The Business of Business

Why do we do business? Is it for the money? Is it about the spirit of entrepreneurship? Is it to be my own boss? A little of everything here?

Let me tell you why I do business: I do business so that i can change the lives of others. Good business is about serving others, providing jobs, value-add to the society and attaining financial freedom at the end of the day.

Good businesses run like one big happy family. Good businesses are an integral part of everyday life, providing quality products that better lives. Good businesses give hope to others by allowing people to dream and put their thoughts into actions. Good businesses educate people about improving themselves. Good businesses have solid feedback systems that run like clockwork, improving itself everyday. Good businesses transcend political systems, cultures, races, geographies and mind sets. Good businesses change lives in big and small ways.

That is why we need to study and do business. Not just any business but good, solid businesses that do most of the things above.

But when the money rolls in and out, when the emotional side of cashflow comes into play, it is the heartwares that are the most important. Everything is void when good things are in the wrong hands, with the wrong minds controlling them. That is why good businesses are also fragile; they can go bust overnight.

Mr Ho Kwon Ping pointed these out yesterday, during the SMU Convocation 2005. He didn't actually say so much, but his words ignited my train of thought and i do agree with him. Good businesses do change lives and nations across the world. Good businesses give people hope, and that is why i have to study business and its mechanics.

But the business of business is not about the mechanics, it is about people. How do you know that you have succeeded? When everyone around you are cleverer than you are, and they do what they are best in, day in day out, for the company. That's when you have succeeded.

It follows that a successful business owner doesn't need to top the class as a student. He doesn't have to be the smartest, but he should be one of the smartest. Why? So that he knows, at least at the most elementary level, what the smartest are talking about when they present a project.

Hence, technical skills are only 10% of good businesses, usually demonstrated in the boardroom. The rest is about the soft skills of people relationships. It is so important that it can't be stressed enough. Almost all good business people are good leaders. They inspire, they motivate, they build and steer and make the decisions. In essence, they think: they think about what their counterparts are trying to convey through their words; they think about what to say, how to say it, and when to say it; they think about the future and how to get there.

But everyone's thinking about something, though maybe not always about the things that matter. Thinking about things that really matter often requires too much comtemplation and too much energy. That is why so few will engage in deep thinking. Most will just think about what happened today in the papers, TV, and radio. Others think about where to have fun, spend and then lament that they are broke. [I always like to say this to remind myself about spending - a dollar spent is a dollar sunk; it'll never return.] The fact that so few people think hard enough means that there are always room for good ideas that will grow to be good businesses, or how to run it. Simply said, they will always be room for improving people realtionships.

The business of business is just this one word - relationship. Relationships between products and markets, between sellers and buyers and between leaders and followers. It is as simple, and as complicated, as that.