Meditations on Business: Why "Business As Usual" Won't Work Anymore

Paul D. McEwan is a chartered accountant in Toronto.

Meditations on Business attempts to place the practice of business in
North America in a philosophical social, political, and moral context.
Dalla Costa posits that traditional “bottom-line” myopia, obsessed
with the profit motive, is no longer appropriate for business, which has
become “the dominant institution on our planet.” Although Dalla
Costa is the president and CEO of a successful Canadian advertising
agency, he spent seven years in a Catholic seminary studying for the
priesthood, and this experience explains his ability to analyze business
as an outsider.

Business, although taught in the halls of higher learning, is not
necessarily an intellectual pursuit. Business advantage has historically
been gained through persistence, aggressiveness, and access to capital,
leaving aside any need to be concerned with the effects on the social or
biological environment. Meditations on Business is a rare phenomenon—a
business book that goes beyond providing the reader with snappy
aphorisms about successful companies and “one-minute” solutions for
truly complex problems. Dalla Costa has recognized that the time has
come for a fundamental rethinking of the business paradigm in North
America. The business community must take action if we are to catch up
to competitors in Europe and the Pacific Rim, or indeed win the race
against time in the gradual destruction of the planet.

In Dalla Costa’s view, this action would require business to consider
itself answerable to all stakeholders affected by its actions, and not
solely to its direct corporate shareholders. As well, business
executives must be willing to relinquish some of the power they
currently enjoy within their corporations, in order to release the
creative potential of employees now smothered by inflexible,
hierarchical business institutions.

Dalla Costa argues convincingly that business leaders must initiate
this paradigm shift and not wait for government to legislate these
responsibilities. Business has repeatedly demonstrated its adaptability
to market forces; this aptitude should now be directed toward more
holistic goals.