The Right Focus for Your Company

These days, there are dozens of books and articles on “something-focused organization”. Which is quite amazing, as this “something” can be only one thing – the fundamental objective of an organization. Unfortunately, authors of these books and articles advise their readers to focus on anything but this fundamental objective.

For example, Kaplan and Norton preach the concept of a “strategy-focused organization”. Which requires business owners and managers to focus on the method (means for achieving the objective) rather than the objective itself (maximizing aggregate or at least financial value of the company).

The concept of a “customer-focused organization” is only marginally better, because (1) it is too vague as it does not specify that the organization in question must focus on satisfying the aggregate needs of its customers (financial, functional, emotional and spiritual) and (2) it completely ignores the need for an organization to satisfy the aggregate needs of other company stakeholders – owners, suppliers, government entities, mass media, “special interest groups” – often with devastating results for the company in question.

Therefore, the only healthy focus of an organization is its focus on the natural fundamental management objective – corporate happiness or aggregate value maximization (which is essentially the same thing) or at least, on its stakeholders (more precisely, on satisfying the aggregate needs of its stakeholders).

Therefore, there are only three healthy ways to define an organization in terms of its focus: a “happiness-focused organization”; an “aggregate value-focused organization” or at least a “stakeholder-focused organization”.