Spot on

I get frustrated when people in business turn their noses up at the word social and Hugh, as usual, nails it.

Comments

[Niall Cook]

If it involves people, it's social. Any businesses out there without any people at all?

[dave rogers]

socialize |ˈsō sh əˌlīz|
verb
1 [ intrans. ] mix socially with others : he didn't mind socializing with his staff.

social |ˈsō sh əl|
adjective
1 [ attrib. ] of or relating to society or its organization : alcoholism is recognized as a major social problem | a traditional Japanese social structure.
• of or relating to rank and status in society : a recent analysis of social class in Britain | her mother is a lady of the highest social standing.
• needing companionship and therefore best suited to living in communities : we are social beings as well as individuals.
• relating to or designed for activities in which people meet each other for pleasure : Guy led a full social life.

The "purpose" of socializing is to meet or interact with one another for pleasure. The "purpose" of business is to make money, or "create wealth," if that's more palatable to you. Usually at someone else's expense, or displeasure. Sometimes it's fun to do that with others, in a narrow, isolated, competitive zero-sum sense. That's life. But to conflate the two is to misunderstand both.

"Spot on?" I think not.

Maybe you should ask anyone who's ever been laid off. Perhaps they hadn't "socialized" with enough "purpose?"

You freely and frequently mock Christians or other people of faith, but your own beliefs often seem just as foolish or more so. I think you've been breathing your own exhaust for far too long, Euan. Just my opinion.

[Euan W Semple]

Dave only the last of your definitions could be seen as incompatible with the spirit of Hugh's cartoon and even I believe it is not. You appear to assume that being social is somehow not serious, that it is done only for pleasure, rather being, as I believe it is, a basic human need.

To see business as "usually" done at the expense of others is frankly sad. The purpose of business is to be provide goods and services that enable people to do things they otherwise couldn't and to be rewarded for doing so. Yes some businesses survive and some don't and yes this can cause those who fail displeasure but that is not the reason why most people start businesses or get out of bed each morning to keep them going!

I have no problem with beliefs Dave just unthinking adherence to dogma which in fact makes organised religion not spirituality, just as likely, if not more so, to be "zero sum" than business!

I WAS laid off and indeed DO believe that it was partly down to not having socialized with enough purpose!

[Jackie Danicki]

Dave: Why do you believe that business - capitalism, aka voluntary exchange - is done "at the expense" of another? Why do you believe that there is a fixed quantity of wealth in the world, and that one's increase in wealth is a result of removing wealth from another? I am very curious about people who think as you do, and would appreciate an honest and unfiltered response.

[Brendan]

Jackie:

Quote:
"capitalism, aka voluntary exchange - is done "at the expense" of another?"

I suggest you do the following in google: define: capitalism

One of the characteristics of capitalism is private ownership. In the America's the indians were chased of the land, because the new colonists introduced the concept of owning land as private property. Since indiand considered themselves as owned by the land and not as owners of it they now live in reservations.

[Dennis Howlett]

This is the nub of the unspoken agenda that business finds hard to stomach. Business is now in a position where it legitimately behaves like a psychopath in all but name. It is legitimized in the name of the amoral (by definition) earning of profit. For 'at the expense of another' I would substitute any number of words but ultimately we're talking about power relationships.

Now that's not to say we can't substitute new words to achieve the same objective of humanizing the relationships we're really talking about.

The difference is subtle but crucially important.

[Euan W Semple]

Absolutely!

[Euan W Semple]

In fact the other day someone was asking what for me was the "deliverable" of all this stuff and while I believe that it does have a huge potential to have a positive bottom line impact for me personally if all it does is humanize the world of work then that would be enough.

[Jon Husband]

The "purpose" of business is to make money, or "create wealth," if that's more palatable to you. Usually at someone else's expense, or displeasure. Sometimes it's fun to do that with others, in a narrow, isolated, competitive zero-sum sense. That's life.

Didn't always used to be the case .. business "used to be" as much or more about offering a needed good service to a community that couldn't be provided or obtained as easily by individuals. That began changing (a lot) back in the early '80's, etc.

And no, it's not life.