By Atty. Antonio P. Pekas
It should aim to survive for a long time, for generations, making money for its owners, employment for those involved in its operations and contributing some social service to the community.
Whenever we hear the word business, it is about making money. It is about that and a lot more.
In the first place, it was put up to make money for its owners. But not in a fly by night manner. It should survive for a long time. For that to happen, it should acquire a life of its own, independent from those of its owners. That can only happen if it is able to create a clientele who will go back again and again to buy its products.
For that to take place, it should be breathing innovation all the time to adapt to the changing times. Dynamism is an integral part of this. Otherwise, it will become a dinosaur, belonging to the past. It would be tantamount to calcifying and relying only on whatever past goodwill the pioneers have engendered. Then it will die.
How to assure this? We are good at it, in coming up with visions and missions of high-sounding words fit for the centuries. Too bad, most of such last only for a few years or decades.
A rule of thumb for its owners to keep reminding themselves about it is the answer to the question, is it worth passing on to one’s heirs.
If not, then better close it down. Life is so short to waste on something only for the sake of money.
We are not talking here of just maintaining things only for the sake of posterity. It should come with contentment, of being able to say in the end, it was worth living for. And for succeeding generations to be able to say the same.
Some people have the capacity to make a lot of money from just one deal or two. Then the business dies and disappears. That is not the kind we are fostering, quite the opposite. Not the get-rich-quick kind. The type one lovingly nurtures for years before it even hits break even point.
By nature, such develops deep roots and creates loyalty among those it serves. It thinks about profits with a great sense of reasonability. For that is the secret of longevity.
Any whiff of opportunism will be long remembered by its customers and down the road will always be recalled as reason to shun the establishment. It will long fester and pile up to become its own kiss of death.
The key word to avoid falling into such a trap is patience to be satisfied with low returns as long as it will contribute to making the firm last longer, or to develop more reach even if in small increments.
For those that grow fast don’t last long. They are usually short-lived emitting only flashes on the frying pan.
It should be like something that simmers for quite sometime, with the flavors of other ingredients slowly adding up to a long lasting taste, hardly forgotten, worth going back to again and again, for a very long time.**
