Business in the 21st century

In a difficult economy, adaptation to new ways to operate a department, division, or entire company is critical towards growth and success. Once adaptation takes place, you can bet that change will, and must come around to meet, if not beat your competition.

There are so many keys to a business success, that many books have been written on the subject. The core value for any successful business is simply ethics. Trust your employees and your customers. Be forthright and keep a constant line of communications open. Business success is not a one-way street. Diverse ideas are essential for the organization to develop its full potential. In my professional experience, I have rarely worked in that culture. Mostly small business remain small and just merely exist due to the fact of lacking a sense of a commitment to excellence that begins with a strong culture of ethics. Always communicating to one group of individuals but ignoring others is a method towards disaster, or at the minimum, loss production and pride within the employer. When new ideas or approaches to operations are mocked or marginalized by management, the trust, what little there may have been, will further diminish. People will simply "show-up" to work, punch in, assemble their widgets, and run home at the end of the work. No "fire in the belly" among those employees who are seen as a cost of doing business, instead of an investment.

Look at the success of major companies, whether the are small, mid-size, or large global empires. The solid core of these companies is the ethics instilled among the employees who feel a sense of ownership, thus a feeling of pride in what they do.
The fire in the belly exists because they "own" their work, their success, and recognition of such to further the entire team organization to profitability. Ethical behavior be stills a culture of trust and support that only fuels not only dollar growth, but something that money can't buy: Love of their work and pride in their jobs! It's simple, but so difficult for organizations understand or implement.
Going beyond the capabilities of the individual takes dual trust, an openness to accept new ideas and constructive criticism for one purpose. The team comes first.
The business comes first, and most of all, the customer who pays the bills and salaries are the essential boss.