Business Is First Of All About People

In my previous entry here I wrote that "business is first of all about people: the people who work for the business and then those who receive the product or service." When I typed that line I did not think it the least bit controversial. But Victor Skowronski responded by saying "[I] disagree with business being first about people. Business is all about fulfilling the needs/wants of customers. Business fulfills these needs using both people and process. It was Henry Ford's assembly line, a process, that allowed the middle class to own a car. The process did this by making individual workers more efficient."

Yes, business fulfills needs of customers. Yes, business "uses" people as well as process. But business is only an exchange arangement of work for money. And for this arrangement to be effective there must be demand for the products of the work. But man will work whether or not an exchange arrangement of work for money is needed.

Poking through the articles entries here at developer.* I found Ten Reasons You're a Software Developer by Donna L. Davis. What do the reasons boil down to? We are software developers because we want to be be software developers. We love it. This is the work we would do even if the money were bad (as sometimes it may be). This is the work we would do if there were no "customers" other than ourselves (as sometimes we do in spare time).

We work because we were made to work. It is at the heart of being human. And in order for a business to be human it must be focussed first of all on its people. Mr. Skowronski agrees with me that business is about people, at least, by saying that "business is all about fulfilling the needs/wants of customers." But how, as a manager of a code shop, can I care about my customer and his needs if I am not first taking care of the guys in my office?