What is a “Business”?

A business is defined as an organization or enterprising entity engaged in commercial, industrial,

or professional activities.
The term "business" also refers to the organized efforts and activities of individuals to produce
and sell goods and services for profit.
There are various forms of a business, such as a limited liability company (LLC), a sole
proprietorship, a corporation, and a partnership.
Nature of business:
 An Economic Activity. It is an economic activity as it is undertaken with the aim of earning
money and livelihood and not for psychological satisfaction. activity of providing, making,
buying or selling commodities or services by people to satisfy day-to-day needs of life. Any
activity that includes manufacturing, distributing or utilizing products or services.
 Profit Earning. The main purpose of business is earning profit. If the profit motive is
missing in a transaction, then it cannot be considered as business transaction. For
example, goods given in charity is not a business activity. No businessman can survive
without earning sufficient profit. Products can be tangible (cars, food, clothing) or
intangible (services, an idea)
 Uncertainty of risk. An important feature of business is the presence of risk factor in the
transaction. There is always a possibility of losses. It is not certain that a businessman will
always earn adequate profit, as market conditions may change, customer's taste may
change, there may be strike in businessman's own factory etc. All these can lead to loss.
So in business transaction there is always an element of risk involved.
Specific Concepts of Business
• A business concept is the foundational idea behind a business. This is intended to provide
meaningful direction for the process of developing a business plan and launching a firm.
- Wedding concept: fairytale, retro,
Business in a philosophical framework: The Philosophical Triad of Business
Business has a place in philosophical framework as may expressed in a philosophical triad of
business which has 3 main components:
1. Philosophical imperatives - which provide the foundation on which all the established and
accepted principles are laid and that gives business a mind; (mission, vision, objectives)
2. Ethics - which tells what business ought to not to do according to the set of standards and
gives business a conscience; (core values)
3. Social responsibility - which tells what else beyond imperatives and ethics business can do
and gives business a heart. (social corporate responsibility)

Business and the Individual

Often, we hear about mixing pleasure with business. While putting a toe over the line between
business and personal may seem like fun sometimes, the reality is that it's actually a very good
idea to keep your business items separate from your personal items.
First Things First: Set Up a Separate Business
Make the legal distinction, and you will be able to protect some of your assets from business
blunders that you might make.
It's true that running your business as a sole proprietorship can be really easy in terms of
paperwork. However, this business organization doesn't adequately separate your business
activities from your personal activities. While this might not seem like such a big deal, the reality
is that it can be an issue if your business is sued. If you are set up as a sole proprietorship, your
personal assets are fair game when someone decides to sue you.
One of the biggest reasons to make sure that your business is seen as a separate entity from you
as a person is due to the protection that comes when you make a legal distinction. Just look at
Robert Kiyosaki of Rich Dad, Poor Dad fame. One of his businesses might have declared
bankruptcy, but the rest of his personal and business empire is safe.

After a while, keeping your business transactions separate from your personal transactions
becomes second nature. As long as you keep to the dividing line between your business life and
your personal life, you will have a better chance of staying out of trouble with lawsuits and
Internal Revenue Service (BIR)

Business and Society

Business exists to serve society.
When it comes to serving society, a company’s first task is to ensure that its core business is
fundamentally value creating—not just for shareholders but also for customers, employees,
suppliers, communities, and the environment.
Social Corporate Responsibility. It’s one way to attract customers and gain their loyalty.
You want to buy from them because they help and share their profit to the society.

how can companies define their unique contribution to making society stronger?
1. Prioritize issues that are relevant to the company mission
ACWD – distribute best quality, sustainable and affordable water and services without
compromising our natural resources.
- Brigada Eskwela – inayos ang pipelines; provided faucets

2. Draw on the company’s particular capabilities

You have these big trucks/buses, can be used as transportation during calamities. Relief goods.

3. Aim for a triple bottom line - companies should commit to focusing as much on social and
environmental concerns as they do on profits.
Ben Lao, a former town councilor, transformed an impoverished coconut community (Davao del
Sur) into a progressive one. From a farm with senile coconut trees in a poverty-stricken area,
Ben ventured into coco sugar. He is now one of the Philippines’ largest exporters of coconut sap-
based products to Europe and the United States.

4. Reshape the system for lasting improvement

Example, resources comes from commercialized resources. Why not take directly from farmers.
Fresh and you can help them in their kabuhayan.

5. Engage partners in transforming systems

Partner with the government, in building schools or what are the needs of the community.
The Rationale for a Philosophical Inquiry
Philosophical Inquiry is a peer-reviewed academic journal that publishes articles, reviews, and
critical notes in all areas of philosophy.
Philosophical inquiry involves attempting to answer the most fundamental questions about a
topic.
In short, its asking questions and providing answers until you are satisfied with it.

Sourcing Business Principles

Step 1. Articulate the Values

To create your guiding principles, you must have already identified your top 5-7 core values.
These values are what you believe will drive the behaviors needed to achieve the outcomes of
the business.
ACWD ay TAPAT – Adaptability, Customer-oriented, worthy, dedicated, transparent,
accountability, professionalism, teamwork.
Please don't just develop the values and then leave them on the wall. They must be used to
guide every decision. If you leave them on the walls, you'll create cynicism and under-
performance.

Step 2. Identify the Irrational Rules, Policies, Procedures (unreasonable/illogical)

Work with your front-line team members to identify the policies, rules, and procedures in your
workplace, which either negatively impact morale orare unnecessary obstacles, getting in the
way of your product or service being delivered to your customer cheaper, quicker and of higher
quality
Toss out those that are irrational and don't support the business to achieve its goals.
If its unnecessary, remove it.
Step 3. Develop the Guiding Principles
As you develop your guiding principles keep these guidelines in mind:

- Your guiding principles spring from your Values

- Involve team members in developing the principles
- The principles need to be consistent with the Vision
- Be consistent with the experience the organization wants to deliver to its customers
- Ensure the principle doesn't outline the exact "how to do", but does emphasize what is
essential to the business
- For each value create a statement that completes the statement
People are technically competent when they:
Use their training with accuracy, care and attention to detail
Learn and implement skills
Participate in multi-skilling
Are empowered to take decisions in technical areas
Are highly trained and kept informed on technical developments

Step 4. Apply the Principles

Your principles and values must align behavior and drive performance.

To make them real, leaders must:

• talk about them

• explain them

• defend them constantly, publicly, and consistently

If they can't they should either change the principles or leave the organization.

Use the questions above, as you make similar type decisions in your business, to give yourself a
much better chance of making design choices, that will lead to the long-term health and agility of
your business.
Dimensional Foundations of Business

Business Notion from the Philosophers

Socrates: dare to disagree

Socrates, one of the first philosophers, insisted on our right to think for ourselves. Too often, he
warned, humans sleepwalk through life, simply going along with the crowd.
This is dangerous in questions of morality, and particularly in corporate governance. When
corruption is uncovered, too often people say "everyone else was doing it". But our characters
are our responsibility. Socrates was prepared to die rather than go against his conscience. Does
your organisation encourage independent thinkers, and people who follow their conscience?
Does it allow people to give critical feedback to managers? Does it create opportunities for good
people to blow the whistle on bad behaviour?

Aristotle: let people seek fulfillment

Aristotle was a great biologist as well as a great philosopher. He based his ethics on a
psychological theory of human nature, insisting that we are naturally virtuous, rational, social and
happiness-seeking. Governments and organisations need to build the best systems to let humans
fulfill their natural drives.
Aristotle's philosophy was an influence on Edward Deci and Richard Ryan's Self-Determination
Theory, which suggests that employees will work harder for you, and perform better, if you give
them tasks they find meaningful and morally worthwhile.

Humans want to believe in something and to serve it. Appeal to your employees' best nature and
they will answer that call.

Your employees will also be more motivated if you give them the opportunity to feed their
natural curiosity through learning opportunities. That could be vocational training, but it could
also simply be learning about the world, ideas, culture. Does your company have an evening or
lunch-time lecture series, such as Google Talks? Could it give credits for evening adult learning
classes, as companies such as Cadbury and Ford once did?

Plutarch: be a good role model

Plutarch, the ancient Greek historian and educator, understood that humans are incredibly social
creatures, who constantly observe the people around them and imitate them.

Unfortunately, people often grow up surrounded by bad role models. However, we can steer
people, by providing them with better patterns to imitate. That's what Plutarch tried to do with
his famous work, Parallel Lives, which offered biographical sketches of some of the great Greek
and Roman heroes – Cicero, Caesar, Alexander the Great, Pericles – to give young people
something to emulate.

In organisational terms, that means what you say to your employees is less important than what
you do. They will watch how you behave, how you treat others, how you cope with pressure and
whether you follow through on your promises. And they will imitate you. If you talk about ethics
and then cut corners at the first opportunity, they will follow your lead.

Set a good example and they will follow it. Plutarch would also warn that your best young
employees will use you as a bar to aim for and exceed. That's natural. Let them compete with
you and encourage them to go further.

Epictetus: build a resilient mind-set

Epictetus grew up a slave in Rome, and then became a Stoic philosopher. Both of these positions
were incredibly precarious – slaves could be abused or killed by their owners, while Stoic
philosophers were constantly falling foul of the imperial authorities (Epictetus himself was
eventually exiled). Epictetus coped with this insecurity by constantly reminding himself what he
could control and what he couldn't. We can control our thoughts, beliefs and attitudes, but
everything else is to some extent out of our control – other people's perceptions and behaviour,
the economy, the weather, the future and the past. If you focus on what is beyond your control,
and obsess over it, you will end up feeling helpless. Focus on what you can control, and you will
feel a measure of autonomy even in chaotic situations.

This insight is now part of the US Army's $125m resilience training course, which teaches soldiers
the Stoic lesson that, even in adverse situations, we always have some choice how we react. We
can learn this resilient thinking, and it will make our organisation and employees more capable of
reacting to crises. The environment may be worsening, the economy may be double-dipping.
Focus on doing what you can, on the practical steps you can take to improve the situation.

Rufus: keep track of your ethical progress

Musonius Rufus was known as the Socrates of Rome. He was another Stoic, who taught that
philosophy cannot just be theoretical. If you want to be an ethical individual or an ethical
company, you can't just study ethics, you have to practise it, every day, to get into good habits.
The ancient Greek word for ethics is actually the same word for habit.

You also need to keep track of your progress, to see how you're doing. You can't just rely on
your intuitions, because they're often wrong. So the ancient Greeks learned to keep accounts of
themselves. They would track their daily behaviour in journals, keeping account of how many
times they lost their temper, for example, or got too drunk. Then they could see if they were
really improving their behaviour, or just going round in circles.

In organisational terms, keeping track of ourselves means trying to take an evidence-based

assessment of our performance. We might say we're a green company, but how do we know if
we're making progress? We might say we're a eudaimonic organisation, but how do we know?
We can keep track of this, for example by asking our employees (anonymously) how worthwhile
they feel their job is. Then see if, in a year, we have managed to enhance their sense of
purpose.