Asianet Pakistan Private Limited

Behind every business figure is a person: an employee behind every payroll entry, a customer behind every sale, a supplier behind every purchase order, a family behind every salary, and a community behind every physical location. Business, then, is never solely a matter of transactions; it is equally a matter of relationships. The People dimension of the Triple Bottom Line requires businesses to consider the human consequences of their decisions.

How are employees treated? Are customers respected? Are suppliers dealt with fairly? Does the business create opportunity for its community? A company may achieve excellent financial results and still fail its people.

Employees Are Not Merely Costs

One of the most common errors in business is to regard employees purely as expenses.

Wages, benefits and training may appear as costs on financial statements, but people are not simply line items to be minimised. They are the individuals who make the business possible.

A well functioning organisation cultivates an environment in which employees can learn, contribute and grow. Fair compensation is essential, as are respect, recognition, safety and professional development. When people feel valued, they are more inclined to take ownership of their work. When they feel overlooked or exploited, even a financially successful organisation can develop serious underlying problems.

Responsible entrepreneurship therefore places human dignity at its centre. A business that invests in its people is investing in knowledge, loyalty, creativity and continuity.

Customers Matter Too

The People bottom line also encompasses customers. Businesses exist because someone has a problem that requires solving.

Responsible businesses do not regard customers merely as sources of revenue. They listen to feedback, respond to complaints, safeguard customer information and deliver products and services of value. Customer trust is among the strongest forms of social capital a business can possess. A company that consistently treats customers with honesty may build a community around its brand rather than simply a database of buyers. Trust encourages loyalty, referrals and long term relationships.

Suppliers and the Wider Business Community

Social responsibility extends into the supply chain. A business may appear responsible while its suppliers operate under unfair conditions, which is why companies increasingly need to examine the origin of their materials and the treatment of workers throughout their supply chains.

Fair dealing with suppliers matters. Paying agreed prices on time and communicating clearly can strengthen relationships and help smaller businesses remain sustainable.

Ben and Jerry’s offers an instructive example through its philosophy of linked prosperity, which recognises that business success is connected to the wellbeing of people throughout the value chain, including suppliers, employees and communities. The lesson is straightforward: a business cannot separate its success from the people who help create it.

Business as a Platform for Opportunity

Entrepreneurship can be among the most powerful instruments of social development.

A business can create jobs, provide internships, train young people, mentor emerging entrepreneurs and give suppliers access to new markets.

A small enterprise may begin with a single founder, yet its impact can expand through the people it trains and employs. An apprentice may establish another business; an intern may build a career. In this way, opportunity forms a chain beyond the enterprise.

Entrepreneurs can become builders of human capacity. When they share knowledge and create pathways for others, they multiply the value of their original idea.

The Social Meaning of Growth

Growth should not be measured by revenue and market share alone. A fuller assessment asks: How many people have been employed?

How many have been trained? How many careers have been shaped? How many suppliers have grown through their association with the business? How many customers have genuinely benefited from what it provides?

These questions point to a different, more complete definition of success: one in which the most meaningful businesses leave people better off than they found them.

Social impact does not always require a large corporation. A small business that creates decent employment, trains young people and serves customers honestly can make a substantial contribution.

Leadership and Human Responsibility

The People bottom line also places responsibility on leadership. Leaders establish culture through the standards they tolerate, the behaviour they reward and their difficult decisions.

A leader who values people creates room for dialogue, accountability and participation. It means recognising that people deserve to be heard, treated fairly and given an opportunity to contribute.

In difficult economic periods, cost reduction may be necessary, but responsible leaders should consider consequences and protect human dignity.

Profit, People and Posterity

The connection between People and posterity is especially important. The employees trained today, the customers served with integrity, the suppliers supported fairly and the young entrepreneurs mentored may become part of tomorrow’s economic foundation.

An entrepreneur therefore leaves behind more than assets. They may leave skills, employment, relationships and examples of responsible leadership.

This reflects the ThinkUP philosophy of three generations: idea generation creates possibilities, profit generation creates prosperity, and posterity asks what that prosperity makes possible for the next generation. People are the bridge connecting all three.

Conclusion

The People bottom line reminds entrepreneurs that businesses are human institutions.

Profit keeps a company viable, but people give the organisation its purpose, energy and meaning. Employees, customers, suppliers and communities are not obstacles standing between an entrepreneur and profit; they are integral to the ecosystem through which prosperity is created.

When an entrepreneur invests in people, the return may not appear immediately on a balance sheet. It may emerge years later in the form of skills, relationships, trust, new enterprises and changed lives: prosperity with a human face.

A business becomes valuable when its success can be measured not only by what it accumulates, but by what it contributes. Strong entrepreneurs understand that people are beneficiaries of business success; they are participants in creating it.

‘A business that makes nothing but money is a poor business.’

A few days ago, the Lagos State Police Command reportedly apprehended a male suspect who allegedly attempted to steal a luxury Toyota Tundra. He drove in a reckless manner, injuring a number of people and damaging some vehicles. The incident occurred along the Lekki corridor in the state. The sordid narrative was that the suspect visited a motor dealership, feigning interest in buying the car. He requested a test-drive and he was obliged. That was when he reportedly ran berserk, driving the car on high speed and hitting people and vehicles along the way. Judging by the number of vehicles reportedly hit by the reckless driver, the scope of the damage inflicted and the maiming associated with the bizarre incident, it is either the suspect is not a good driver or he has problems with his mental health, or both. It is inconceivable that anyone in his right senses or who has basic training in driving would drive so recklessly on the ever busy Lagos road with a view to stealing a car he was test-driving. This is beyond comprehension and it would not be out of place to surmise that the suspect was mentally unstable or on drugs. And indeed the Lagos State Police Command has reportedly confirmed that the reckless driver has a psychiatric issue.

Even at that, perhaps the tragedy could have been averted if the motor dealer had carried out due diligence in the discharge of the duties associated with car sales, especially with respect to test-driving by an unknown potential buyer. For instance, why didn’t the auto dealer install tracking and demobilisation features in his vehicles in order to make it difficult for a car thief to steal his merchandise under the guise of test-driving? Again, why would motor dealers assume that every potential buyer knows how to drive? What stops auto sellers from requesting the valid driver’s licence of potential buyers who wish to test drive their vehicles and accompany them on the test drive, with routes mapped out securely? Interestingly, a man in the wake of this incident was reported to have complained that he had test-driven many vehicles and not once did the dealers ask him if he could drive. Auto dealers must do better. This is one reason insurers are always reluctant to pay claims in the event of adversarial occurrence because the insured/claimants are seen not to have exercised the duty of care that could have obviated losses.

The incident under reference is a very scary one; a mentally unstable person driving a stolen car recklessly, causing commotion, panic, hitting and damaging other motorists vehicles, and injuring many road users. Lagos roads are ordinarily very busy, especially at the peak hours in the mornings and evenings. Thus, having a reckless and suspected thief attempting to get away with a stolen car on one of such busy roads could only have resulted in a catastrophe. Who can imagine being on the road with a reckless criminal after stealing a vehicle on a road?

We commend the police on the prompt arrest of the reckless driver/suspected thief. The matter should be thoroughly investigated to determine not just the attempted larceny but also probable culpable negligence on the part of the auto seller. The callousness, brazenness and the scope of damage caused by the potential auto buyer turned suspected thief are so huge that those who could have nipped the disaster in the bud but failed to do so deserve to be held to account. The suspect, too, should be made to go through a mental reevaluation, to determine the reason for his crazy adventure, especially in light of the auto dealer’s query of the police claim that the suspected thief is a mentally challenged. Apparently, the mental state of the suspect impaired his sense of reasoning. However, the auto seller who, in the circumstances, may have to bear the consequences of the damages caused by the suspect deserves to be assured that the suspect has been truly confirmed as a psychiatric case, and that the claim is not just a ploy or contrivance to let him off the hook.

The family of the suspect may have to compensate the victims. They have a responsibility to ensure that their mentally sick relation is confined to a rehabilitation home, and not let loose to inconvenience or injure other people and damage their property. Meanwhile, the auto dealer who was probably so absorbed by the potential profit to be made from the car sale that he threw caution to the wind and failed to institute or implement a commonsense mechanism that could have ensured that his car, the potential profit from sale and the lives and property of other people were not put in jeopardy, may have to bear his loss. It was a terrible case of carelessness and negligence.