New Century, New Rules

For several years now my books, this blog, and my career have all been dedicated to teaching a few powerful-yet-simple interwoven themes:

1. Doing the right thing pays. In other words, Enlightened Self-Interest.

2. Profits stem from five-star customer service. That level of service is only possible with company-wide a culture of service, which can only happen if leadership gets it and fosters such an environment. Thus my Three Legs Principle, like the three legs necessary to support a stool: Leadership + Culture + Customer Service = Profits.

3. Key to the success of any organization is employee love of that organization. (Yes love, not satisfaction. No one ever moved earth and sky because they were merely satisfied.) So if you run a business and your employees would rather work somewhere else... guess what?

(a) The employees you have aren't going to give you their all; they'll likely only give you the bare minimum to keep from getting fired...

(b) You may - may - attract some talent, but that won't be easy and it won't be the norm, and...

(c) You're going to lose your top talent to better offers - more engaging, inspiring employers - like an ax wound hemorrhages blood, until your organization perishes.

As I said, these are three aspects of the same theme.

There's something deeper going on, though, and I have to admit I didn't fully appreciate it myself until quite recently:

These principles aren't merely important; they don't "just" give companies a competitive advantage. I now realize they're part of a historical trend that is as inescapable to how business is done in the Twenty-First Century as electricity and the assembly line were to the Twentieth.

Trends don't announce themselves: they sneak up on us, often as an entertaining diversion, until the novel becomes ubiquitous and we have trouble even remembering the old ways. Social media is the novelty of the early Twenty-First Century that has rewritten all the rules. This silly little thing, our distracting MySpace and frivolous Facebook and downright odd Twitter and entertaining YouTube, and the myriad interactive features we've come to love on all sorts of websites throughout our day, have established themselves as the new status quo. And they are making Enlightened Self Interest, in all its manifestations, not a should-do, but a must-do.

Let me repeat for clarity: in the Twenty-First Century, doing the right thing is no longer a good idea. It is absolutely essential to the health of an organization.

Thus, the new name of this blog, 21st Century Business.

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This is part one of a five-part series. Stay tuned for part two later this week. I've got a lot to share, and can't wait to hear your thoughts. Indeed, in the true spirit of Twenty-First Century business, I can't fully develop this line of thought without you!