In an increasingly competitive marketplace, can a business that
puts principle above profit still survive? Actually, a growing
number of entrepreneurial companies are bucking the philosophy that
money makes the world go 'round.
"It's obvious that a lot of people choose profits over
principle," says Albert A. Anderson, professor of philosophy
and business ethics at Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts.
"But a number of people are [succeeding and] still managing to
stand on their principles."
When Bob Stein co-founded The Voyager Co., a multimedia
publisher in Manhattan, he made a commitment to publish quality
titles. "I wanted to publish things of import to this
society," explains Stein.
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With titles on subjects such as Beethoven's Ninth Symphony
and an alternative look at American history, the 11-year-old
Voyager Co. has built a reputation in the industry for a
painstaking emphasis on quality. "Let's put it this
way," Stein says, "we have a lot of respect for our
audience."
By comparison, Stein seems to have placed much less significance
on profits. "Our goal has always been to break even," he
says. "Making a lot of money at this point in multimedia
doesn't seem possible, so we never tried to go for
it."
Stein is not oblivious to the fact that others are going for
it-and that competition in that multimedia industry is getting
tougher. "There are more players now playing for higher
stakes," he acknowledges. "Sure, we take that into
account. We don't operate as an island."
Yet Stein is, in a certain sense, removed from the contingent of
businesspeople perceived as money-driven. "Entrepreneurs
already have the mind-set that separates them from a person who
readily submits," says Anderson. "What characterizes an
entrepreneur more than a strong will, strong mind, strong
principles? You just don't start a business if you're
easily cowed by other people's values."
While Voyager's top sellers haven't brought in nearly
the revenue of other companies' hit CD-ROM games, Stein has
resisted the temptation to simply go for the gold. "I
don't see us changing our game plan tomorrow and trying to be
just another game publisher," he says. "We probably
wouldn't be successful if we did that anyway."
Even those Voyager ventures that could be interpreted as a move
toward the mainstream have held some higher purpose. Stein says he
took on a 20-year retrospective of People magazine because
he "wanted the opportunity to work with important cultural
icons and to present them in a way that revealed
something."
And Voyager's decision to move from Macintosh into PC
formats involved no grand scheme to grow huge, but, says Stein,
"was done more for the purpose of satisfying a customer base
and market share. It involved keeping the company at a break-even
point." Not exactly the goals of your typical
bottom-line-driven company.
But is it possible to have the best of both worlds-to combine
profits with principles? Perhaps, although some level of compromise
often accompanies business objectives. "You have to decide
which is more important, then you do your best to survive,"
says Stein. "But if you decide principles are more important
than profits, there's a price to pay-and you have to be willing
to pay it."
And is Stein willing to pay? "We have been so far," he
says. "And we've been very lucky."
Meanwhile, for a select few who make their morals a priority,
there's a sliver of a chance not just to survive, but to
thrive. "If you look at the entrepreneurs we honor for being
outstanding in their fields, their notion of quality, of making a
difference, is extremely important," says Anderson.
"These are people who don't want to make it if they
can't hold on to their principles."
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