I had a meeting yesterday, and something very interesting came about from that conversation. It was actually about a viewpoint as to what may be more important, an individual or the corporation? For those of you who may not know exactly what a corporation is, I’ll provide the formal definition, taken from my good friend Webster (that’s Webster’s Dictionary ;) )
Corporation:
A legal entity, other than a natural person which often has similar rights in law as
a person.
Individual:
1. A human being
2. A single organism
Why would this come up you may ask? Well, given that we all work or contribute in some way or another to a corporation (as I am assuming we all work somewhere) what importance do you feel should come first? Yourself or the company? Should your personal viewpoints and personal feelings stand in the way of what is best for the company? Sure, your opinion will probably be based on your role you play within that organization, but to what extent will you place on the importance of oneself verses the corporation? You may ask yourself what will happen if I put myself first over the company? Or, what has the company done for me? If you set aside your personal insecurities and feelings, would the company go further and expand and become a larger entity, thus affecting the world in a more positive shape or form.
I’ll give you an example. Most PC users do not like Windows, and complain about how unstable it is and this and that, and I’m sure Bill Gates hears of this all the time (I mean, when that pop up comes up and asks you if you would like to report this error to Microsoft, where do you think it goes? Jokes). But if Mr. Gates decided to take these criticisms personally, and get rid of all his top designers and developers because they created something that is “unstable” where would we be? Would the PC have been able to become a staple tool in our daily lives? I mean, who the heck could use MS Dos before (command prompt this and that…I couldn’t load my favorite game, hang man without screwing up)? But now Windows…whoa….that made everyone’s lives way easier when navigating a computer. I mean, who can’t “point-and-click” (aside from my dad…he just can’t get the hang of double clicking and keeping the pointer arrow on that icon….but he can sure carve out a toy sword from a piece of 2x4 without cutting himself…see dad…you’re still the best!) and voila!....the application is open and ready to go!
This example is extreme, but do you see how an individual can really effect a corporation which is legally, a separate entity as well, just like an individual is, the difference I see is that the entity of a corporation serves a much larger whole than just an individual. So, I ask again, who is more important, the individual or the corporation? What do you think?
Owen
Business Editor