The Ethical Pillars of Corporate Excellence

The theoretical analysis carried out in “If Aristotle Ran General Motors” tries to account for a thought that reveals something more than the concepts needed to adequately face the challenge of the corporate spirit. It is an ethical approach to maintain the level of individual and business excellence, in a context where the company is conceived as a space for life or be assumed as expressed in the business ethics chair.Tom Morris combines truth, beauty, goodness with another element called unity, stating that they constitute the support to achieve individual freedom, independent of the specific circumstances for it is deepened around a specific, immediate situation and the general set of relationships that they maintain, for themselves, to establish the connections and reach the integration of thought and action in a coherent way, with some kind of understanding or even spiritual approach or identification.

In the book the phrase “Things have their seasons, and even certain kinds of eminence go in and out of style. But wisdom has an advantage: She is eternal (Baltasar Gracian.) This phrase makes you reflect, in business life, there are products and services that are fashionable, making them can take benefits for the moment, never forever, but the experience of carrying out the processes, that is eternal wisdom. For example, a university always has to look for new careers, which at the moment are in fashion, but perhaps later disappear, that university gets momentary benefits for having that career, but its real benefit is to concoat the process of having a new career, and not only know it, but apply it. This book by Tom Morris, helps us understand the importance of processes, but above all the importance of the people who perform these processes and their qualities.

Beauty is a fundamental pillar for human excellence. Beauty liberates, renews, invigorates and inspires. Human beings have always had a natural tendency to be surrounded by small fragments of beauty, which is why this must be achieved as long as the culture and the environment allow it and stimulate it.In a company, all kinds of aesthetic innovations must be ensured that contribute positively to the satisfaction and happiness of the staff, which will contribute to excellence in a working relationship. We will also find beauty by giving an excellent quality to a product or service.Encouraging creativity is also important for a good work environment, and it is precisely when, at times when difficulties arise, when there are the greatest opportunities to achieve positive and creative growth. One must come to consider the meaning of life as a creative effort with love, which prepares one to assume a new attitude towards the phenomenon of changeCorporate excellence is therefore a form of human excellence. Business success and personal satisfaction require truth, beauty, kindness and unity. You can contribute to happiness and human excellence with nobility and humility and reinvent the corporate spirit. All these also relate when referring to the question of “What is the meaning of life?” In the book Morris asks this question, and to give a concise answer to the reader, he uses the example of three different views: Nihilism, Relativism and Absolutism.

First nihilism in the book is referred to as the philosophical position that says “No. There is no meaning to life. Sorry. Get used to it” (p 87.) Nihilism holds that existence has no meaning, and that there is no superior or supernatural entity as such, rather than the endowment of meaning, objective or purpose in itself. There is, therefore, no superior sense for life, because life lacks a verifiable explanation. In this sense, nihilism contains a profound criticism of the values, customs and beliefs on which our culture is built, insofar as they participate in the meaning of life denied by this philosophical current. On the contrary, nihilism postulates the idea of an existence conceived as a constant becoming of objective history, in which there is no higher purpose. Thus, nihilism is favorable to the idea of an existence that does not simply turn around a certain superior sense of things, but remains open to the multiple possibilities of existence.The second philosophical position referring to the question of the meaning of life is relativism and according to the book relativism says “Yes, [life has meaning] if you give it meaning” (p 88.) Relativism is based on an idea: absolute truth does not exist. In other words, the truth is relative, in the sense that the concept of truth depends on variable criteria (scientific theories, personal valuations or cultural traditions.) The concept of relativism is opposed to that of dogmatism, which is the intellectual approach that defends the existence of a truth or dogma as a fundamental principle.Lastly we have the philosophical view of absolutism. According to the book, “If relativism offers a conditional yes to the fundamental question of meaning, absolutism assures us with an unconditional yes” (p 91.) Absolutism is the belief that behaviors of a certain type are always bad or good, regardless of any other consideration that may be made. It is a position that holds that good and evil exist universally, in all times and places, without exceptions -for example, that killing is bad and that there are no exceptions. The opposite position is that of relativism, which affirms that good and evil are different in each time and place.Finally, absolutism admits diverse gradations - that go from the literal interpretation of religious scriptures to a more reasonable absolutism but that always defends the existence of principles that are true, that do not change.Tom Morris combines truth, beauty, goodness with another element called unity, stating that they constitute the support to achieve individual freedom, independent of the specific circumstances for it is deepened around a specific, immediate situation and the general set of relationships that they maintain, for themselves, to establish the connections and reach the integration of thought and action in a coherent way, with some kind of understanding or even spiritual approach or identification.

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