In a free enterprise, the community is not just another stakeholder, but is in fact the very purpose of its existence.
Interpretation
Community is central to the purpose of business in a free enterprise system.
This quote emphasizes that, in a free enterprise system, the ultimate aim of businesses should not merely be profit but rather serving the community. It underscores the interdependence between business success and the well-being of the community, suggesting that businesses thrive when they contribute positively to society.
In practice
In a corporate social responsibility presentation.
It doesn't matter much where your company sits in its industry ecosystem, nor how vertically or horizontally integrated it is - what matters is its relative 'share of customer value' in the final product or solution, and its cost of producing that value.
At a big company, often size turns into constipation; it fogs the lens about what's really happening. Sometimes with size and success comes the notion that since we've done things to be successful, we have the formula and can institutionalize it. That can be death.
Most of what we know about sales comes from a world of information asymmetry, where for a very long time sellers had more information than buyers. That meant sellers could hoodwink buyers, especially if buyers did not have a lot of choices or a way to talk back.
Business isn't some disembodied bloodless enterprise. Profit is fine - a sign that the customer honors the value of what we do. But "enterprise" ( a lovely word ) is about heart. About beauty. It's about art. About people throwing themselves on the line. It's about passion and the selfless pursuit of an ideal.
The market and the consumer and idea trump the system.
Too many companies are running their business into the ground, I would argue, by being myopically short-term focused on the shareholder.
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