On Tuesday, December 24, 2024, the day before Christmas, The New York Times published an article in its "Business" section that was titled, "A 7-Eleven Heir's $50 Billion Fight To Keep The Company In The Family." The article documented an effort by Junro Ito, whose father founded 7-Eleven, to "revive the culture fostered by his father."
Ito's father was a personal friend and a disciple of Peter Drucker, who Wikipedia describes as "an Austrian American management consultant, educator, and author, whose writings contributed to the philosophical and practical foundations of modern management theory." Drucker, basically, thought that businesses should be structured to do a good job of achieving excellence in whatever business they were in.
According to the article, the current battle for control of 7-Eleven, with Mr. Ito trying to make sure that the company continues to pursue Drucker's ideas, is "emblematic of sweeping changes underway in corporate Japan." Here's how the article defined the struggle:
For more than a decade, officials have pushed Japanese companies to take steps — like giving proper consideration to takeover offers — to show they are open to actions that would create more value for shareholders.In essence, Japan’s policymakers are pushing for companies to focus less on Mr. Drucker and more on Milton Friedman, the influential economist who said the purpose of business was to generate profits for shareholders (emphasis added).
The link in The Times' article will take you to an earlier story that characterizes Friedman's "idea" about the purpose of business as follows: "Greed is Good."
Well what do you think about the "purpose of business"? Is it "money"? Or is it achieving excellence in whatever the business is, meaning that the owners, the workers, and the consumers and the clients all need to be happy with the results?
I know which side I'm on!
Let me say, in a blog that I have titled, "We Live In A Political World," that our politics is where we need to answer that question about the "purpose" of business. So far, in the United States, Milton Friedman and "making more money" seems to be winning the race.
If we want to change that, we're going to have to get involved in politics, to swing our policies in the other direction!
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