Remember Why You Are Here

Economist Milton Friedman famously wrote in 1970 that “the social responsibility of business is to increase its profits.” Stripped of all the discussion about whether or not a corporation is like a person, or how providing jobs and wages and goods and services is how private companies contribute to society, we are left with one key fact: private sector businesses exist to make money. Period.

That’s not to say they have to (or get to) be jerks about it, nor does it mean they cannot offer a great working environment and develop their employees, nor does it suggest they should not give back to their communities, but all of those things — all of them — are done either to support their function of making money, or in addition to that function.

Think about that. You did not start a company in order to provide a fun, diverse working environment with high degrees of employee satisfaction; you do those things because they make your employees more effective. You didn’t start a company in order to develop your high potential individuals; you do that because someone needs to lead your company in the future so it continues to be profitable. You didn’t start a company to give money to charity; you only get to do that if you have in fact made enough money to do so. You didn’t start a business to design new things; you design new things because you started a business.

At the end of the day, everything you do either supports, or is a result of, your primary goal of making a profit. If you do not make money, you cannot continue to function, so everything else comes farther down on the list. Nothing says you can’t (or shouldn’t) think about these other things, but they are not the reasons you company exists. Making money is.

Sometimes it may be hard for your employees to understand that, especially if they view your firm as a place where they can engage in work they are passionate about and exercise their creative muscles, if it seems like more than as a place where work gets done to meet customer demand. As we encourage creativity in the workplace — which we should — it is not uncommon for our creative employees to forget that, in addition to creating, they ultimately have to sell. That’s why it’s your job to remember.

At the end of the day there needs to be a practical application of their creativity, and it’s your job to make sure that happens. You need to balance their need for freedom to create with your firm’s need to make money. You want to try not to stifle them as they’re generating ideas, but you need to keep them on a path toward completion and implementation of those ideas rather than having them bounce from one thought to the next with no resolution ever.

A for-profit firm does not have the same goals as a non-profit arts organization. If you are running a creative business, then you cannot afford to create just to create; you need to create with a purpose. It’s up to you to keep that purpose front and center in your employees’ minds.