The Monopoly Control Authority (MCA) is to intervene a second time in four years to break an upcoming cartel in cement industry (Dawn, 23-8-02). The cement manufacturers in the south of the country fear annihilation at the hands of those from the north as the latter are allegedly undercutting the former in the former’s territory.

Cartels are expected to be coming up in vegetable ghee and flour mills industries also that the MCA is looking into. Creating artificial shortages and jacking up the prices has become the norm in this country. Good car manufacturers also succumbed not too long ago.

Further, providing value for customers’ money is a concept still alien in most of the domestic business circles. It is either ridiculed openly or smirked at even in Pakistan’s professional circles. For, the general belief is that the mission or purpose of business is to make moneys. When this belief stands reinforced in educational environments, the pathologies from self-destructive deviant practices, as briefly illustrated above, are compounded. For, a business that is out only to “make money” will do so at the expense of the interests of all those who contribute to it, that is, the customers, the employees, the suppliers, the creditors, the competitors, the governments, the community, the society at large, and even the planet earth. As such a “business” is in the business of “money-making,” it tramples upon the interests of all the above-listed providers of inputs vitally needed for the efficient and effective performance of a business organization.

Consequently, the inputs that such a business would receive in return would be as bad or as good as the outputs the input providers will receive from the business organization. Dissatisfied customers will not provide repeat sales’ opportunity and will also spread a bad word of mouth, fancy advertising notwithstanding, as no image is lasting unless backed by substance. Dissatisfied employees will undermine the business in ways that the manager will have difficulty comprehending. Dissatisfied suppliers will have the business stressed out in ways that they will not be able to fathom. Unhappy creditors or lending system will make the funds too scarce or too expensive for future business requirements as has been sadly experienced in the country.

Unfairly treated competitors can impose costs on businesses not only in terms of retaliation but also litigation and lost goodwill specially in environments where legal systems are strong. And, the trampled-upon communities and societies can raise hell in aware environments as they have done for none other than Arthur D’Little for its toxic gas project or fast food chains for the harmful effects of their deeply fried food and Styrofoam packaging or gas guzzling vehicles for high fuel consumption or toxic emissions or Monsanto for its genetically modified (GM) products and the list can be endless.

While some of the latter may be unheard of or rare in our underdeveloped economy and culture; customers, employees, suppliers, and creditors (in addition to some international product and natural environmental standards we can no longer escape), have definitely their dissatisfaction felt in the form of difficult to-run or inefficient and ineffective business operations. This is notwithstanding the lack of vision and a business philosophy that plagues many of our business establishments. All of the above business constituencies are ignored mostly in the quest for “money-making” which is considered to be the single most important reason for being in business.

Little do the business administrators and/or many business administrationists realize that this very “money” they desire so much is difficult or impossible to acquire on a sustainable basis if all those who contribute to the operations of the business enterprise go half-satisfied or are dissatisfied. As the quality of the inputs will suffer, over time the business will find itself in a quandary. So, the secret of business success lies in carrying all those along who have a stake in the business organization as business operates in an open-system and can shut itself out from no one, not even the governments at the various levels whose requirements must be fulfilled too. Advanced businesses play a role in influencing government regulation so as to make it mutually beneficial for the business as well as the community and the society provided the relationship is based on trust.

Governments then facilitate business operations and not hinder them as the cumulative effect of micro business operations feeds into the macro economy. Depending upon the strength or weakness of micro business operations, the feed-forward effect is favourable or unfavourable. Meaning to say that the macro economy is as strong or as weak as the cumulative impact of micro-level enterprises is. It is our micro-level weakness that has, inter alia, led us into high indebtedness. While the businesses wait for a feedback effect from the macro economy, they must ask themselves what is it that they have fed forward? Unless this question is addressed, a virtuous circle will be difficult to enter. Attempts to address this issue are usually dismissed by saying that the “reality must be accepted and the students must be trained to cope with the reality and the “practical” life in the country even if it may be as awry as the reality may be. Development and education are about changing the sordid reality for the better and at a rapid pace especially if we are an underdeveloped backwater of the world that we surely are. Giving in to the sordid reality would also amount to seeing our reality of underdevelopment and not wanting to do anything about it. Since the latter state is rejected, so should the factors that feed into this state of affairs.

One of this is the basic principles of business administration, briefly touched upon herein, that need to be internalized. Fulfilment of responsibility to immediate stakeholders alone can lead to a healthy and successfully growing business with profits as a natural positive fallout required to fuel future growth. Here, it is important to distinguish between healthy profitability and unhealthy “profiteering.” Since we fail to draw a line between the two, the business tends to err on the side of “profiteering” which inhibits business growth and thereby the feed forward effect into the macro economy.

A lot of times the above tendency of profiteering is justified on the grounds of a view that people generally take of the MNCs. These are viewed as profit-seeking behemoths which would go to any lengths” to maximize profits. A review of their global financials will not show the enormously high profit margins usually expected in our environment. The ~lengths” that they do go to is reflected in our preferences (after discounting for a foreign bias) for their products and services. These include pharmaceuticals, personal care products, consumer products, electronic gadgets, electronic news broadcasting, and financial services. The customers get not just quality but value for money.

So, more and more dollar votes are cast in their favour irrespective of nationalistic sentiment. The differentiating features of foreign products and services reflect something distinctive about their organizational management too at its basic level. Notwithstanding their critique at a higher level of politico-economic analysis, it is their basic distinctive competence that needs emulation for throwing up successful business enterprises that would go global. While the above conclusion is applicable at a lower level of analysis; at higher levels of analysis, the MNCs do receive a lot of flak not just in the host countries but sometimes in the home countries as well. So, while they have yet to graduate to being popular global corporate citizens discharging their responsibilities equally well to global communities and society, they proved to be highly responsible domestic corporate citizens before their swift and dazzling take-off.

So, like the senior most pioneers of our big business groups like the Habibs, the Adamjees, and the Dawoods; Henry Ford was driven by the spirit of providing a car to every American. Ray Kroc of McDonalds had to see every American consume fast but clean food. Steve Jobs and Steve Womiak of Apple Computers visualized a computer small enough to sit on each desk for personal use. Proctor & Gamble wanted to extend the benefits of personal care products they originally developed for own families to all. Driven by an unparalleled zeal and enthusiasm, stage was being set for domestic needs’ satisfaction, market development, and eventual global business penetration.

As they entered the business of needs’ satisfaction, profits happened en route. These were ploughed back for further growth and development into organizations that have grown bigger than most third world countries. As we look upon them with awe and fear, we must learn that the business of business is needs’ and wants’ satisfaction first and last. There is a philosophy of doing business that transcends the commonly understood notion of “money-making.” For, if the latter would be the case, then some of the most lucrative opportunities would be in narcotics or other illicit services and practices. And, when latter becomes the case, then roof caves in even on the mighty like it has on Enron or WorldCom or Arthur Andersen and the like even in capitalistic America irrespective of the earliest driving forces. Conversely, when driven by a philosophy, you might end up launching Zamzam Cola to not only challenge the leader but the philosophy that drives it. Or you might be the first one in the world to change the image of motorbikes for wider popular usage. Or you might be the first one like the Japanese to anticipate and respond to the energy crisis by developing and marketing appropriate products, vehicles and earth movers for popular worldwide consumption.

Examples abound. Common denominator in success stories is a philosophy of business. That is, to be in business to satisfy needs and wants on the basis of shared values and beliefs that not only under gird the organization but remain at the heart of a passionate pursuit of company goals and mission around which organization-wide commitment is galvanized. It is a sense of mission that propels the business into a trajectory where it acquires a momentum of its own. A momentum we can never match unless we raise our sights and develop a vision. The vision of our pioneering and founding business fathers could not be sustained over time as our values and norms got turned on the head.

We need to ask whether the purpose of education is to follow and perpetuate the norms that harm the business, the economy, and the society or whether the purpose is to lead to make a difference. A reinforced application of convoluted norms would only add to a miserable state of affairs.

Also, why is the discharge of business responsibility considered “inapplicable” in our environment if the business of business is needs’ and wants’ satisfaction? Divergence results when the business of business is regarded as making a quick megabuck. The purpose of business education would then be to communicate the business of business that should be standing in perpetuity. It should be done through knowledge accumulation and dissemination in the classroom and through publications first and foremost in an environment where the meaning of business is confounded. Under these circumstances, consultancy is to be approached with extreme care as most clients like to be fed what they want to hear. The danger then is that the existing practice, in need of change, is likely to creep back in education when education is about leading the sector to collective success and growth.

It is only against a wider perspective that the purpose and mission of business education ought to be determined. For, the business of business education is to make a visible dent in the overall business and industry scenario of the country while appreciating its linkages with the macro economy. The purpose is, therefore, much larger and broader than merely imparting survival skills either to individuals or individual entities. Unless the picture is seen to be as big and as demanding as above and the range of choices widened for individuals as well as entities, there will be little justice done to business education in Pakistan.