RISE, A Modern Guide for the Purpose Driven Woman Summer 2014 | Page 9

The Key To Business Success
What My Professors Didn’t Tell Me In Business School
Written by Anne Riley

I have been involved in the business
world for over 30 years. Once I received my accounting degree, I began
a most unusual career. Trying to find
balance between family and professional life, I found myself working in
all kinds of organizations: big businesses and small ones, privately held
partnerships and publicly held corporations, successful organizations, and
some less so. Along the way, I picked
up an MBA, mostly to add to my
experience base, but also as a way to
stay home while my kids were little,
while giving off the appearance of being a professional.

I heard the message. I get it. And after
all these years in business, I would
like to finally respond to this sentiment.

There is an old saying in business that
bad money drives out good. It’s true. I
believe overemphasis on profit drives
out good business practice.

Bull pucky.

One concept that was drilled into
me from the very beginning of my
formal education and in one form or
another during my professional life,
was the concept that profit was king.
“Businesses are in business to make
a profit,” I was told. “Your job is to
maximize stock price,” was the mantra I heard too many times to count.

Now before, you start calling me a
socialist, left leaning communist, who
drinks vegan soy lattes infused with
elitist flavoring, hear me out. Profit is
not bad. Obviously, a company cannot stay in business unless it earns a
profit. Reasonable emphasis on profi