In a previous blog I wrote about Form following Function.
If it is the Function of your business to Make Shareholders Happy then your business will take a certain Form to fulfill this Function properly.
If it is the Function of your business to Make Customers Happy then your business will take a different Form to be able to fulfill this different Function properly.
I used the SIPOC image below to picture this difference.
There is a little problem with this image though. The Functions and their corresponding Forms are depicted as an Open Loop System where there is a disconnect between the inputs and the outputs.
Closed Loop System
An Open Loop System is a gross simplification of reality. In real life there is no such thing. In real life everything is connected to everything. Maybe not obvious at first sight, but still.
In real life everything is a Closed Loop System. The inputs for a business come from our Ecosystem and the outputs from the business end up as part of that very same Ecosystem.
So, if it is the Function of your business to Make Shareholders Happy then you will add Happy Shareholders to the Ecosystem. The same Ecosystem that the inputs are taken from.
So, where in an open loop system the inputs and outputs are imagined to be disconnected in reality they are both related to the same Ecosystem and thus to each other.
What does it do to the relations within the Ecosystem when the focus is on growing the happiness of the Shareholders and neglecting the happiness and health of the rest? Look around and you can see the results all around:
The earth on fire.
Does it get any better when we start focusing on making Customers happy? Guess it does. A little bit.
Usually the Customers are a bigger group than the Shareholders but still it generates an unbalance in the system. It generates tension in relations that can fire up. And still there is a disconnect with the other parts of the Ecosystem still setting the earth on fire.
It is only when we start taking a holistic view and start considering the happiness and health of all, not just of all the people but of the whole Ecosystem, that there is a chance to put out the fires of despair and distress.
So, what is the Function of your Business?