The Business of Business: The Context of Organisation and Commercial Development

The work on what the business of business is, and what the business of business should be, started as a collaboration between the School of Management at University College London (UCL) and the Antwerp Diamond Exchange (ADE). It was clear to those involved that this issue was under-explored, and that it left a key gap in the development of business and management education, awareness and practice. The work arose as the result of a series of conversations between staff at UCL and ADE as to how to develop an understanding of what leadership and management should be, and what organizations should deliver for all of their stakeholders. This work is presently being developed into a television presentation and a book.What organizations were supposed to deliver to backers was clear (returns); and there was also a good all round understanding of what customers and clients expected (and expect) in terms of quality value and utility of products and services at an agreed price, charge and value. What organizations could and should deliver to other stakeholders, and what they could and should deliver in terms of a wider, sustainable and enduring contribution to society (another stakeholder) remained unclear (1).The purpose of the work therefore was to try and inform one part of the future development of business: taking a wider view than the purely financial, ascribing value to all stakeholders equal to that of the financial interests, and ensuring that a debate was generated with a view to clarifying how some of the factors inherent in this approach might be addressed and given life and credence.