By Alexander Green I’m currently abroad on The Oxford Club’s VIP Financial Summit in London and Scotland.
Having moved on after four days in London, our group is currently enjoying the beautiful Scottish Highlands, the incomparable weather and perhaps a bit too much of the local single-malt whisky.
The yet-to-be-negotiated Brexit is very much on people’s minds here. And it’s good to hear a wide variety of perspectives.
While reading The Daily Telegraph in London, however, I noted that – similar to our Occupy Wall Street movement back home – many in the Labour Party here are unremittingly hostile to the private sector, the supposed home of greed, selfishness, exploitation and many so-called “market failures.”
Unfortunately, much of the public here is buying it, demanding rent controls, “free” college tuition, higher taxes, greater regulation and more aggressive redistribution.
The chorus has grown so strong that Chancellor Philip Hammond recently called it “an existential challenge” and beseeched business leaders to step forward and make the case for the market economy.
The chancellor might be relieved if he picked up the recent 100th anniversary issue of Forbes. It features brief essays from “The 100 Greatest Business Minds,” including Rupert Murdoch, Oprah Winfrey, Paul McCartney and Asian billionaire Li Ka-shing.
These men and women went out of their way to emphasize that successful businesses thrive not because of greed or selfishness but because they help millions achieve their dreams.
U2 singer Bono said, “It’s just foolishness not to recognize the creativity you can unlock in the corporate world.” He added, “Some of the most selfish people I’ve met are artists – I’m one of them – and some of the most selfless people I’ve met are in business, like Warren Buffett. So, I’ve never had that clichéd view of commerce and culture being different.”
Microsoft founder Bill Gates pointed out that businesses underwrite many thousands of ideas that don’t work out – but the handful that do revolutionize our world.
Master dealmaker and SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son said the Industrial Revolution transformed people’s lives, but our current information revolution is creating a sort of worldwide superintelligence that will make enormous contributions to humanity in ways that we can’t even imagine.
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Billionaire John Paul DeJoria said it is always a challenge to retain talented employees. And that the best business managers treat and pay their staff exactly the way that they would want to be treated themselves.
Taiwan Semiconductor founder Morris Chang wrote that business success is the result of building trust with customers and the willingness to fulfill a promise, even at a high cost – which boils down to integrity and commitment.
Jacqueline Novogratz, founder of Acumen Fund, said that successful entrepreneurs don’t worry about reputation. They focus on character.
Berkshire Hathaway Chairman Warren Buffett advised, “Don’t just satisfy your customers – delight them. They’re gonna talk to other people. They’re going to come back. Anybody who has happy customers is likely to have a pretty good future.”
Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon (perhaps the world’s most customer-centric company), further amplified this message by pointing out that the internet …read more
Source:: Investment You
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