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by jon l. shebel, publisher
The Noble Pursuit Of Profit
Who can forget (and who wants to remember) the recession of
1991-92 when the professionally sympathetic sobbed over the tragedy of corporate
downsizing? According to what passes for conventional wisdom, companies were ruthlessly
laying off employees for no other reason than to maximize profits.
Liberals love to accuse business owners and executives of "just
being in it for the money." Oddly enough, these accusations seem to strike a chord
with some of those owners and executives.
I recently read a story about Yvon Chouinnard, the founder and owner
of Patagonia Inc., an outdoor clothing company. His company's Fall 1991 catalog began with
the self-indictment, "Everything we make pollutes." Mr. Chouinnard then promised
that his company would address the "problem" by slowing, and gradually
terminating, the growth of his company.
At the time, Patagonia actually had no choice but to slow its
growth. Shockingly poor business management had produced years of unplanned and
unregulated growth that had turned the company into an overfed behemoth. In-house product
lines competed with each other and cannibalized company profits. In July of 1991, the
company had to cut loose 20 percent of its work force. Unfortunately, these employees
found themselves facing a tight recessionary job market made tighter by the no-growth
philosophy of Ventura, California, home to Patagonia. One of the leading local proponents
of no growth was none other than Mr. Chouinnard.
Patagonia has now revised its no-growth goal to one of slow growth.
Considering the company's recent past, this is a smart management decision, but the
company cannot acknowledge it as such because the owner and his employees are
self-professed haters of business. Mr. Chouinnard once told a group of marketing
consultants that he considers business people greaseballs.
Mr. Chouinnard's denial that he is a businessman calls to mind the
alcoholic who can't face up to his drinking problem. He is emblematic of what you might
call the post-modern entrepreneur, the anti-business business person. These often
well-to-do individuals seem to despise the prosperity of others and denigrate profit
seeking as greed. This is foolishness.
Maximizing profits is a noble end if only because it keeps the job
engine running. And the best antipoverty program is, after all, employment.
Maximizing profits also results in better products at cheaper
prices. For instance, today's steel-belted radial lasts much longer than a tire purchased
in 1930. With inflation factored in, on a cost-per-mile-driven basis, the tires on your
car today actually cost less than the tires your parents or grandparents put on their cars
60 years ago.
Those of us fortunate enough to be living in America today lead
longer, healthier lives and we have more leisure time and disposable income than those in
the generations that preceded us. This happy situation is due in some small part to
government. Most of the progress, however, flows from the innovations and risks taken by
the wealthy - those who seek to maximize profits.
So let those who hate themselves for making a profit go on hating
themselves - as long as they go on making profits. The rest of us will continue enjoying
profit as the measure of what works best and as the means to do more.
Jon L. Shebel is president and CEO of Associated Industries
of Florida and affiliated corporations. He has worked for more than 26 years as a lobbyist
for AIF and directs all legislative efforts based on the board of directors' positions.
Shebel graduated from The Citadel and attended Stetson University College of Law. |
