Business Owners Provide Leadership

There's considerable media coverage about Wall Street and "Corporate Greed," which makes you wonder who's fomenting the unrest in our country, where free enterprise has been the backbone of our economy since the country's inception. It's why America revolted from England.

What the average citizen may fail to realize is that business owners are people who want to help other citizens by providing goods or services to meet their needs. In the process, they create jobs and generate payrolls so employees can provide for their families. Part of the economic process means the business must make money to stay in business; failure to do so means closure and loss of jobs.

So it's also important to understand that business owners have obligations to their customers and their employees. The new CEO of a fast food franchise recently laid out his formula for success (our interpretation in parentheses):

• Have a vision (the reason for your existence)
• Have a strategy (which means a well-defined business plan)
• Define reality (know your consumer and your place in the market)
• Give hope (build customer loyalty and take care of your employees)
• Execute (the action plan that marries business and marketing strategies).