Company Culture and Company Consciousness

This post is the fourth in the series that looks at how Buddhist Wisdom can be applied to business. To start from the first post go to linkd.in/1qEIoKb .

This post is speaking to the third characteristic of being in business that creates difficulty which is impermanence. The idea is to understand that although we may refer to Sony, Gibson or Joe’s Amps as an example these entities while definable are not constant or permanent.

What’s in a Name

Often we refer to a business by it’s name Apple, Nike or Starbucks to name three of the most well known businesses in the world. What are we actually referring to when we name a business? This is very context dependent. The name of a business, indiviudual or team (BIT) is extremely efficient shorthand to refer to a collection of people who are legally associated with one another and are working together to deliver a set of goods and/or services during a particular period of time. A BIT will also trigger specific associations within individuals and groups that may be negative, neutral or positive or a mixture thereof and these associations will often change over time.

At any moment in time a BIT is in a slightly different stage of delivering its products and services, the sales team is closer ot farther along relative to goal, prospects are being reached and reacting to marketing based on their changing context, employees are each at different stages of their careers with different levels of satisfaction relative to their progress, executives are constantly evaluating how to move forward with progressively better results and reacting to events surrounding the business and employees have dynamically changing relationships with one another.

Please note that the description in the preceeding paragraph just describes the professional internal context of a business. In additiion, there are external economic forces that are constantly shifting. It is also wise to keep in mind that each member of a businesses community has a complex ever-changing personal life as well that influences their individual actions, behaviors and communications.

Company Consciousness

In these posts to date we have seen that business inherently contains difficulty, that change is constant and there is no permanent, unchanging definable core of a business. These concepts in Buddhist Wisdom are often referred to as “unsatisfactoriness”, “impermanence” and “no-self” or the three marks of existence. In other words, everything that exists has these three characteristics.

How does this knowledge and these understandings further the creation of long-term value for a business and the business’ community? By having a clear view of the landscape in which we operate as BITs. it is easier to operate effectively and efficently. For an individual this is often referred to as developing a higher consciousness. For a business we need to begin by looking at what is a “company consciousness” and how it is developed.

The company consciousness is made up of five ever-changing components called Skandhas (sometimes referred to as Aggregates). For an individual the five Skandhas are the aspects or functions that make up a sentient being.

For our purposes I have translated them from relating to an individual to relating to a business. Rather then provide precise Webster dictionary like definitioons, I have provided a word or two that references a well known concept and a set of questions and or examples that would provide an operational definition of each Skanhda for a business. Additional questions could be asked to further define each Skandha.

1. Form

Is the business small, medium or large? Is it a go-go growth company, a stable slow growth company, or one that is happy at its current level? What physical assets leased or owned make up the business?

2. Communications

How does the business communicate to prospects, customers, employees, vendors ,the surrounding community, government and suppliers? How do each of these stakeholders communicate with the business? How are these communications processed and reacted to by the business? How are external communications developed and sent?

3. Perceptions

What sort of business is considered good business i.e. Does the business focus on high-volume, low-margin business? Or lower volume but higher margin with a large service component? Does the business focus on consumers, businesses or government work? What sort of employees does the business recruit, train and retain?

4. Intentionality or Will

Is the business not only focused on the economics but serving it's stakeholders as well? Or is it simply driven by the profit motive? Does the company make money by providing value to its customers or is it focused on “fooling” people into buying something? What is cause greater then itself that the business is focused on?

5. Events

Businesses react to internal and external events. As an example, an internal event may occur when a leader makes a comment that he is interested in exploring a new product area. Immediately, some people will become interested and others will try to block the development either out of fear or desire to make that particular leader look bad.

An example of an external event may occur when the competition launches new marketing. A business as a team will have a generalized reaction to these sorts of events. Is the reaction based in strength or fear, wisdom or ignorance, compassion or hate?

Company Consciousness and Company Culture

Those of you familiar with writings on business leadership and management will know that there have been tomes to long to mention about company culture. Corporate culture is defined below by Investopedia.

The beliefs and behaviors that determine how a company's employees and management interact and handle outside business transactions. Often, corporate culture is implied, not expressly defined, and develops organically over time from the cumulative traits of the people the company hires. A company's culture will be reflected in its dress code, business hours, office setup, employee benefits, turnover, hiring decisions, treatment of clients, client satisfaction and every other aspect of operations.

I think of corporate culture as the sum total of external communications where communication is used in the broadest sense of the word. I think of company consciousness as the sum total of the internal reactions of the BIT prior to external communication. The analogy is that for an individual we might make inferences about an individual’s culture by how they dress and their physical appearance but that does not tell you very much about what they are thinking (i.e. their consciousness).

From a buddhist wisdom perspective if the goal is to enable positive change we start with the internal workings or consciousness first. The first words of the a famous text that summarizes a lot of buddhist wisdom called the Dhammapada are…

All that we are is the result of what we have thought: it is founded on our thoughts, it is made up of our thoughts.

The idea being expressed is that there are pre-cursors to actions, behaviors and communications. If seeking to move more wisely through the world BITs have to be conscious of the pre-cursors to these and give strength to those that create and support long-term value and disavow those that would not serve us the business’ community well being in the long run. The motivations and reasons for this is the development and practice of enlightened self-interest which are in-line with the goals of healthy and sustainable organizational growth and profitability.

Interdependence

The reason understanding the five Skandhas is important is that until the drivers of a BIT’s consciousness and their patterns are understood it is difficult to effect positive change. In addition, understanding the five company skandhas highlights another concept which is interdependence.

All businesses are dependent on other businesses whether you are examining a Fortune 500 company with thousands of suppliers or you are an owner/operator. There are the goods and services that you use from other businesses. And the only way your clients can avail themselves of your products and services is if they have money from either a past or present business venture. Henry Ford, the Founder of Ford Motor Company, understood this which is why he paid his manufacturing workers enough so that they could afford to buy the cars that Ford was making.

Caveats, Disclaimers, Past and Future Posts

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This post is the fourth in a series that looks at how Buddhist Wisdom can be applied to business. To start from the first post go to linkd.in/1qEIoKb. I have also created an an index / table of contents for all the posts at http://linkd.in/V7Yugv.

The post previous to this at http://linkd.in/1lS2LMd explores the joy and pain of goals in business.

The writings in these posts represent my personal interpretations and understandings of buddhist wisdom as it applies to business. The responsibility for any errors, misconceptions and/or alternative interpretations of traditional buddhist teachings are completely mine and mine alone.

I hope to post additional thoughts and writings each Tuesday and Thursday but this will vary as life’s circumstances require. Please follow me on LinkedIn to stay in touch. I sincerely appreciate and look forward to reading any posted comments.

Thank you for taking the time to read my post. Stay tuned!