Can we put love in a spreadsheet?
When it comes down to it, love is why we get up in the morning. If not for love, then for what?
Money, sex, power, empire…anyone who has these in abundance will tell you that they do not take the place of love.
Yet love is not something that fits within the domains of corporate speak. The day we see the CEO of a Fortune 100 company say that they do everything in the business for love is the day we know humanity may just make it.
The paradox is that companies that have an expression of love as their core identity do pretty well. Take Apple. It is not a saint in business. But the products it makes inspire love in its customers. The design ethic is uncompromising. Love is present.
People, our customers, hunger for love. It is why we work so hard, seek money, sex and power. In the hope of finding love. People have been oversold, overspun, and overcommodified by average, scale, and mass. Numbed senseless by carelessness and hardcore commercial. They are smart enough to know when they find love in a service, product or company.
Take a local example. Just this week, in my hometown, an artisan bakery called The Paddock opened. A young couple, not even bakers, have poured their heart and soul into this business venture. Everything is an expression of love. Right down to the bathrooms. Ursula, the owner, told me how they worked for 6 weeks before opening to get the bread recipe right, (Woodfired sourdough), going through a pallet of flour. She told me how they prepare the bread, how it is touched by the bakers. As she told me you could feel the passion, the commitment and the love. And from day one they were packed, as word spread, as the locals came…as the love spread.
How happy are we to spend our money in exchange for love.
Can big business put love on the spreadsheet? I would say that a better question might be can they afford not to?
Put love on your speadsheet. Go to work for love. Make products for love. This is business as unusual. This is Syntropic. The day it is business as usual is the day we once again love business.
