“Law is to justice, as medicine is to health, as business is to flourishing”

I see law and medicine as instruments to reach the goal of a just society and healthy people. In the same way, business can be the instrument with which we people organize our actions and exchange goods or money. A flourishing society is not a wealthy society where money is earned and spent on a grand scale, but is one where the people are happy to work and willing to help each other in their needs. Since we are all unique, not everyone can offer the same. I believe that flourishing does not require equal exchange of value.

The main difference with the traditional view is the endgoal. Rather than creating value for shareholders, measured in money, as endgoal, money is an instrument for business to help people flourish.

The advantage of this view is the wide interpretation of value for people. Money is one of the instruments to care for your needs, but exchange of goods and services is invaluable. It creates a personalized bond between people that money cannot create. How unique is one coin from another compared to a physical gift or a memory? As a consequence, people might be more aware of their interdependence and ability to help each other, which can incentivize them to work, increasing the flourishing of society.

The difficulty in this view is the personalization, the wide variety of needs that people have. It is relatively easy to name a minimum income to be happy, but to cater to everyone’s needs requires a lot more knowledge. The future growth models could be horribly complicated and extensive. Still, I prefer this purpose of business over wealth, work or profits, because I think our current focus of business on money and productivity is oversimplified. Money cannot buy love and belonging, which I believe are more fundamental to a person’s flourishing than food, water and shelter. Secondly, our focus on capitalism has created great inequality that businesses don’t carry the weight of – individuals and society do. In the same way that justice and health are positive contributions to society, business should also aim to contribute for the people rather than for themselves.