I humbly assert that the holy grail of commerce is sustainable growth and profit.
That does not mean continuous growth and continuous profit.
There is a distinction between ‘sustainable’ and ‘continuous’ that most people in commerce don’t seem to get.
‘Sustainable’ in this context means the ability to have longevity of growth and profit.
‘Continuous’ in the same context means to have never ending and never decreasing growth and profit.
To be sustainable will mean at times to slow, stop and even shrink – just as in nature.
To be continuous means to never stop, never shrink – in nature those are the characteristics of untreated cancer – which grows until it consumes its host.
I believe we have allowed a blindness to occur in our controllers of commerce by virtue of how they are rewarded – quarterly growth and profit data.
Can you imagine shareholders agreeing to slow, stop or shrink growth and profit for the higher purpose of improving longevity of growth and profit?
In nature we have proven that we can improve longevity and health by reducing common calorific intake levels by 30%.
In commerce we don’t think like that because it will mean we have to reduce growth and profit deliberately.
What if we did though?
I believe it would enable us to focus more on what really matters, like innovation, process and service improvement, health and wellbeing of our people, opportunity and time to develop ourselves – all essential for sustainability.
I’m certain also that for the time being our controllers of commerce will be stuck with their fears, habits and ignorance, unable to be courageous, apply better practice and learn.
What do you think?
