Baruch’s Quote: From a Business Perspective

While deliberating on human behavior, Bernard Baruch once said During my eighty-seven years I have witnessed a whole succession of technological revolutions. But none of them has done away with the need for character in the individual or the ability to think. Indeed, there has never been any scientific or technological innovation that seeks to improve our way of thinking, and straighten our defiant character. Perhaps the wrong starting point is to think that technology is the answer to every difficulty, yet it is not (Kirby, Kirby, and Lyon 6-15).

Good ethics and morals of any individual or organization are the necessary ingredients to business success. This is where technology stops. Irrespective of the much efforts put installing machines to increase an organization’s operational efficiency, an organization may collapse or realize huge losses arising from overt or covert negative traits and prejudices by her personnel. Greed and corruption has for instance resulted to the arrest and jailing of top company executives due to mismanagement of funds. A case in point is Arthur Andresen’s accounting scandals. He was mired in the scams in late 90s. Other top executives were put behind bars upon embracing Andresen’s footsteps (Kirby, Kirby, and Lyon 6-15).

It is vital for an organization to create a good public image. Their managers and executives should treat subordinate employees respectably. In so doing, their workers will have a reason to improve their performance, as their morale will have been boosted. Also, having a sense of empathy to the society is good for the wellbeing of both an organization and her various publics. To this effect, businesses should not only exist for profit, but also engage in helping the needy in the community. That is a healthy undertaking that shifts the public perception of it from being greedy to having empathy (Kirby, Kirby, and Lyon 6-15).

Finally, what Baruch had in mind was that a free market economy was the answer, not government regulations or technology. In a free market economy, space is ed for checks and balance leading to improvements of the business world. A free market results to increased transparency and accountability, resulting to heightened service delivery from sellers. Ultimately, exploitations from big corporations are done away with (Kirby, Kirby, and Lyon 6-15). Thus character and morality overpowers the benefits of technological revolutions that the globe has witnessed in recent times.

Works Cited

Kirby, Kirby, and Lyon. A Framework for Analyzing the Financial Crisis: Lessons from The

Smartest Guys in the Room. Journal of Strategic Management Education7 (2011): 5-18.

6 Oct. 2012 < http://www.proquest.com>.