The Truth About Profit

As you drive over to the client site your mind begins to consider Empires again.  My company is an empire, or they are striving to be.  I have always considered my boss to be a little Napoleon, but he has always been straight with me.  He has never asked me to do anything, “unethical” but yet I know he has been consumed lately with the organization chart and our spot in the bigger “business unit”.  Whatever that means.  His annual bonus is tied directly to his position in the “business unit” and how we finish the year in revenue compared to the rest of the business units.  Fortunately for me I am on a fixed salary.  I can be free to say the things that need to be said.  If I can’t help this client, there will be another one, and although we didn’t land this contract, I’ll still get paid.  My boss will just have to wait until next year to take his wife to the Bahamas. 

At this point I should clarify that in any empire, ah hum, organization there are two classes of clients.  Those who wish to profit whom I will refer to as the commercial sector client or CSC, and those who do not wish to profit or that unfortunate class of entities that I will refer to as the not-for-profit client, the NFP for short.  The NFP’s can include non-profit organizations but I am primarily referring to the ubiquitous and all powerful government entities that dot our landscape and blot out the sun, particularly if you live in your nations capital. 

If you happen to be a CSC the truth is as follows – there are many of you competing for a share of the marketplace.  In any particular market sector, unless you are a monopoly (but keep that dirty little secret to yourself), there are many of you who can fulfill the same need in your sector.  What distinguishes you?  Is it fresher ingredients?  Is it an altruistic need to donate 5 cents of the purchase price of your product to a favorite charity?  Is it better marketing and packaging?  Or is it, hopefully, an actual product that is superior perhaps in both quality and service?  These would be rare, but if they could be found wouldn’t they dominate the marketplace?  Yes, in fact they would, or should, if it wasn’t for all the other charlatans running around claiming the same superior quality and service.  How can they do that?  Clearly someone has to be better.  Maybe we should hire a professional analyst to make that determination – or maybe we should just leave well enough alone.  To the CSC the truth might seem like the right and reasonable thing to discover – but it could also be very dangerous.  So for the analyst, employment to seek the truth with the CSC will have to be reserved for perhaps improving the efficiency of internal methods and procedures not so much in marketing a product – that’s where the real money is – but unfortunately, that money goes to the analysts that can help them sell a product.  And those analysts work on Madison Avenue.  We refer to them as marketing and advertising firms or MAFs.  And we all know they always tell the truth.  

Don’t worry we still have the NFP client so you are not out of a job yet – at least one in which you can tell the truth.  Since the NFPs are not for profit they must have room for the truth.  Not so fast.  Profit might be a measure of success for the CSC but it can also be a motivating force in the running of  a NFP, maybe not so much in the way of monetary gain, but typically in the form of prestige and power.  NFPs and those who run them, love to make the right decisions.  Right decisions are good and make you look good and feel good.  Wrong decisions are bad and help you loose your job or get voted out of office.  The problem with NFP is that they typically are heavily bureaucratic organizations that have been built up over many years on a combination of perhaps good decisions but also many bad decisions.  When bad decisions have been made they tend to hang around for a while.  Dirty laundry is everywhere and hey it smells like a locker room in here.  But I digress.  The trouble is, no matter how many good decisions are currently being made, if an analyst comes in and starts asking questions, sooner or later the bad decisions will surface.  Maybe something can be done, maybe something can’t be done, but the dirty secrets make everyone feel uncomfortable.

So even if there is a clear problem with several courses of action, the best course of action – or the course of action determined to be the best – might require airing out the decision that is causing the smell.  A recommendation of this nature, while satisfying to the analyst as the truth, might not be the path the NFP client wants to take.  Sometimes it’s simple if the particular client was not the client when the bad decision was made.  But many times, it was the client themselves who made the bad decision in the first place.  At these moments for the analyst, thinking about opening up that bar down in the Bahama’s doesn’t seem like such a wild idea after all.  Yes, organizations can profit from the truth, and they should.  However, the third principle for seeking the truth is being aware that the truth might not be sought.

The Empire Builder

Most people with problems to solve are in the middle of building something. Sometimes it’s a small empire, sometimes it’s a large one. But it is, in almost every case, an empire. It is, in our country, the capitalist way. The bigger, the better. If you are not growing, you are dying. There are many clichés. Many will confess that they are building an empire, some will deny it vehemently, some will not realize they are even doing it. With very few exceptions, they all are in the process of building. Just to note, there is nothing inherently wrong with empire building and there is nothing inherently wrong with falling into one of the three categories of empire builder, depending on what you do with your empire might have ethical implications but that is not the subject of this blog, that comes later.

This blog is about pursing the truth in order to solve problems. If the empire is the problem it is quite conceivable that the builder will not be able to handle the truth, which might be the case where there is, in fact, something inherently wrong with the empire, but hopefully that is a remote case. More than likely, it is the pursuit of something other than the truth in the blind desire to build the empire that will result in something that is ethically questionable. There will be much more on that case later as well. For now, however, you have just received a phone call because there is a real or perceived problem to be solved and you are the solver of problems, although—professional analyst sounds and looks better on your resume. As you put down the phone you realize it’s almost time to go to work. But first you want to read a little more about empires.

We know the Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire, not because we have all read it, but because we know time and time again that history repeats itself. It’s not just that way with Dynasty’s. It is the ubiquitous the cycle of life (sorry Lion King). Everything around us is either growing or dying. Look around you – are you trapped in urban sprawl as your city planners struggle to decide if they should approve yet another tract of housing or strip mall? Is your social group attempting to attract new members and/or seek donations? Is your company trying to land new contracts by pursing business with new clients? Is your boss trying to increase the size of your division? You haven’t been called necessarily to solve any of these problems; you have been called to help a very specific client with a very specific problem.

But your boss did mention that it was an important client whose business was very important to the company. Should you know anything about that client? Should you ask your boss more about the client before you respond? Perhaps you should ask your boss just how important and how long they have been a client? Perhaps you should ask if your boss knows about the problem to be solved. Chances are, you now know everything your boss knows. It is important, as you move forward, however to know from where you came and to where you are going. Why? Because the problem is about to become your problem. And if you are to attempt a solution that allows you to pursue the truth and maintain your integrity you will need to know your level of independence from the issues.

Understanding your level of independence is our second principal for pursuing the truth. And it is why you must know your place in the empire. Almost everyone is inside the empire or nested empires – it is practically impossible to not be connected in some way. Fortunately however, for now it is sufficient to simply understand you’re level of independence as you begin to assess the problem. You must reassess, however, throughout your work, this level of independence. If you don’t know where the lines are, you will no doubt become part of the problem itself and hence part of the solution. The truth will have been lost before you even leave your office.