Business is about money. Of course companies can have (and should have) a sustainable and ethical approach with social and ecological awareness, but top bottom, it's about money. Many businessmen would say, "this is a company not an NGO". Another common argument is: "We pay taxes and we create employment, what else do you want?”
But what is true is that in a money-driven capitalist society, the role of wealth generating organizations is crucial in every aspect of life. If an average employed adult dedicates 1/3 of his day in his job, 1/3 of his day sleeping and the last third probably spending his money in values generated by other companies, that leaves little time for actively enrolling in social programs. Although time should not be an excuse and there are many people that manage to work and help others in a frequent basis, it is true that time is a limiting aspect and restrains our social compromise probably with those closer to us (our family, friends and in the best case neighbors), not expanding our compromise to others farther away from our close circle.
I recently heard a conference of a venture capitalist that said, "I am good at doing money. Let others that are good at helping do social work with my money." And I find that true. Being supportive doesn't always mean doing it yourself, picking up street dogs or visiting hospitals. If with your money you are supporting an NGO or others that can spend their time and abilities in helping, then so be it! If Microsoft's Bill Gates is good at raising money for charity, instead of spending an hour in a hospital he could attend a party and raise money for 5 people helping the hospital for a year. I think Bill Gates has influenced Carlos Slim (both Forbees tops) into being more charitable. What worries me about the phrase "I am good at doing money..." is that it opens up the questions "how are you creating that money?" and "is that helping others too?"
The idea for this post came to me from another phrase that I heard on a TV show, which says "Los Mexicanos tenemos el corazón hacia la izquierda pero la cartera hacia la derecha." (Us Mexicans have our heart to our left, but our wallet to our right). This of course is an analogy of the heart being anatomically tilted to the left and the wallet commonly placed in the right pocket of our pants in comparison with the fact that many of us believe that left-wing social equity is needed but we are not willing to sacrifice our economy (and personal wealth) as a right-wing political proposal. It is a heart-wallet dispute.
How can you manage both needs? We need more responsible companies that can obtain benefits from their social and ecological projects tied to their business strategies and being helped by a committed community that demands these projects. Innovation also plays an important role as you need of new ways in creating forms of value through social benefit and ways to communicate them properly integrating the community.
Microsoft should advertise "Lets not only have cloud power, lets treat our cloudy vision." (see the banner I created above).
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