Week 12: Becoming a Changemaker

 Things I learned: This week I read an article titled What's a business for, by Charles Handy. It was interesting to see the amount of distrust that existed against the executives at corporations. According to a study, 43% of Americans believe that senior level executives are in it for themselves, while in Britain that jumps to 95%. As a result of this amount of distrust that exists against these corporations, many people are hesitant to invest in these companies, because they do not believe they are out to help society. This will in turn lead to a decrease in the production that these companies will be able to have, causing a deadweight loss to society. It is important in business to constantly show that you have the consumers best interest in mind. As you constantly try to be honest and have integrity in business, it will allow for people to gain more trust in the business, and allow you to be more successful. People are reluctant to buy from a business they don't trust. According to this article the true purpose that a business should have, is to make a profit in order for it to go and make something better to produce. It shouldn't be just for the company to turn out profits, just so they can make more money for themselves. A solution that I liked from this article, is for businesses to hold themselves to an oath to do no harm to society. As they strive to hold up this oath, they will be more geared toward doing things with the interest of society in mind, not just the interest of the company. Another solution that businesses could use, is to not just evaluate success in terms of their success, but also in the wellbeing of society. As they do this, they would be able to see better what they are able to do to help benefit society as a whole.

Things I need to learn: I would like to learn how to differentiate a business, and make it a trustworthy business? What are examples of trustworthy businesses that could be modeled after?