I
have been trying to promote the idea of pro-commerce for roughly 15
years. I see very little evidence of success. Few of my readers and
still fewer of my friends and family know what I am talking about.
The reason is quite simple. I have been exposed to business experiences for 50 years that are not accessible to most people. Maybe not to anyone else. I was a banker, a corporate treasurer, an entrepreneur many times over, a consultant to well over 1000 businesses where I saw the most intimate functions of the business and I have consulted businesses in very backward Third World countries and at the top of the corporate pyramid.
That
is the source of my observations but each observation can be confirmed
by looking around our own environment once we are looking with the
correct hypothesis.
First, there are three types of commerce: trade (a local flower store), where the goal is to make a sufficient margin on each sale to continue the business, industrial where the goal is to reduce costs by technology, marketing or other forms of efficiency and finally clientry (a trust lawyer) where the goal is to generate and maintain a lifetime relationship.
By distinguishing these three, the activity of business can be better understood.
Commerce is a moral enterprise. It rewards three moral attributes. The first is diversity. A society that is diverse in every way, the way, Bell Labs was, the way, Google is, is a society that will help commerce thrive. The opposite is a homogeneous society as one finds in the Arab world.
Second is meritocracy. This is a deep moral attribute. It means hiring, using and working with the most skilled and appropriate person available. It is the opposite of nepotism or family favoritism or old boy cronyism.
Finally, openness which includes honesty as a moral attribute. Any society that is highly secretive or deceptive on an interpersonal basis will have a terrible time promoting commerce.
Just looking at the world around you and looking at various nations will support my pro-commerce observations.
The reason is quite simple. I have been exposed to business experiences for 50 years that are not accessible to most people. Maybe not to anyone else. I was a banker, a corporate treasurer, an entrepreneur many times over, a consultant to well over 1000 businesses where I saw the most intimate functions of the business and I have consulted businesses in very backward Third World countries and at the top of the corporate pyramid.
First, there are three types of commerce: trade (a local flower store), where the goal is to make a sufficient margin on each sale to continue the business, industrial where the goal is to reduce costs by technology, marketing or other forms of efficiency and finally clientry (a trust lawyer) where the goal is to generate and maintain a lifetime relationship.
By distinguishing these three, the activity of business can be better understood.
Commerce is a moral enterprise. It rewards three moral attributes. The first is diversity. A society that is diverse in every way, the way, Bell Labs was, the way, Google is, is a society that will help commerce thrive. The opposite is a homogeneous society as one finds in the Arab world.
Second is meritocracy. This is a deep moral attribute. It means hiring, using and working with the most skilled and appropriate person available. It is the opposite of nepotism or family favoritism or old boy cronyism.
Finally, openness which includes honesty as a moral attribute. Any society that is highly secretive or deceptive on an interpersonal basis will have a terrible time promoting commerce.
Just looking at the world around you and looking at various nations will support my pro-commerce observations.