We’ve all heard it before at one time or another. “It’s just business.” Profit and loss, dollars and cents. “It’s not personal”. In reality, nothing could be further from the truth. Every business decision affects people – benefits some, hurts others. “It’s just business” is a meaningless phrase designed to make the person saying it feel more justified in what they’re doing – applying cold logic to human impact.
Over the years, “it’s just business” has become an acceptable, even desirable approach to professional life. It captures the bravado of Gordon Gekko or Jordan Belfort, has been uttered by celebrity tycoons like Donald Trump – heck, it was even the tagline for ‘The Apprentice’. Images like these suggest that “it’s just business” is how successful people get things done, how they approach a dog eat dog world, but the actual origin of the phrase may not be what you’d expect.
Otto Berman is the man who coined the term ‘it’s just business’, using it regularly as he laid out the situation to those who came before him. Berman was an accountant for the mob in the 1930s, a business where distancing yourself from the human impact was a pretty imperative requirement. As they took the month’s protection money or dealt punishment to those who’d mis-stepped, Berman would say it – “it’s just business, nothing personal”. That’s the origin of the phrase. It didn’t come from some high flying exec or ultra-successful mogul. it stems from a petty criminal, a man who had no problem taking whatever he could from whomever he could get it.
And therein lies the problem with “it’s just business”. While many have adopted it into their own professional approach, the ethos of “it’s just business” clashes hard against the rising imperative of the social media generation. The key to success in social is, in many ways, the antithesis of the “it’s just business” approach. Growing profit, reducing margins – these are necessary business metrics, but years of intense focus on non-human elements has moved many away from the essence of how we connect and build a sustainable brand in the first place. While fundamental operating requirements remain core to business success, the disruption of social media is forcing a re-assessment of accepted business norms. It’s not just numbers and figures we need to consider, but people and place, hearts and minds. Why is it that we do what we do? Is it not because we passionately, personally, care about contributing to the world around us?
We have access to more data, more correlated info, more connecting behaviours than anyone has ever had in history. Ninety per cent of all the data in the world has been generated in the last two years – a simply amazing fact – and as more interactions are conducted online, more data is created, enabling brands to expand their thinking, their customer journey maps, their buyer persona details. More than ever, you have the ability to reach people on a personal level, based on specific, interest-based, commonalities, where individual needs intersect with your offerings. Social business demands a personal touch, a collaborative effort between consumer and supplier. Through their expanded networks, people are using the collective knowledge of their social media communities to clarify and better understand their every purchase decision – you need to be a part of that process. Word of mouth travels faster and wider than ever before and is no longer limited by proximity. Good businesses are lifted, bad businesses are dropped, and largely, this is based on what people think, what people say, the experiences they’ve had with your brand. Every contact point is an opportunity, every interaction a potential public broadcast about your products and services. In each case, it’s not just business you’re conducting, it’s people’s lives, it’s how you’re able to assist and make their world better.
“It’s just business” is an approach that’s been taken to remove the human element from our decisions and make it easier to enact tough calls. But social media is negating that approach, empowering consumers by providing them with a genuine voice. Social media is the media, each potential client is also a broadcaster in their own right. And it’s never just business to the person on the other end of the line – understanding this is key to building a true social culture, and a stronger business for the connected era.
“It’s just business” is not a philosophy, not an approach. It’s a moral escape clause adapted from standover men and criminal gangs. While decisions have to be made based on unavoidable business imperatives, it works to your advantage to consider, in every interaction, that it’s always personal. And really, it always has been. Lives are affected, opinions are established, connections are built in every process.
It’s always personal. The more your brand can absorb this, the better placed you’ll be to meet the rising demands of the connected world.