Seoul, September 2011:
FIVE U.S. GOLDEN RULES FOR BUSINESS:
Do unto others as you would have them do onto you. The United States is grounded in a strong Judeo-Christian belief of doing right and to treat people with consideration and respect. So to in business, the American is often heard as saying the customer is King and I will honor my commitments. When James Cash Penney invested USD 2,000 in a Western General Store in Wyoming, he named his company “The Golden Rule Store.” Treating the customer with respect and knowing the customer led to one of the largest retail empires in the United States where JC Penney directly competed against Sears and FW Woolworth.
If don’t first succeed - try and try again: In the United States the stigma of failure is not as extreme as it is in Europe. To fail means that a concept was not workable, the times were not right, or rejection occurred before one realized how close one truly was to success. The great American inventor Thomas Edison brought this philosophy forward when he said quote I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward or equally famous, I have not failed, I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work end quote. The spirit of trying and not giving up is the hallmark of American business. Even in Germany, the multinational company AEG was founded from the original Deutsche Edison Gesellschaft (DEG), where German industry was based on licensed technology imports from Edison.
Business is a Win-Win Situation: The American business person believes that the conducting of business means that all parties could profit. If everyone “wins”, then the relationship moves beyond business, but to friendship. The axiom also equates to more business activity and the opening of doors to more business opportunity and to more business individuals - which leads to even more business. Having a “win-win” situation also leads to greater creativity and to the assumption that if everyone benefits, then there is less chance of lies or half-truths appearing in a contract. For the business-customer relationship this means respect the customer, satisfy the customer, and honor your commitments and your contracts. It is often said that your reputation is as good as your word. This concept appears in outsourcing, leveraging, licensing, franchising and other forms of modern business activity.
Time is Money: This is an old saying initially made by the American statesman, inventor, philosopher, and writer Ben Franklin. Think of efficiency and what value you bring to the business. It is this philosophy that brings the question related to outsourcing, adding workers to your business, or doing more internal activities to the organization. This concept is also critical as to how much time you spend on communication, whether it is by telephone, e-mail, or at a meeting. Strict meeting protocols that are timed and structured, appointments clearly set and rigid are hallmarks of this philosophy. Above all, it is important to remember that resources can be seen as potentially unlimited, a business person can always dream that there is no limit to how much money you can make (there can always be that person who can make more money than Bill Gates or Warren Buffet), no limit to how many customers you can have, or number of employees, or locations, or products. In that regard, there is still the limit of time and there are only 24 hours in a day and 52 weeks in a year. Americans have a saying of you live to work. Therefore, family, friends, and community service is as much a part of life as work. Time is money is a very broad concept in America and one that is modified in meaning to each and every person.
Greed is Good: In the 1987 Oliver Stone directed film Wall Street, Oscar-winning Michael Douglas playing the role of corporate raider Gordon Gekko remarked quote Greed, for a lack of a better word, is good end quote. The creation of wealth in a business is a sign of success in America, however, there are rules of behavior to follow. It is often thought that wealth and profit leads to reinvestment and to make things even better. For this reason, many companies in the United States espouse the philosophy of charity and quote giving something back to the community end quote. The creation of foundations for social work or employees volunteering for community service is a hallmark of this philosophy. The United States values success and profit, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the U.S. corporate response to donating mosquito nets and anti-malaria drugs to save tens of thousands from malaria and disease in Africa are just two examples.