You can only be genuinely happy only in a happy environment – it is an indisputable fact. If you are not a hermit – and you are not, because you are reading this book – your environment definitely includes one or more organizations. The same is obviously true for just about every human being.
Consequently, the only way to make yourself (and all other individuals) happy is to transform all businesses, government entities, non-profits, etc. – into genuinely happy organizations.
By definition, a happy organization is the one that makes all of its stakeholders (owners, managers, clients, partners, suppliers, employees, etc.) genuinely happy. Of course, by satisfying their genuine aggregate needs – financial, functional, emotional and spiritual - to the maximum extent possible.
In other words, by generating the maximum possible amount of aggregate value for its stakeholders. However, every organization is a living being (and yes, it does have its egregore – the “collective soul”); consequently, it MUST live in a perfect harmony with its stakeholders (from the aggregate value perspective, of course).
Therefore, it MUST find a way to obtain the maximum possible amount of aggregate value from its environment (i.e. stakeholders). I give; I receive; I receive, I give – in perfect balance.
To make this harmony possible, every organization MUST function at its maximum possible performance – financial and operational. And (no less obviously) to use all its resources – money, personnel, equipment, information, etc. – in the most effective (doing the right things) and efficient (doing things the right way) manner.
Unfortunately, study after study proves beyond the reasonable doubt that just about every organization (of any kind) operates at 10% of its maximum possible performance (if that) and uses its resources far less efficiently than it should.
To remedy this unacceptable situation, managers of all organizations MUST:
1. Conduct a comprehensive corporate audit of their organization
2. Perform a strategic corporate reengineering of their organization
3. Develop and deploy a continuous improvement system that ensures that their organization operates at its maximum performance and uses its resources in the most efficient way at all times
And thus both generates for and receives from their stakeholders the maximum possible amount of aggregate value.