Friday, January 25, 2013

When the Human Element is Lost in Business…

by John Horvat II

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When economy becomes frenzied and intemperate, the warm human bonds that are so essential for trust and security are replaced by cold mechanical links. There is, for example, a difference between a family doctor and a provider of health services.

Mutual fund owner John Bogle notes the change in these relationships in his field. He writes:

“During my half-century-plus career in the fund industry, I’ve  Subscription11

seen this field move from being primarily a profession of investment management to becoming largely a business of product marketing….In all, professional relationships with clients have been increasingly recast as business relationships with customers. In a world where every user of services is seen as a customer, every provider of services becomes a seller.

When the provider becomes a hammer, the customer becomes a nail” (John C. Bogle, The Battle for the Soul of Capitalism, Yale University Press, New Haven, 2005, p. 176).

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