I caught myself saying (and meaning): “that shouldn’t even be a factor”, about an emotional influence on a business decision.

It shouldn’t even matter.

Because that’s what business has been all about, ever since The Wealth of Nations, and the notion that business is about profit first and only.

I didn’t realise how indoctrinated I was! It took me several hours to realise the depth of the wrongness of that moment. Of course it’s a factor. The simple humanity of my colleagues. How things feel. They are things that matter.

Organisations are human enterprises first – and humans are equipped with an excellent moral compass! To ignore its guidance during the pursuit of “business” is to become a senseless machine.

Well. Off to work on some basic human decency skills, and unschool some classic capitalism…