When the Human Element is Lost in Business…

by John Horvat II

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 

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).