Name: Karl Jason Comin

Subject: BM 215 Philosophy of Business

The Corporate Objective (the final cause of business)

I. Introduction

The final cause of objective is the end of which a thing exists or has been created or

been made. Everything tends towards this end, which means that everything has a

purpose or objective or goal.

On this issue of the final cause of business, the nagging question is whether profit

alone is the objective of business, or service in its various forms is also an objective as

much as profit is.

II. Summary of the Topic/s/Topics Digest

ADDRESSING THE ISSUES (Principle of the End Concept)

In searching for the objective of business, the task is to analyze that objective in

the light of the end concept, likewise taking into consideration both the distinction and

complementation between the concepts of business and the businessman.

VIEWS ON BUSINESS OBJECTIVES

 The concept that a corporation’s sole purpose is profit has been associated with

Nobel Prize winner Milton Friedman who contended that the most socially responsible

role for business would be to make a profit, use resources efficiently and obey the law; in

other words, to maximize stockholder profits. He advanced the following main arguments:

First, stockholders are the owners of the corporation and hence corporate profits

belong to the stockholders.

Second, stockholders are entitles to their profit by virtue of a contract between

them and the other stakeholders: manager and employees get their wages, the

government gets its taxes, suppliers get the returns for their products, and the

stockholders deserve to get what remains in the form of profit.

THE OBJECTIVES OF BUSINESS

Having shown that the objective of business is not only profit but also service, it

should further be shown how profit is an objective and how service is likewise an

objective. It should be noted that business is a complex concept and is a much more

complex process. Business is concerned with profit, business provides service, business

intends the satisfaction human needs, business is expected to contribute to quality of life

and of society, to name a few of the business objectives. There are others, but those

mentioned are considered the basic or most fundamental ones.

III. Recommendations
 In the light of the concepts of profit and service, it is evident that both profit and

service are objectives of business and of the corporate entity. Profit is easily

demonstrable a business or corporate objective at which level it is shown to be the

motivating ultimate end or the businessman’s personal reason for going into business.

Service is distinguished as core or marginal. It is the core service which constitutes the

other ultimate end of business.

Profit and service cannot exist apart from each other in the task of carrying on the

business. The business firm provides service to make profit or, putting it the other way

around, makes profit by providing service. In other words, service generates profit, as

profit is an incentive for service.

IV. Conclusion

The importance of profit cannot be denied. It is the necessary and indispensable

nourishment of a business organization that enables it to survive, operate and grow.

Without this proper nourishment, the organization will die. As a motivation for the

company to provide its service, it must earn profit, in the same way that while the principal

objective of a product is the provision of its product service, the manufacturer of this

product is motivated by the profit it expects to make from it.

 On the other hand, the objective of the company, as a company, is what it exists

for, and that is to provide its company service in the way that a product exists to provide

the service for which it is produced.

Between profit and service, a relationship of precedence exists. In terms of

operations, service is the objective. In terms of motivation, profit is the objective. Again,

between the two, service is the objective of the company; profit is the objective of the

businessman. Now, since profit is what service aims to achieve, and profit cannot be

achieved without service, we can say that the company’s objective is profitable service.