We have an approach that relates economics to human values.
Tomorrow’s economics must answer the questions: “How do we relate the way we run a business to results? What are results?” The traditional answer—“the bottom line”—is treacherous. Under a bottom-line philosophy, we cannot relate the short run to the long term, and yet the balance between the two is a crucial test of management.
The beacons of productivity and innovation must be our guideposts. If we achieve profits at the cost of downgrading productivity or not innovating, they aren’t profits. We’re destroying capital. On the other hand, if we continue to improve productivity of all key resources and improve our innovative standing, we are going to be profitable. Not only today, but tomorrow. In looking at knowledge applied to human work as the source of wealth, we also see the function of the economic organization. For the first time we have an approach that makes economics a human discipline and relates it to human values, a theory that gives a businessperson a yardstick to measure whether she’s still moving in the right direction and whether her results are real or delusions. We are on the threshold of posteconomic theory, grounded in what we know and understand about the generation of wealth.
ACTION POINT: Measure or assess your organization’s performance on the two economic guideposts—productivity and innovation.
The Ecological Vision
* Source: The Daily Drucker by Peter F. Drucker