The Synergy between Enlightened Self Interest and Social Responsibility

How would you answer the question: why are you in business? Would your answer differ depending upon who was asking? Would you be bold enough to answer that you’re in business to make money and that there is nothing wrong with making a profit? You might hesitate before you answered like that, and you wouldn’t be alone. Like many, you might start off by talking about social responsibility, making a difference and serving your customers and community. And there’s nothing wrong with that.  

Greed is one thing. Enlightened self-interest is something entirely different. The simple irreducible minimum is that businesses have to interact with the environment. Managers would not be doing their jobs if they didn’t seek out opportunities to further the interests of their businesses. There are always competing interests; however, acting socially responsibly is not something that competes, but is something that synergises, with business interests. You might want to consider this: enlightened self-interest and social responsibility are not diametrically opposed pursuits. They are not just compatible pursuits: they are synergistic pursuits.  

Enlightened Self-Interest

Adam Smith got it about right when he wrote that ‘It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest.’ 

In her book, Body and Soul, Body Shop founder Anita Roddick very succinctly explains how enlightened self-interest and social responsibility work together when she talks about looking for ‘…the modern day equivalent of those Quakers who…made money because they offered honest products and treated their people decently…’ There’s nothing wrong with making money: it is how that money is made that counts. 

If you go into business you must believe that it is the right thing for you to do. However, it does not follow from this that when you act you must only take into account your own interests. On the contrary, acting in ways that may appear to be in competition with your interest may be decidedly advantageous. As Lynn MacDonald on smallbusiness.chron.com says: 

‘Enlightened self-interest recognizes that a company's prime purpose is to make profits, but that this goal can be achieved by fulfilling its social and environmental responsibilities.’ http://smallbusiness.chron.com/examples-enlightened-selfinterest-business-22880.html 

Social Responsibility

It’s little wonder that the business world gets a bad press. Stories are heard too often about corporate greed, unethical selling practices, misleading advertising, shoddy goods, even shoddier customer service, poor treatment of employees and the list could go on.  The thing that is quite simply downright mystifying is why do people in the business world insist on behaving like this when acting socially responsibly is better all round?  As the Times Business Case Studies explains: 

‘Corporate social responsibility can bring significant benefits to a business. For example, [it] may: attract customers to the firm's products …make employees want to stay with the business…attract more employees wanting to work for the business… [and] attract investors and keep the company's share price high…’.

http://businesscasestudies.co.uk/cadbury-schweppes/ethical-business-practices/the-importance-of-ethics-in-business.html#axzz2ijYBrr1Z 

This makes it perfectly clear that acting in a way that is socially responsible is an act of enlightened self-interest. By acting responsibly, you are acting in a way that best promotes the interests of your business.  

You may be the owner of a small business or a large business. You may be a junior manager, middle manager or senior manager in a small medium or large corporation. You may be the chief executive officer in a multi-national conglomerate. Whatever your position in the business world the message is that acting in a socially responsible way pays dividends in the long run.  

So how would you answer the question: why are you in business? The socially enlightened answer will explain that your business is there to make a profit from socially responsible business practices.

Garry Costain is the Managing Director of Caremark Thanet, a domiciliary care provider with offices in Margate, Kent. Caremark Thanet provides home care services throughout the Isle of Thanet. Garry can be contacted on 01843 235910 or email garry.costain@caremark.co.uk. You can also visit Caremark Thanet's website at www.caremark.co.uk/thanet.