Our Strategy and Development Leader, Klaas Ramo Molapisi recently did a talk on Business, Value, and Capital at the IEEE Entrepreneurship TUoS with the aim to address the approach of value in a business and our approach when we serve our markets. The talk/discussion touched on key points of our insight The Importance of Business Value that provides a deeper meaning and purpose of value in a business.

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“It’s important to understand what we are carrying out in providing value in a business. We are essentially providing solutions; not just solutions, but solutions we care about that have an impact on our people/clients.”

Klaas Ramo Molapisi | Strategy and Development Leader

A crucial message within the talk is challenging the pursuit of profits. Capital has become the overall end goal of establishing a business. This has created a complex trade world that refuses to focus on our people’s problem, but rather what the business stands to gain. While capital is the actual form of trade between a business and its clients this is fundamentally not the reason for the business to serve its market.

“Many entrepreneurs have a continued believe that a business is about making money. This is largely incorrect; money is important to the business, however that is not its value nor its actual measure of success. Think of it as a person: You are alive not to breathe, but you will need to breathe to stay alive.”

Klaas Ramo Molapisi | Strategy and Development Leader

The main goal for every business is to deliver on its promise and its promise aligns to its value. Our promise as a business is to provide digital solutions, brand solutions, and transformation opportunities to our people. We use this promise to measure our performance. In any circumstance the business is unable to provide either one of these then whether the business made profits or not, we will have failed our duty. Our goal is to reach sustainability, meaning a fair sense of serving and profiting as a business.

“We cannot ignore the issue of being alive nor can we ignore the necessity of capital in a business. However, our efforts are to solve problems for our clients and not only profit from them. We need to ask ourselves as a person who needs to breathe, what good will it do if I consume all the oxygen? This is exactly the point, we breathe sufficient oxygen to stay alive any desire to consume extra oxygen is greed if not corruption.”

Klaas Ramo Molapisi | Strategy and Development Leader

Working towards sustainability does not mean there is a point where you have made enough profits, but rather a decision to ensure your processes, pricing, and strategy are not designed to rip off, abuse, corner the market, or worse steal from them.

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