The Role of Business: Creating Value in Society

Exponential technology change and global forces can quickly rattle any industry, reasons businesses must race toward innovation and transformation, said Jim Hannan, Executive Vice President of Koch Industries & CEO of Enterprises during his talk at February 26th’s DEC meeting.

Hannan added that though profit can be one measure of success, the actual goal for business is the value added to society through products and services people value more than their alternatives while simultaneously using fewer resources. Business owners shouldn’t fear change, but must adapt, and even deconstruct their own products and services, in order to make their businesses even better, he said.

“We think of this as the winds of creative destruction and what that really means is that in all of our businesses in our markets… we’ve got to have a mindset internally that we can’t be complacent with success, and that we’ve got to drive that creative destruction in our own businesses,” Hannan explained.