7 Wonders of Anna's Business World

1. I wonder who had the idea of holding the first meeting, did they do it without a meeting?
2. I wonder why,  'If value creation is the role of business' why do we usually judge by absolute profit?
3. I wonder how many hours, months, years I have lost listening to the person who just wanted 5 minutes?
4. I wonder whether the focus would change if we had to by law, take a look at year end, at the value of each person - has their talent appreciated or depreciated? I wonder why we do that for machines and not people?
5. I wonder how many ideas we would have, if we valued "wondering"
6. I wonder why we don't spend money on conversational skills if markets are about conversations?
7. I wonder if we all lived our dream when we were a child rather than being sensible...would the world be happier?

Comments

[Tom Cunniff]

Interesting post. I can answer two of your questions.
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"If value creation is the role of business why do we usually judge by absolute profit?"

Because a business with high value creation and low profits will go out of business almost instantly. The only exception are non-profit businesses.

"I wonder if we all lived our dream when we were a child rather than being sensible...would the world be happier?"

I doubt it. The result would be hundreds of billions of homeless and starving firemen, ballerinas, chimp trainers, actors, singers, models, firemen and shortstops for the New York Yankees :-)

[Anna]

Tom - thank you for making me smile :)

I am not sure I agree with your view on value creation - see the Chartered Accountant in me! I understand the importance of profit and maybe the truth lies in a focus on the two? However, people do not think about the value added to the raw materials. For instance, customer contracts are often judged on gross profit rather than net profit - are the sales/marketing teams creating value through that customer.
I also think that people concentrate on sale - cost. Actually the premium - which will lead to greater profits - lies in the value added.
As for the dreams I take your point totally, maybe what I mean is that when do we lose that naive dream of achieving something great when we start work?
Love your views, they make me think thank you!