Prioritizing Profit Over People

News reports have exposed some companies that place profit above proper treatment of people. How challenging is it for businesses to be their brother’s keeper while also trying to maximize quarterly profits?

A purely profit-motivated business owner will probably identify with the following model of success:

1.      Find an in-demand skill or product.

2.      Sell the skill or product for as much as customers are willing to pay, regardless of its inherent value (garage sale and yard sale veterans are very familiar with this).

3.      Advertise the product to the public and make changes in pricing due to public reaction.

How many other business owners, on the other hand, are motivated by the following?

1.      Make sure the product is honestly advertised in all aspects.

2.      Make sure the product does not take advantage of destructive or unsafe weaknesses in others.

The two styles can be hard to combine. Many businesses, defending their products, such as alcohol or junk food, make a strong case that people should have the right to pick what and how much they eat or drink. The consumer has a personal role in the process. It is the consumer’s responsibility to inspect products and decide whether (and if so, how much) to purchase based on wisdom.

However, what happens when products and services are geared more toward profit and less toward love of others? In today’s depressed economy, this can be a tempting way to do business.

Selling soda

In a recent piece on soda’s part in the rampant obesity seen in America, the author details a study that, to no one’s great surprise, identifies high sugar content as unhealthy. In the article, the vice president and chief scientific regulatory officer of one major soft drink company stated, “Our products are part of a balanced, sensible diet, and they can be enjoyed as a valuable part of any meal, including snacks.”

Part of a balanced, sensible diet? Valuable part of any meal? Statements such as these make many wonder if profit is being placed before logic.

The article revealed that one 20-ounce regular soda contains 227 calories and that about 25 percent of Americans drink at least 200 calories from sugar-filled beverages a day. Since that amount is around 10 percent of total calories for healthy weight maintenance (for adult females), that means 10 percent of what the official called a “balanced, sensible diet” seems to be pure sugar.

Even drinks with low-calorie artificial sweeteners have been consistently linked to obesity.

The profit-first approach says, “Make our product part of your daily diet. It’s valuable.” (Buy more of it.)

The concern-for-others-first approach says, “Enjoy our product occasionally as a treat. It’s unhealthy to have regularly.” (Buy less.)

Selling rehab

Fortune recently wrote about a particular health-related company that is involved with addiction treatment centers, or “rehab.”

The CEO points out that the size of his group—with over 150 sales representatives versus their competitors’ 10 to 20 reps—could help out more addicts. The Fortune article suggests that this company actually makes rehab a lucrative business (a monthlong stay costs about $30,000 per person).

However, the article continues by highlighting alleged profit-over-quality issues: using a cookie-cutter approach to patients, “an assembly line of recovery,” and sacrificing care for revenue/profit. Penalties such as fines and lawsuits have been launched in an attempt to have the situation rectified.

Trying to grow a business out of the need for rehab—a service in which the goal is to help someone stop using the service (break free from addiction)—may not be successful in the long-term. That is, unless the goal becomes less about breaking free from addiction and more about making money.

The profit-first approach says, “We want our care to be available to and needed by more and more people.” Goal: Gain customers.

The concern-for-others approach says, “We want rehabilitation to work and benefit our customers.” Goal: Lose customers.

Well-being or profit?

God makes it clear through the Bible that we should take the well-being of others into consideration in business and private life. In Philippians 2:3, the apostle Paul states, “Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself.”

Of course, each person individually makes the choice to overindulge in types of food or drink, or get involved with drugs—but that doesn’t mean that God ever intended other people to take advantage of those weaknesses for profit.

Proverbs 13:11 says, “Wealth gained by dishonesty will be diminished, but he who gathers by labor will increase.” This reveals that we also make the choice to conduct business by honest labor or by dishonesty.

There are some business executives who are responsible and actually care about the customers they are servicing. Imagine if all people were to actually care about the well-being of others in every respect.

Will that ever happen? According to the Bible, yes. It’s called the Kingdom of God. For more information about this wonderful time and how it will come, see our booklet The Mystery of the Kingdom.

Eddie Foster, a school speech-language pathologist, and his wife are members in the Cincinnati/Dayton, Ohio, congregation of the Church of God, a Worldwide Association.