Greed in Business

It is only through our ability to rise above the level of our lizard brain of development that we are able to transcend our impulse for corporate greed (and all forms of greed), and even then we need to be sure it kept under a tight leash. This is why some level of regulation is essential in business. We cannot help our base instincts. It is our intrinsic reptilian nature. We all need checks and balances, or we run amuck. This is a truth.

Sadly, our current system is built to ensure the survival of greed in business. When we run our businesses based on the CEO ensuring that there is a regular uplift in profit as their most important measure of success, when the stockholders demand their profits, when we measure success by the amount of money someone has made, or the number of toys they have, or titles; when our banks and prestigious universities are controlled by the Grunch of Giants, when our political systems are such that only money can buy an election, then we can be sure we are feeding the monster of ‘greed is good.’

Conscious businesses must ensure that they have a regular conversation and audit of their greed meter. Like a virus in the night, greed in business will find a way in...and will surreptitiously grow unless challenged. One day your business may wake up and find you have swallowed the ‘greed in business cool aid’, and that you have forgotten why you started the business in the first place. It starts, as always, as a little atrocity.

Banks are an example of this. They started a long time ago as a place to support people to store their gold, and to get funds to help grow businesses. Along the way, the banks got greedy. Their appetite now is insatiable. They have created all measure of fancy little bundles of paper that produce absolutely no value, but strangely make money from nothing. Even in more regulated countries like Australia, banks seem to have forgotten what their business is all about. They want more, and more and more, and more....

When is enough enough? This is a good question for all businesses to ask. When we are addicted to growth, it is a hard question to answer. What model is there to replace constant never ending growth?

Greed in business is going through a significant re-calibration. The tides of popular opinion are finally rising up. Unless our governments have the fortitude, there will be a revolution.

Rampant greed in business is always an indicator of a time of great adjustment. Businesses take heed. The shift has already happening. Unless you are working consciously on your business, to see, acknowledge and respond to the shift, you will be left behind or left for dead. Business as usual is dead. Holding or maintaining a position of greed in business is a lose lose game. Are you listening, Commonwealth Bank?

The Constellation works with businesses brave enough to know the old model is dead, and choosing to step into the unknown new model because they know that they either do this by choice, or they will be dragged, kicking and screaming. Either way, the game is up.

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To return from Greed in Business to Business Ethics

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