Ethonomics is a word that will that spread, so don’t be freaked out by it. Most recently used by Fast Company magazine to mean a hybrid of technology, design, and social responsibility that is about ethics in the marketplace.
Progressively the concept of the triple bottom line will become the quadruple bottom line – in my opinion. The fourth element will be about ethics, or the state of being. If the motivation for dealing with profits, people and the planet does not come from the heart, then the purpose of the business will be off the mark. John Ehrenfeld continually reminds us about the vital importance of the three primary areas of caring:
- The human, or caring for oneself
- The natural, or caring for the world
- The ethical, or caring for others.
Not that he starts off with ‘me’, for if your inner values are unclear, an approach to the other areas will be equivocal. Many major corporations are claiming concern for the triple bottom line, but they have simply jumped on the bandwagon and are happy to discover that they can make more money that way.
In the world of entrepreneurship, it is much more difficult to hide real motivations. No corporate smokescreens exist. Transparency goes with small business, except in very few malevolent cases, or among fraudsters. The entrepreneur necessarily runs a ‘personal’ business and has to deal with his own demons or he is likely to trip himself up in his business relationships.
Ten interesting game changers are profiled in the latest issue of Fast Company: take a look!