put in the detailed footnote info here cue for a same document link here cue for a different document link hereWhat Is A Business, And What Makes It Work?
The Ephemeral Nature of A Business
In one sense, businesses do not exist. They are not "real". Businesses are like an idea. A business can be compared to a volleyball being held aloft by a group of people trying not to let it hit the ground. Although somebody has the idea for a business initially, it quickly becomes something that everybody plays with but nobody "owns". Business is a group sport. It is just an idea in somebody's mind at the first, but, as Michael Gerber notes, as soon as it is put out into the light of day, and others start to join in the game, it becomes a business.Just about anybody can start a new (business) game. That doesn't mean people will join in and play ball, but one just never knows when or where a new game will catch the imaginations of a group of players and it will take off.
Such a business will continue on until people no longer want to play that game. At that point, the ball drops to the ground, people disperse, and somebody takes the ball (the remnants of the business) and goes home.
Somebody has compared the way businesses "hold together" to the way atoms in a molecule hold together. There is no actual "physical bond" holding the atoms in any particular configuration, but they do stick together, even while moving vigorously around each other in endless activity. Neither is there any actual physical "bond" holding a business together, yet it does so, and does it in such a way that there is a high degree of flexibility.
The start-up of a new business has been compared to the making of a crystal in a super-saturated solution. When the conditions are right, a "catalyst" item is dropped into the solution and instantly, the elements in the solution re-configure themselves into a crystal around the catalytic agent. It is really quite spectacular to watch, as is the emergence of a new business or the expansion of an existing one. And like the formation of crystals, if the conditions around the catalytic agent are not just right, no crystal (business) forms.
It is often said that ideas are socially created and socially maintained. Business, as an idea, would fit this description very well. The problem is, that whenever people talk about the need for "new or existing business development", the conversation quickly shifts first to the high failure rate of small businesses, and then on to the nuts and bolts of what must or must not be done to develop such enterprises. People seem to lose sight of the fact that what is being talked about is the bringing of an idea "into play" in the community, or the expansion of an "idea" already in play. Such an activity does indeed involve a great many "nuts and bolts" activities to survive, but at base is quite ephemeral.
So what is it about the nature of community life that when the right idea comes along, it captures the collective imagination of people such that they configure themselves around it and decide to let it have life. And what is it about the nature of ideas that they can arise in a person's mind, find utterance, capture imagination, and bring about such a configuration of resources in a particular place and time such that a new entity is born.
There have been many of guesses as to why life works this way, some of them very ancient. To me, it is one of the most fascinating aspects of community life. One of the oldest stories extant is the Hebrew "creation" story in which the author reflects his/her guess as to what lies behind this life phenomenon. The author felt that we are able to do it because we were created in the image of the Creator, who operates that way as well. Ideas, when given expression, bring about configurations of resources, when the conditions are right.[] A later author from the same tradition, noted that in his estimation, before making anything else, God made "wisdom" (really good ideas), and that everything thereafter was made out from (or by way of) that wisdom, so that everything is steeped in Wisdom, of which this phenomenon is one aspect[].
I emphasize this point, because many people feel there is nothing they can contribute to the process of business development, and that is just not so. Whether we are folks whose expressed idea forms the catalyst in the formation of a new business, those who excitedly join in, the inter-connected people in the surrounding community, or the enthusiastic well-wishers in the surrounding people-group, we all have a vital role to play in the development and re-development of healthy and vibrant businesses in our community.
Further, I feel that the Church, far from remaining aloof or at a distance from the world of business and finance, have a vital role in its life and health, particularly because of its high "people component" and the above-mentioned ephemeral nature. Somebody once developed a fascinating description of how the flap of a butterfly's wing on one side of the earth can cause a hurricane on the other side of the earth. We are all intricately connected together in this global village. The Institutional Church, for all its faults, certainly has the theological mandate to be involved, and at least at present still has the social mandate to be involved in this very high area of need in our world community.
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