What is business. That is the question that I have been thinking about for several years now. Seems like a pretty stupid thing to think about, but well...
One of the things I learnt in business school was that the answer to most questions was 'It depends... es kommt darauf an'. I guess it does depend on the perspective one takes and the boundaries that one chooses to draw.
If I look at the landscape of business today, it is filled with Corporations, SMEs, and entrepreneurs all driven by the need to make cash profits. That is their singular motive and the reason for their existence.
Axiom 1 > Generate more cash. In the hands of the firm. Than what they started off with.
That is then the well-known shareholder view of the firm. Take the inputs from the employees, capital providers, and suppliers and provide for the customer... fulfill Axiom 1.
Perfect... but then the only monkey wrench in the works is the the 'role' of business... the word role means that you are part of a bigger whole... your role is Axiom 1... but then, what is the play?
Therefore a stakeholder view of the firm is presented... Axiom 1 is played out in the broader context of society and the government. Throw in these two broadly defined constituencies and we have a play... the players being the firm, society, and the government...
Thus, if our role-players (the firm, the employee, the supplier, and the capital provider) are all in business... and if each of them is happy (I may or may not discuss the nature of this happiness)... then the firm fulfills Axiom 1 and its role in the play. We can now discuss how it plays with the other two actors: society and the government. I will tend to ignore the government in my discussions... they might jump in once in a while though.
Some questions come to mind here: What is the play that the firm, society, and the government are in? What does society give to the firm? What does the firm get in return? What is this society anyway?
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