In the early 80s I was a budding consultant working under a well-known management expert named Dr.B.L. Maheshwari. One of my early assignment was to help Dr. Maheshwari do the organizational analysis of a well know company in India named Thermax. This company was and still is into energy and environment business and known for its focus on quality. Thermax was then headed by a visionary Late Rohinton Aga. After the presentation of our analysis during the lunch break, I was witness to a very interesting conversation between Mr. Aga and Dr. Maheshwari. The question put forward by Mr. Aga to Dr. Maheshwari was on growth of the enterprise. I am reproducing below the actual conversation that took place between them.
RA: I often wonder why should we aspire to continuously grow to just making profits? After all, as we grow old our needs and wants get limited. Just look at me. Previously I use to occupy full bed to sleep but with children around I sleep only on quarter of the bed. My food intake has also reduced over the years. Why not just focus on the quality of the product and not on profits?
BL: Queen Victoria had enough gowns and diamonds in her closet yet she wanted to rule over the world. There is something called achievement and that continuously spurs us to move ahead in life.
RA: BL did you hear the story of the fox and the sour grapes?
BL: of course, who has not?
RA: There is a sequel to the story and it goes somewhat like this. When the fox could not jump high to catch the grapes and he started telling every other animal that the grapes were sour everyone started to tease him. The fox developed a deep inferiority complex and during the daytime when other animals were asleep, he started practising high jumps. And lo and behold one day he actually was able to jump high enough to catch the grapes. And indeed, the grapes were sour!!
The above conversation highlights many important aspects of the purpose and philosophy of running an enterprise. Business is run not merely to make profit but to ensure high quality of product or service. Profit happens to be a side effect in our quest to have quality. A singular focus on making money does not yield happiness to anyone. Chasing after money robs us of many important elements of our values. As we grow old, we should focus on reducing our individual wants and help others grow. The real trigger for an entrepreneur to succeed is his desire to achieve. With a fire in the belly and passion for excellence the entrepreneur is but bound to succeed. Albeit the definition of success needs relook.
