Information Technology in Construction
Executive Summary
The construction industry as a whole, and hence individual companies, need to evolve in order to survive the information age. We are having a problem with labor shortages in this industry because the knowledge to be gained in it is losing value in today’s society. I will attempt to align this problem with a proposal for an information age construction company and specifically, I want to outline the role Information Technology in making this transition.
Introduction
The globe is in the thick of an information age. Whole societies are composed of knowledgeable citizens with the intent, hopefully, to use this knowledge to better the world. In these information economies the hot industries are those like Information Technology, eBusiness, Bioengineering, Nanotechnology, and Healthcare etc. Construction is still just plain old construction, with a few notable developments like computer software which helps estimate job cost and enhanced materials. However the industry is still largely stuck in the twentieth century.
The Problem
The Utah economy is “running on all cylinders” says Mark Knold, senior economist for the Department of Workforce Services. What could be better? But oddly enough, this has presented a problem for many employers; there’s a shortage of skilled workers. Specifically of interest herein is a heavy shortage of skilled laborers within the construction industry.
The unemployment rate in Utah, relatively speaking, is much below that of the national average. Last year the construction industry in Utah created nearly 12,000 new jobs and between 2004 and 2005 residential construction grew 31% from $3.6B to $4.7B. Utah’s job growth rate is in the top five nationwide. To compound all of this, the AGC (Associated General Contractors of America) estimates the average age of the skilled construction worker to be 47 years! For the record, a skilled worker is someone who completes a four year journey through trade school and on the job apprenticeship becoming a journeyman, someone who knows how to handle the complexities on the job.
With the skilled workforce getting older and new entrants (in large part) being unskilled or not aspiring to become skilled, the industry is headed toward chaos. Currently, the dominant style of managing people and tasks used among construction companies is called Technical-Rational. This is the style of direction/order through hierarchy, similar to a pyramid with the boss at the top, the project manager under him, followed by the foreman who directs the journeyman, and lastly the apprentices who are directed by their assigned journeyman. If this system is working correctly communication flows in one direction, from the top. However, in today’s most highly evolved companies, the ones most apt to survive, communication flows in multiple directions.
Initially, there are many steps to alleviate a labor shortage like: raise wages, improve working conditions, provide incentives like bonuses and benefits etc. Even steps like recruiting/promoting construction jobs at local high schools are all seen here as treating the symptoms, not the problem. Remember the problem is not only a shortage of skilled labor but it goes deeper. The problem lies within the culture and traditions of an entire industry. Consider piloting a sinking ship, to save it you not only start with buckets of water and the leak itself but you might even think to build a better vessel, one more able to sail the roughest foreseeable sees.
In this light, reason suggests making the nature of construction more appealing, something that I, a member of the knowledge society, would want to learn and practice, the true step forward. This means taking the industry and evolving it to suit today’s society and economical environment, a world hot with technology, innovation, and above all change.
There exists a need within the industry to realize that construction is no longer exempt from the rapid changes of the world in general and other industries specifically. Continual innovation both in the utilization/development of technology and social systems (management of human resources) within individual companies is the next logical step toward an appealing company and, industry. Some simple examples of updating are the elimination of paper trails by using email, plans in electronic form, CAD (Computer Aided Drafting), electronic time cards and check deposits, etc.
While I will admit that there will always be a need for unskilled workers, I think the amount of energy required from them can and should be lessened in construction. A sweeping effort is needed to change the old ways of construction and, through the creative process, new ways to look at this great industry will manifest themselves through the pursuit of continual innovation.
The Creative Solution: iForm
To start, imagine a box containing pieces of a scaled down model house ready for an unskilled but eager workforce to assemble and overall, to imagine the construction process together as a team. They could do this in two ways: electronically or physically. In the electronic form the “box” would be sent via email to the team learning how to put the real structures together. Here they would immerse themselves into a fairly simple 3D program designed to train them in seeing the quickest ways to build these structures.
The actual building process should be simple with few hindrances. The “Lego” should always fit and function properly due to thorough design. Help from IT in engineering, marketing, manufacturing, delivery etc. will be indispensable in this process. With all of this help and foresight from IT the amount of ambiguity traditionally involved in construction should be drastically reduced. It should be rare to have an extra or missing Lego or, one that is damaged, too big, small, or colored wrong.
iForm is a theoretical company which innovates this idea of a house or building and gathers the resources to make it a reality. iForm’s mission is to design, engineer, produce the parts (like Lego parts), and market a line of houses and/or simple commercial structures like carwashes and storage buildings, that can be assembled quickly. iForm may be an all-encompassing company comprised of all the necessary departments like engineering or, subcontract the various disciplines out to independent companies which specialize in only those areas.
On the job site, the real structure will actually be delivered to the site in boxes or units where the workers are waiting. With the foundation poured the previous week “box 1” is delivered containing the house parts in calculated increments and labeled something like “Day 1, Nov. 13, 2012.” The unskilled workers will have a wireless communication system guiding them and unifying their efforts. This “Central Communication System” would act as an enabler of information flow between the team members allowing them to further coordinate their efforts and finish each phase smoothly. The costs of this system would be minimal by today’s standards and in three years the productivity gained would far outweigh the monetary costs.
This vision is long term and a solution for construction companies to pursue now and into the coming years. Up to this point local companies haven’t taken the indeed large strides to figure all this out and the reason is that the lion share of construction is performed by companies with an average of 10-15 employees or so. Through the collaboration between a number of construction firms, logistical problems could be brought to the surface. These include problems like how to run electrical and plumbing through the manufactured sections. However there is no way to provide them all here because it would require actually doing it. But, some examples would be the utilization of Information Technology for communication between the firms in order to work together as a unit. Once this step is taken the construction team could figure out –innovate - better ways to get the traditional job done quickly and efficiently and leading to a more systematized process
Summary
Information technology has changed the way we look at work. It has taken valuable knowledge and made it available to billions of people. Before the invention of the internet, cell phones etc., knowledge was gained primarily through physical proximity to another more knowledgeable person. In construction we see this process at work and in fact integral to its operation; the apprentice and the master. Today those of us who are not engaged in the wonders of the internet will become isolated from the rest, whether we’re talking individuals or companies.
Companies like iForm will not only alleviate the labor shortage by making the process of construction more efficient, they will change the definition of a skilled and unskilled construction worker. Clearly, this is a solution that gets at the root of the problem instead of improvising to delay facing adversity.
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Rocky Mountain Institute : Core Principles
Rocky Mountain Institute : Core Principles: "The Next Industrial Revolution The next Industrial Revolution is already being led by companies that are learning to profit and gain competitive advantage from these four principles. Not only that, their leaders and employees are feeling better about what they do. Shortages of work and hope, of satisfaction and security, are not mere isolated pathologies, but result from clear linkages between the waste of resources, money, and people. The solutions are intertwined and synergistic: firms that downsize their unproductive tons, gallons, and kilowatt-hours can keep more people, who will foster the innovation that drives future success."
Rocky Mountain Institute : Core Principles
Rocky Mountain Institute : Core Principles: "Companies Can Profit From the Principles of Natural Capitalism The previously mentioned core principles form the backdrop for Natural Capitalism, a new and rapidly spreading business model that harnesses environmental performance as an engine of competitive advantage. Our activities are increasingly based on this thesis, detailed in the book Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution (www.naturalcapitalism.org). Here's the thesis. Previous industrial revolutions made people vastly more productive when low per-capita output was limiting progress in exploiting a seemingly boundless natural world. Today we face a different pattern of scarcity: abundant people and labor-saving machines, but diminishing natural capital. Natural Capital refers to the earth's natural resources and the ecological systems that provide vital life-support services to society and all living things. These services are of immense economic value; some are literally priceless, since they have no known substitutes. Yet current business practices typically fail to take into account the value of these assets — which is rising with their scarcity. As a result, natural capital is being degraded and liquidated by the very wasteful use of resources such as energy, materials, water, fiber, and topsoil. The next industrial revolution, like the previous ones, will be a response to changing patterns of scarcity. It will create upheaval, but more importantly, it will create opportunities. Natural Capitalism is a new business model that enables companies to fully realize these opportunities. The journey to natural capitalism involves four major shifts in business practices, all vitally interlinked."
Thursday, November 1, 2007
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Function of Entrepreneurism
The best entrepreneurs exist as societies true wealth and value creators. They balance the need for survival today, with the needs of tomorrow.
Entrepreneurism: Escaping the Cave
I think a lot, too much in fact. They say this is a characteristic of an entrepreneur, a knowledge hungry person who creates and innovates new ways of doing business, someone who always wants to learn, grow, and lead. I’d say the entrepreneur is the artist of the business world and I also believe that the artist is the highest type of man. Someone who strives for perfection and attains a noble amount of it should be considered an artist, whatever the discipline may be.
My motive herein is to shed light on the current situation in the business world - one must know where one stands before they can walk in the right direction. I want to use examples from the class to back up my thinking towards the business world. I have selected writings from Descartes, Plato, and Radhakrishnan. I will also be speaking from a Buddhist perspective towards life in general and be attempting to show with the sources stated above, that business can and should mature to ensure humanities healthy existence on this planet.
One thing that creates hardship for humanity is an illusion in life that seems to have captured the majority of people’s lives. The illusion is that of the self, believe there is no self. Descartes famously stated, “I think, therefore I am.” Here is where most people make that false assumption; they think that their mind is their essence, what makes them who they are. This is known as the ego, the illusory self that makes life a continual process of becoming, always striving and craving something that it does not have at the moment.
From here we go to Plato. As I understand it, the Allegory of the Cave is a way of explaining the progressive/upward growth of a human life. One starts out inevitably a little ignorant about the world and their place in it. An infant does not realize that he or she is not the center of the universe until life’s lessons have shown them otherwise. Plato talks about how the shadow watchers meddle in the affairs of what they can readily see. They watch and they gather information about the various objects, molding an ever-increasing understanding of how they think the world works. Those who know how to play the game of shadows takes the cake and the applaud from the others who too dwell on the shadows.
You can liken this life to anyone who seeks acceptance from others before respecting and believing in themselves. These people come in every shape and color. They can be wealthy, poor, good looking, etc. and they will always be asking for you to give them something without the favor being returned. They beg for life energy from others; they are like sponges. In life, people are either assets or liabilities, and while we should always be understanding of everyone and their situation, people as assets or liabilities simply means we may have to look deeper in order to understand the value that every human being brings to the table, if at first they are liabilities. One characteristic that the ego-inflicted person will always bring to the experience of others is that of time. Time is tricky, one of the trickiest and weirdest things one can think about. There is no such thing as time; therefore this is the illusion that people inflicted with egos are under.
I liken the form of the Good to enlightenment and, the purpose of business to the role of aiding the process of enlightenment or the journey toward the Good. There is a lot of talk and concern in most businesses, successful and not, about the bottom line. The bottom line is the amount of money made after all expenses are accounted for. This is what we call profit. But, there is something missing in most accounting methods, that is the cost to the world and humanity. Usually a business considers only its factual or immediate data when considering costs and expenses. This form of considering costs is holistically the same as the individual thinking in terms of immediate cost to oneself. The only difference between the two is that one is a business entity and the other a human entity.
The Buddha laid out for us a path to enlightenment. It begins with the Four Noble Truths, they are; existence is suffering, cause of suffering is craving, cessation of suffering is attainable, and lastly the Eightfold Path. One can follow the Eightfold Path as a means to right conduct in the business world. Because the world of the shadows described by Plato is played out perfectly in business, an unending world of false appearances and beliefs about profit and gain, not understanding the cave at the level of leadership will only make the cave deeper. It takes a moment of presence to set the world on the proper footing that can be lost so easily in the hustle of the 21st century.
This brings us to Radhakrishnan and his teaching on freedom. He reminds us that at the moment, brought to us by the multitude of past events, there are a number of choices available to the agent. He likens life to a game of cards, we are dealt a past-dependent hand and we have the option to play it as we wish. We can gain freedom through the teachings of the Buddha and his Eightfold Path.
Perhaps along the lines of Plato again, I see the world as containing multiple dimensions, cycles, or wavelengths. What I am attempting to explain is much beyond what I have done so far. But there are certain mental footholds that I can rely on from my past to guide my thinking. They include: everything is a wave, frequency or cycle, the truth of cause and effect, and the interconnectedness of all things. When one takes on a life philosophy of ‘life is short’ or ‘live it up’ they could be falling into a trap. Patience is a virtue that many people are having a hard time with these days. With all the means to instant gratification brought to us by a false sense of improvement through technology, people are in a sense becoming a slave to a master. It’s funny, sort of, but this is exactly the story of the Matrix. However much merit you think is contained within that film is up to you but I am a believer in the plausibility of the films imagination. In fact, a professor of philosophy from an Ivy League school proposed that such a scenario is possible. He states that technologically advanced civilizations, ones much more advanced than our own, could posses the capability to create a computer generated world detailed enough to fool our senses. In the Matrix, when Neo takes the red pill, he is in effect turning his head away from the shadows and towards the truth, just like in Plato’s Cave!
This takes us to technology and the developers of technology - organizations and businesses. If the business owners and managers are gripped by their egos, they will look for technology to speed up the process of becoming. They want more customers, more cash flow, more product, better marketing tools etc. The ego is never satisfied. They make decisions based on future projections, forgetting the power of the moment. They act for the sake of becoming something they currently are not because they believe in a future heaven but unknowingly create a present hell.
While working towards a goal is a noble thing for anyone to do, if the journey towards the goal is not enjoyable in itself, then there is no real progress. Technology is here to help us experience life in a more desirable way- to ease some of life’s hardships, not to numb them completely. Technology should help us make more efficient use of our resources, not allow us to consume them more rapidly. Right now we use our technology for the most part to continue to make the consumption loop bigger. A consumption loop is a term I just coined but is meant to describe the amount of energy and resources that are needed to reclaim a good once it is used, if it is reclaimed at all. Modern business will have to change this in order to add value to society and the globe as a whole. The ideal situation is a company that is completely self sufficient, or a home, or an individual etc. But his does not mean that interdependency is undesirable.
One thing that leads to bad decision-making is when managers and CEO’s think about the future and subjugate the present in order to attain a desired state some time down the road. Every now and then this strategy pays off and the rewards can be very gratifying. This sort of thinking often leads to poor ethical behavior because managers will look at the potential reward versus the current sacrifice. Usually the sacrifice is something immaterial, like the conscience of that person and everyone involved. They value the monetary, visually obvious, factual gain over the less visible, though more important, preservation and building of the form of the Good.
Our lives need meaning. Victor Frankl wrote a famous book called Man’s Search for Meaning and in it he essentially (or existentially) says that man must create his own meaning in life. A major part of our lives in composed of working. Those of us most satisfied with our jobs can say that our work provides meaning to our life, usually in the form of doing some Good. Again, my assertion is that business philosophies that keep this in mind and preserve its meaning above that of the bottom line ($ profit) they will gain wealth from sources they never thought possible. When companies can add value in the form of meaning, everyone wins, everyone in the company as well as society. Husbands and wives come home with a smile on their face and warmth in their hearts, which should have obvious benefits to society.
We all know that the Earth’s resources are being strained to the breaking point. Even if the situation is considerably less drastic than the media and scientists want us to believe, we can still do ourselves a favor by making our planet a more beautiful place to live. Most cities are usually dirty, the air is brown and unfit to breathe, and to change this we need to change our habits and re-examine our values. We have built a ship that is unfit to sail across the sea. In Buddhism there is a notion of crossing the river to the other side. The river is an analogy for life and the other side symbolizes enlightenment or nirvana. Buddhists also talk about vehicles for crossing the river; our vehicles are our values and beliefs.
How will modern business bring us out of this cave and allow us to cross the river to the other side? Today, we live in a capitalistic world. The question then is; how do we create businesses that are fit to thrive in such a materialistic world but also respect the dignity of all humans?
In a book entitled Entrepreneurism: A Philosophy and a Sensible Alternative for the Market Economy, the authors point out that there are two fundamental and distinctive human needs: creation and ownership. The two most opposite economic systems, capitalism and communism, only one is provided. They tell the reader that the solution or middle ground is entrepreneurism. They define entrepreneurism as a way of satifying both of these intrinsic human needs and doing so with respect to themselves and the society as a whole.
Sometimes small business is the best. In a small business everyone has the ability and information to understand the big picture of what the entity is trying to accomplish. In these situations creativity is much more easily cultivated from the employees. We need this kind of creative energy to flow in out economies. It will help us stay competitive and it will keep the right minds in charge. One owner’s solution to this was to keep his business small enough so that all partners (replacement of employee terminology and he made them all part-owners overnight) could grasp the company in imagination. He also instated salary rules that prohibited outrageous pay to top executives, allotted a percentage of profit to help sustain the company, and another portion to go towards community efforts like non-profits. The company is called Scott Bader Commonwealth and it is located in the UK.
Companies like these will, I believe, start to set the standard in the business world. The companies that have the vision and the courage to lead instead of follow will prevail. I hope to own such company as Commonwealth in the near future and if I am fortunate enough to do so I will always have the truths discovered through philosophy to guide my decisions.
Entrepreneurism: Escaping the Cave
I think a lot, too much in fact. They say this is a characteristic of an entrepreneur, a knowledge hungry person who creates and innovates new ways of doing business, someone who always wants to learn, grow, and lead. I’d say the entrepreneur is the artist of the business world and I also believe that the artist is the highest type of man. Someone who strives for perfection and attains a noble amount of it should be considered an artist, whatever the discipline may be.
My motive herein is to shed light on the current situation in the business world - one must know where one stands before they can walk in the right direction. I want to use examples from the class to back up my thinking towards the business world. I have selected writings from Descartes, Plato, and Radhakrishnan. I will also be speaking from a Buddhist perspective towards life in general and be attempting to show with the sources stated above, that business can and should mature to ensure humanities healthy existence on this planet.
One thing that creates hardship for humanity is an illusion in life that seems to have captured the majority of people’s lives. The illusion is that of the self, believe there is no self. Descartes famously stated, “I think, therefore I am.” Here is where most people make that false assumption; they think that their mind is their essence, what makes them who they are. This is known as the ego, the illusory self that makes life a continual process of becoming, always striving and craving something that it does not have at the moment.
From here we go to Plato. As I understand it, the Allegory of the Cave is a way of explaining the progressive/upward growth of a human life. One starts out inevitably a little ignorant about the world and their place in it. An infant does not realize that he or she is not the center of the universe until life’s lessons have shown them otherwise. Plato talks about how the shadow watchers meddle in the affairs of what they can readily see. They watch and they gather information about the various objects, molding an ever-increasing understanding of how they think the world works. Those who know how to play the game of shadows takes the cake and the applaud from the others who too dwell on the shadows.
You can liken this life to anyone who seeks acceptance from others before respecting and believing in themselves. These people come in every shape and color. They can be wealthy, poor, good looking, etc. and they will always be asking for you to give them something without the favor being returned. They beg for life energy from others; they are like sponges. In life, people are either assets or liabilities, and while we should always be understanding of everyone and their situation, people as assets or liabilities simply means we may have to look deeper in order to understand the value that every human being brings to the table, if at first they are liabilities. One characteristic that the ego-inflicted person will always bring to the experience of others is that of time. Time is tricky, one of the trickiest and weirdest things one can think about. There is no such thing as time; therefore this is the illusion that people inflicted with egos are under.
I liken the form of the Good to enlightenment and, the purpose of business to the role of aiding the process of enlightenment or the journey toward the Good. There is a lot of talk and concern in most businesses, successful and not, about the bottom line. The bottom line is the amount of money made after all expenses are accounted for. This is what we call profit. But, there is something missing in most accounting methods, that is the cost to the world and humanity. Usually a business considers only its factual or immediate data when considering costs and expenses. This form of considering costs is holistically the same as the individual thinking in terms of immediate cost to oneself. The only difference between the two is that one is a business entity and the other a human entity.
The Buddha laid out for us a path to enlightenment. It begins with the Four Noble Truths, they are; existence is suffering, cause of suffering is craving, cessation of suffering is attainable, and lastly the Eightfold Path. One can follow the Eightfold Path as a means to right conduct in the business world. Because the world of the shadows described by Plato is played out perfectly in business, an unending world of false appearances and beliefs about profit and gain, not understanding the cave at the level of leadership will only make the cave deeper. It takes a moment of presence to set the world on the proper footing that can be lost so easily in the hustle of the 21st century.
This brings us to Radhakrishnan and his teaching on freedom. He reminds us that at the moment, brought to us by the multitude of past events, there are a number of choices available to the agent. He likens life to a game of cards, we are dealt a past-dependent hand and we have the option to play it as we wish. We can gain freedom through the teachings of the Buddha and his Eightfold Path.
Perhaps along the lines of Plato again, I see the world as containing multiple dimensions, cycles, or wavelengths. What I am attempting to explain is much beyond what I have done so far. But there are certain mental footholds that I can rely on from my past to guide my thinking. They include: everything is a wave, frequency or cycle, the truth of cause and effect, and the interconnectedness of all things. When one takes on a life philosophy of ‘life is short’ or ‘live it up’ they could be falling into a trap. Patience is a virtue that many people are having a hard time with these days. With all the means to instant gratification brought to us by a false sense of improvement through technology, people are in a sense becoming a slave to a master. It’s funny, sort of, but this is exactly the story of the Matrix. However much merit you think is contained within that film is up to you but I am a believer in the plausibility of the films imagination. In fact, a professor of philosophy from an Ivy League school proposed that such a scenario is possible. He states that technologically advanced civilizations, ones much more advanced than our own, could posses the capability to create a computer generated world detailed enough to fool our senses. In the Matrix, when Neo takes the red pill, he is in effect turning his head away from the shadows and towards the truth, just like in Plato’s Cave!
This takes us to technology and the developers of technology - organizations and businesses. If the business owners and managers are gripped by their egos, they will look for technology to speed up the process of becoming. They want more customers, more cash flow, more product, better marketing tools etc. The ego is never satisfied. They make decisions based on future projections, forgetting the power of the moment. They act for the sake of becoming something they currently are not because they believe in a future heaven but unknowingly create a present hell.
While working towards a goal is a noble thing for anyone to do, if the journey towards the goal is not enjoyable in itself, then there is no real progress. Technology is here to help us experience life in a more desirable way- to ease some of life’s hardships, not to numb them completely. Technology should help us make more efficient use of our resources, not allow us to consume them more rapidly. Right now we use our technology for the most part to continue to make the consumption loop bigger. A consumption loop is a term I just coined but is meant to describe the amount of energy and resources that are needed to reclaim a good once it is used, if it is reclaimed at all. Modern business will have to change this in order to add value to society and the globe as a whole. The ideal situation is a company that is completely self sufficient, or a home, or an individual etc. But his does not mean that interdependency is undesirable.
One thing that leads to bad decision-making is when managers and CEO’s think about the future and subjugate the present in order to attain a desired state some time down the road. Every now and then this strategy pays off and the rewards can be very gratifying. This sort of thinking often leads to poor ethical behavior because managers will look at the potential reward versus the current sacrifice. Usually the sacrifice is something immaterial, like the conscience of that person and everyone involved. They value the monetary, visually obvious, factual gain over the less visible, though more important, preservation and building of the form of the Good.
Our lives need meaning. Victor Frankl wrote a famous book called Man’s Search for Meaning and in it he essentially (or existentially) says that man must create his own meaning in life. A major part of our lives in composed of working. Those of us most satisfied with our jobs can say that our work provides meaning to our life, usually in the form of doing some Good. Again, my assertion is that business philosophies that keep this in mind and preserve its meaning above that of the bottom line ($ profit) they will gain wealth from sources they never thought possible. When companies can add value in the form of meaning, everyone wins, everyone in the company as well as society. Husbands and wives come home with a smile on their face and warmth in their hearts, which should have obvious benefits to society.
We all know that the Earth’s resources are being strained to the breaking point. Even if the situation is considerably less drastic than the media and scientists want us to believe, we can still do ourselves a favor by making our planet a more beautiful place to live. Most cities are usually dirty, the air is brown and unfit to breathe, and to change this we need to change our habits and re-examine our values. We have built a ship that is unfit to sail across the sea. In Buddhism there is a notion of crossing the river to the other side. The river is an analogy for life and the other side symbolizes enlightenment or nirvana. Buddhists also talk about vehicles for crossing the river; our vehicles are our values and beliefs.
How will modern business bring us out of this cave and allow us to cross the river to the other side? Today, we live in a capitalistic world. The question then is; how do we create businesses that are fit to thrive in such a materialistic world but also respect the dignity of all humans?
In a book entitled Entrepreneurism: A Philosophy and a Sensible Alternative for the Market Economy, the authors point out that there are two fundamental and distinctive human needs: creation and ownership. The two most opposite economic systems, capitalism and communism, only one is provided. They tell the reader that the solution or middle ground is entrepreneurism. They define entrepreneurism as a way of satifying both of these intrinsic human needs and doing so with respect to themselves and the society as a whole.
Sometimes small business is the best. In a small business everyone has the ability and information to understand the big picture of what the entity is trying to accomplish. In these situations creativity is much more easily cultivated from the employees. We need this kind of creative energy to flow in out economies. It will help us stay competitive and it will keep the right minds in charge. One owner’s solution to this was to keep his business small enough so that all partners (replacement of employee terminology and he made them all part-owners overnight) could grasp the company in imagination. He also instated salary rules that prohibited outrageous pay to top executives, allotted a percentage of profit to help sustain the company, and another portion to go towards community efforts like non-profits. The company is called Scott Bader Commonwealth and it is located in the UK.
Companies like these will, I believe, start to set the standard in the business world. The companies that have the vision and the courage to lead instead of follow will prevail. I hope to own such company as Commonwealth in the near future and if I am fortunate enough to do so I will always have the truths discovered through philosophy to guide my decisions.
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