than elsewhere. Toestablish within each firm a culture of trust, dignity,accomplishment and service.

The public has responsibilities, too: To regard the practice ofmanagement as a worthy calling To encourage and respect the pursuitof business success. To honor those who achieve it.To remove themany unnecessary constraints that prevent businesses from growing tofull flower.

Let's hope you will associate the three words "boss, executive,CEO" with "hard-working, valuable, worthy of respect."

Bill Adams is a former president and chairman of Armstrong WorldIndustries. He is a correspondent with Lancaster Newspapers Inc. E-mail him at sunnews@lnpnews.com.