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2010 is best year ever for Van de Velde
04 Apr '11
5 min read
The idea of “toujours plus” – always more – is a claim from a certain position of power of the demanding group and the goal is to constantly “acquire” more and more, materially or in the form of privileges. It is a form of short-term thinking that is very dangerous for businesses. They can all too easily fall into the trap of believing that always giving more to the “rights holders” is an essential part of their mission. But that is not the primary mission of businesses.
Their mission is the long-term blossoming of ever growing prosperity and wellbeing for everyone involved. First and foremost, the end consumer of the products that businesses market. It also includes employees, shareholders and all other stakeholders.
Getting rich quick is the prerogative of the speculator. But speculation is not a form of business. Simply moving around financial assets is seldom productive and the driving force behind it is often nothing more than a civilized form of plundering. Just as the creation of complex virtual assets is often simply sophisticated deception.
The goal of business is essentially “Always Better”. Doing things better enables businesses to do more. And the people involved get more out of it too. It's that simple. When we stop doing it in that order things will go awry and sooner or later we will all end up as poor as churchmice.
The future of the West will be determined by how well we manage to become a society where acquiring knowledge, working, saving and investing are prioritized. There are six billion people on this world of ours. 600 million of them live in prosperity. In our own best interests, we can help to bring prosperity to all people.
That means increasing the spread of prosperity tenfold. It will demand huge efforts, great openness and flexibility; sometimes it will be painful and sometimes disappointing. But in the end we will all benefit. And the bonus for everyone – shareholders and employees – who works on this is that the builder always gets more pleasure and satisfaction than those who stand on the sidelines complaining.
Van de Velde has to take things in the right order too: a good product, satisfied customers, enthusiastic employees. The rest will follow. We should think about the women we design and produce our lingerie for, about unequalled service in boutiques, about the inspiration of our employees.
If we do that the shareholders will be satisfied – preferably with a record-breaking year every year, but should that occasionally not materialize, their focus should be on ensuring the company continues to do the right things in our real world. A world where women take pleasure in wearing gorgeous lingerie.
Their mission is the long-term blossoming of ever growing prosperity and wellbeing for everyone involved. First and foremost, the end consumer of the products that businesses market. It also includes employees, shareholders and all other stakeholders.
Getting rich quick is the prerogative of the speculator. But speculation is not a form of business. Simply moving around financial assets is seldom productive and the driving force behind it is often nothing more than a civilized form of plundering. Just as the creation of complex virtual assets is often simply sophisticated deception.
The goal of business is essentially “Always Better”. Doing things better enables businesses to do more. And the people involved get more out of it too. It's that simple. When we stop doing it in that order things will go awry and sooner or later we will all end up as poor as churchmice.
The future of the West will be determined by how well we manage to become a society where acquiring knowledge, working, saving and investing are prioritized. There are six billion people on this world of ours. 600 million of them live in prosperity. In our own best interests, we can help to bring prosperity to all people.
That means increasing the spread of prosperity tenfold. It will demand huge efforts, great openness and flexibility; sometimes it will be painful and sometimes disappointing. But in the end we will all benefit. And the bonus for everyone – shareholders and employees – who works on this is that the builder always gets more pleasure and satisfaction than those who stand on the sidelines complaining.
Van de Velde has to take things in the right order too: a good product, satisfied customers, enthusiastic employees. The rest will follow. We should think about the women we design and produce our lingerie for, about unequalled service in boutiques, about the inspiration of our employees.
If we do that the shareholders will be satisfied – preferably with a record-breaking year every year, but should that occasionally not materialize, their focus should be on ensuring the company continues to do the right things in our real world. A world where women take pleasure in wearing gorgeous lingerie.
Van de Velde NV
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