The significance of a business organization — each and every societal institution for that matter — lies in the fact that it influences the lives of people and the progress of humankind; if it did not, then there would be little need to be concerned for its failure. Our system of orientation integrates the conduct of business with the development of the individual and the progress of society. We advance viewing the organization as a human activity system—a very important subsystem of humankind—that is deeply interconnected to all other living systems. Accordingly, we promote practices that treat people as subjects, to be honored and enabled, and not as objects to be manipulated and exploited.
We subscribe to the view that the unit of survival is not the organization, but rather it is the organization plus its larger energy providing systems. Correspondingly, we teach principles and practices that could help people manage an organization for (long term) viability and not merely for (short term) profit. In other words, we do not advance practices that would be detrimental to progress.
Accordingly, we believe that an organization will remain viable if and only if it is able to develop and sustain profoundly productive relationships with people (a.k.a. employees, customers, suppliers) and other living systems in nature with which it is so deeply interdependent. We believe that if the organization can’t sustain viability, then it is destined to dis-integrate, making progress impossible.
