Business and happiness

Business and happiness

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A friend once gave me a T-shirt with “Happiness Is Positive Cash Flow” printed in the front. While I agree that positive cash flow is one of the necessary conditions of happiness in a civilized society, it is not in itself sufficient.

What is happiness? It is a cognitive state—and the emotional response—that results from achieving your values. Happiness, or happy life, is properly the purpose of an individual human being. We live our lives pursuing values—food, shelter, career, family, friends, freedom, etc. As long as those values are objective, i.e., consistent with the requirements of human survival and flourishing, we experience happiness when we achieve them. Money, or positive cash flow, is the means to buy many of the material values we need for a happy, flourishing life: food, housing, clothes, medications, books, hockey or theatre tickets, fitness club memberships—but money is merely the means, not the end in itself.

What about business? Can a business be “happy”? Not really, since businesses are not individuals but voluntary, collaborative, contractual endeavors among individuals to achieve mutual goals. But there is a parallel between an individual’s pursuit of happiness and a business’ pursuit of profit. His own happiness is properly the purpose of each individual; profit maximization (by producing goods or services) is the proper purpose of business.

But like individuals who pursue happiness need an objective standard—the requirements of human survival and flourishing—business firms (their managers) also must have an objective standard to assess whether their profit maximization efforts will serve their purpose. That standard for business is long-term profitability. If the actions a business undertakes to pursue profits can be sustained over the long term, they meet the standard. Long-term profitability as a standard rules out immoral attempts to maximize profits as unsustainable—such as defrauding customers or investors.

A business can be “happy” when it pursues profit maximization in a way that can be sustained over the long term: by continually creating value for its customers and therefore for itself (its shareholders). This what enables the business to survive and flourish.

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Jaana Woiceshyn teaches business ethics and competitive strategy at the Haskayne School of Business, University of Calgary, Canada.

She has lectured and conducted seminars on business ethics to undergraduate, MBA and Executive MBA students, and to various corporate audiences for over 20 years both in Canada and abroad. Before earning her Ph.D. from the Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania, she helped turn around a small business in Finland and worked for a consulting firm in Canada.

Jaana’s research on technological change and innovation, value creation by business, executive decision-making, and business ethics has been published in various academic and professional journals and books. “How to Be Profitable and Moral” is her first solo-authored book.