“A business that makes nothing but money is a poor business.” – Henry Ford

Conventionally Business has been defined as the organized efforts and activities of individuals to produce and sell goods and services for profit but today there’s a changing role of business, so we have new perceptions of an ideas about what business can and should do.

The old view is nicely captured by a quote from Milton Friedman, a leading economist who won the Nobel Prize, he was a public intellectual, he was really a thought leader. In 1962 he wrote “There is one and only one social responsibility of business, to use its resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits so long as it stays within the rules of the game, which is to say, engages in open and free competition without deception or fraud”.

Now this type of thinking has given rise to the shareholder value perspective, the idea that businesses should be run primarily to maximize returns to shareholders. This perspective has been extremely influential over the last 50 years. Today the view is changing with exponential pace and there are new views emerging with very good intention and few of them are Philanthropy, Corporate social responsibility , ESG, GRI etc but mostly are reactive and intended to cover what damage has been done.

We need Proactive approach where we create an intention and business models where there is no damage at all and the starting point of this approach having a sense of purpose with noble causes or solving real world problem. Society today is looking towards the business to respond to broader societal challenges.

With sense of Purpose at its core all companies whether public or private can achieve its full potential and with this today capitalism is under threat and for long term success today, every company must not only deliver financial performance, but has to be involved in positive contributions towards society.

Companies must benefit all of their stakeholders, including shareholders, employees, customers, and the communities in which they operate . The Pandemic which we are going through is the reflection of our fragility and it is reminder that global threat of climate change and natural resource scarcity will surely alter our lives and we are not ready for it for sure.

In the last 170 years, we have added 2.4 trillion tons of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere. Half of this amount was added in the last 30-35 years.

Following the annual tradition since last many years, Larry fink, CEO of Investment company Blackrock writes one more annual letter, aimed at other business leaders that is eagerly anticipated by investors and Companies and which make dramatic impacts for investors.

In 2021 January the theme was Net zero commitment and supporting the goal of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 or sooner supporting Paris agreement. Fink makes the point that “the climate transition presents a historic investment opportunity.”

2050 is too far and we are not sure where we will be looking at the exponential change today but one thing is very evident that we are in a critical juncture in our planet history looking at the climate catastrophe and climate stability has almost come to an end

Many species are on the edge of extinction and coral reefs has been damaged significantly. We have to act today and least we can do is avoid any damage to environment if we can’t do anything to rectify . Each individual and companies needs to act and take the responsibility to collaborate and change this world for better.

All good men and women must take responsibility to create legacies that will take the next generation to a level we could only imagine.”

~ Jim Rohn, Entrepreneur and Business Philosopher