Business Pride - Powerful Motivation for Business

Moral Fire Forges Innovation

Chariots of Fire, the inspiring film set at the time of the 1924 Olympics, follows the preparation of Harold Abrahams, the Jewish law student, and Eric Liddell, the Scottish preacher who runs to win for the glory of his god. In one race Liddell falls, but gets to his feet, and gives chase with ferocious determination. So strong is his drive to win that on doing so he falls with exhaustion and is carried off the field. Later, boarding the ship for the Olympics in Paris, Liddell is dismayed to learn that the heat for the race which should earn him a gold medal, has been scheduled for a Sunday. The young Christian refuses to run, even under intense pressure from the British Olympic Committee which includes the Prince of Wales and the intimidating Chairman Lord Cadogan. Accused of impertinence by these high-ranking officials, Liddell retorts: "The impertinence lies with those who would seek to influence a man to deny his beliefs!"

Such moral fire - this passionate dedication to a moral cause, combined with intense loyalty to principle - is perhaps not surprising in a man of religion. But could we ever expect to find it in the business world? Imagine the effect on the bottom line if this dedication to principle and excellence were widespread in the corporation.

Many would say: "Impossible!" One reason for this cynicism is this: [show slide of priest with speech bubble containing devil with dollar signs] that throughout our early lives we hear in the classroom and from the pulpit that profit-making is not a moral activity. We hear such statements as "It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of the Lord" and "The love of money is the root of all evil." Such deeply-ingrained ideas lead people to characterise what is usually honest commercial success as 'corporate greed' and to refer to the successful as 'the filthy rich.'

At the root of this hostility to money-making is the belief in the moral ideal of selflessness as represented by Mother Theresa [show slide of her]. This view holds that we should give away surplus earnings to those in need.

So how can business which is about profit making, and decidedly not about selflessness, inspire passion amongst its employees? It is no wonder that a recent Newspoll survey of Victorian workers found that more than 50% were looking for greater job satisfaction and that 73% would donate more time to charity if their employer supported them. It is no wonder that so many of a corporation's employees have a 'thank God it's Friday’ attitude to their jobs.

Instead we should be aiming for our employees to see their work as a mission. 'A mission is ...work that corresponds to our inner passion. We give our deepest selves. In return we find meaning. Our intuition and creativity come alive.' (Richard Barrett, Liberating the Corporate Soul, Building a Visionary Organisation (Butterworth-Heinemann 1998) pp44-45).

With this attitude [show slide of woman at computer & in bath with eureka speech bubble superimposed on moral fire], employees find so much enjoyment in their work that even their spare time is engaged in generating ideas. Soichiro Honda, the founder of The Honda Motor Company, wrote: 'People will not sacrifice themselves for the company. They come to work at the company to enjoy themselves. That feeling would lead to innovation." In this increasingly competitive age, corporations must seize every chance to foster innovation, which, as I'm sure you know, has been described by management guru Peter Drucker ((Peter F. Drucker, Harvard Business Review 1995) as a company's core competency.

The challenge then is for companies to help their employees develop that passionate enjoyment of work - the moral fire of an Eric Liddell. But how are they to do this when many Australians see the aims of business as immoral - when personal values are so often out of alignment with corporate values?

Enter [show photo of young Ayn with name and dates] Ayn Rand, foremost advocate of the world's producers and entrepreneurs. The heroes of Ayn Rand's uplifting novels are productive geniuses and leaders of industry. The novels make it clear that the moral fire of our Scottish preacher - but fuelled by secular values, not religion - can burn brightly in business, and more, that it can forge magnificent innovation. John Allison, the CEO of the award-winning bank BB&T ranked in the top 5 in the US for excellence in business banking, sees the great value of Rand's ideas for business: BB&T has adopted her philosophy Objectivism as its guiding principles, as is very apparent from its website. And in Australia, many of our business leaders - such men as Richard Warburton (former chairman of David Jones), and Andrew Abercrombie (CEO of FlexiGroup) have been inspired by her writings - and I know of at least 3 other members of the BRW rich list. I myself can attest to the power of her ideas having seen their dramatic effect on my own career over 29 years.

So who was Ayn Rand?

Ayn Rand was born in Russia in 1905, but spent most of her life in America. Her best-known novels are The Fountainhead, made into a film starring Gary Cooper, and her magnum opus, Atlas Shrugged, which placed second to the Bible in a Library of Congress survey of most influential books. Ayn Rand also wrote an extensive body of non-fiction to clarify her philosophical discoveries. There are now more than 3 dozen universities in America with courses based on her philosophy, Objectivism.

Having read philosophy at university and over the 30 years since, I agree with those who say that Rand was probably the greatest and most usefully innovative philosopher since that shining light of the ancient Greek world, Aristotle.

One of Ayn Rand's most magnificent achievements was for the first time to define the proper purpose of morality. I am shortly going to tell you about 7 attributes or virtues that are very powerful in the business world. These virtues to a large degree fuel the kind of moral fire that I consider to be so important for innovation.

But it is important to understand a more fundamental ingredient of the mix that fuels this kind of moral fire. [show slide of scroll entitled 'Morality' with arrow pointing above to champagne glass.] A careful reader of Rand's novel Atlas Shrugged and her non-fiction is convinced by her cogent arguments that the proper purpose of morality is to guide an individual towards success and happiness, and that the hallmark of a proper morality is not selflessness but rational self-interest, not renunciation but achievement. And to make this more apparent, in a powerful scene in Atlas Shrugged describing the community of the 20th Century Motor Company, who have elected to live consistently by the morality of selflessness, Rand shows the destructive effect of this on all involved. By showing us that the moral life is one of rational self-interest, Rand removes the obstacles to our seeing a business career as a potentially noble career.

Does this path of self-interest lead one to trample over others in one's quest for success? Certainly not: Rand makes it clear that the enormous benefits of co-operation with others can only occur when everyone's rights are respected. Is charity precluded by this approach? No - provided one has solved one's own financial problems and has provided well for the future. Does this path of rational self-interest prevent one from finding love or keeping it? Again no - my own experience is that the Objectivist ethics are enormously helpful in producing a wonderful marriage.

Rand's code of rational self-interest is both moral and practical.

And this becomes even clearer when we consider [bring the virtues in semi-circle onto slide under the morality scroll] the 7 attributes or virtues that Ayn Rand considered essential to a life of fulfilment and happiness. What made her select these virtues? She saw that we as human beings survive by the faculty of reason and that we can only survive if we produce the values we need. This view then necessitates the following virtues: rationality, productiveness, pride (the policy of continual moral self-improvement), integrity, honesty, independence of thinking (which includes creativity), and justice. The great strength of these virtues is their practicality in enabling us to achieve success and happiness in all areas of our lives: the fact that they are all very much in our own interest.

The Objectivist ethics bring many benefits to a corporation: refer to the book Prime Movers - Traits of the Great Wealth Creators by world expert on goal motivation theory, Edwin Locke. My focus here though is on their powerful effect as intrinsic motivators, in producing the kind of moral fire we need for innovation. This effect is largely due to Objectivism's unique view of a successful business career, in which the greatest business success is seen not merely as a material accomplishment but far more importantly for motivation as a great spiritual accomplishment.

Perhaps Rand's finest elucidation of her view of profit-seeking is the speech made in Atlas Shrugged by her hero Francisco d'Anconia, to refute the claim that the love of money is the root of all evil. [show slide of priest with devil bubble crossed out]. D'Anconia points out that money is made possible only by the virtue of productivity and that the value of money is created primarily by the producers’ rationality, determination, independence of thought, and honesty. Rand demonstrates here and elsewhere in Atlas that productiveness along with rationality are supreme virtues and should be awarded the highest moral significance.

That the love of money - the profit motive - is life-enhancing, and therefore supremely virtuous, is shown by Capitalism's impressive record [show slide of tractor, stethoscope, washing machine, computer] of bringing into being a wonderful array of machines and processes from agrarian improvements, domestic labour-saving devices, and computers to medical technology and disease-curing pharmaceuticals, which have allowed us to enjoy enormous increases in leisure time and have freed us from much illness and early death. In pre-industrial England -in the early 18th century - one in two children died by age 5. Today we lose only 1 in 2000 before the age of 5. When we see human life as the standard of value we start to appreciate the wonderful gifts bestowed on us by the business world, and what an enormous virtue is the productiveness of a Bill Gates, a Bing Lee, a Richard Branson.

By demonstrating that productiveness is a supreme moral virtue and by showing us that money is the product of virtue (and also the reward for virtue), Ayn Rand enables us to view wealth creation as a moral pursuit. This opens the way for us to see our work as a mission and to develop that passionate enjoyment of work that Soichiro Honda would have welcomed in his company.

This allows cynicism and weariness to be replaced by passion and enthusiasm. It shows us how a business career can fill us with moral pride and so provides us with a noble but immensely practical vision for our lives. It enables us to be ambitious without worrying that we are turning into that Shakespearian villain MacBeth. It enables us to increase our profits without worrying that we are being consumed by the "evil of greed". We can pursue our goals whole-heartedly without worrying that in doing so we are selling our souls to the devil. We see clearly that acting in our own rational interest is the only moral course of action, and that a principled business career is a profoundly moral undertaking.

All of this means that we can bring to bear on each task an enthusiasm and focus undiluted by the moral uncertainty or guilt that flows from ill-conceived definitions of moral virtue. We can bring to the business world the moral fire of an Eric Liddle.

This spiritual fulfilment is also enhanced by the inspiration we receive from contemplating the heroes and heroines of Rand's novels. [show slide of woman relaxing in armchair reading with thought bubble containing Reardon in trench coat and hat contemplating blue-green rails] They are brilliant inventors, business executives, industrialists, artists, scientists and builders. They inspire us to reach for the very best within ourselves.