Coming from a background in nonprofit, I’ve spent years thinking that sales and marketing is about getting something from people. It’s evil. It’s so much less valuable than just giving things away from a place of passion.
But now I’ve realized what makes business valuable, it is the best source of innovation…let me explain. In a nonprofit you get funding from a funder and offer services to beneficiaries. If it just so happens that you are only meeting 50% of the beneficiaries desires, then it’s OK, you will still get funded. If you’re in that 50% there’s little incentive to keep up to date with what the beneficiary is really calling for, so there’s little adaptation. In a business, you have to be 100% connected to what the customer wants. You can still come from a place of passion and wanting the person you’re serving to have a better life just as in Nonprofit. Nonetheless, the difference is that if you’re not fully connected to what the person you’re serving wants, then they won’t buy it. This forces you to stay in tune with what the person wants and adapt everything you’re doing to meet it fully.
As much as I’ve made the profit motive a bad thing for years, it serves two purposes. First of all it enables sustainability of an organization. Second of all it creates an environment where you have to deliver fully on the desires of the person you’re serving. So if you share the views I’ve had for years, then perhaps its time to reconsider.
The pursuit of profit isn't in itself good or bad. It's just a thing. It can be a force for positive change just as easily as it can lead to exploitation and destruction.
ReplyDeleteHaving said that, I believe that man's search for riches has lead to nearly every great innovation we've come to rely on. Without the potential for massive rewards, no entrepreneurs would be willing to risk it all to develop their new idea. In fact, very few people would be motivated to try hard at all if they weren't enticed by greater earnings.
And of course your right, businesses can only succeed if they deliver the products and services that people want and need. Ultimately they are in existence to satisfy innate desires.
You are absolutely right Dale: rewards drives entrepreneurship. On a large scale it plays out as inventions that move forward because innovators take risk, on a small scale it's something as simple as paying attention to what students are asking for in a classroom. On whatever scale, it creates the willingness to spread new ideas.
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