Nothing Is Just Business

About 15 years ago, I had a regular, friendly argument with a colleague. We’d be on our way to lunch, and he’d be telling a story about a tense customer interaction, or any kind of stressed business interaction, maybe where he had to deliver some bad news or correct a customer’s expectations, or something. He’d wrap up the story with an emphatic philosphy statement, “Hey, it’s not personal, just just business!”

I always challenged him on that. I never won him over, but it became kind of fun to see him get all red-faced when he couldn’t convince me.

I maintain that it’s all personal. Business is about people. You’re selling to …. wait for it …. people. You’re buying from …. wait for it … people. You’re managing … wait for it … people. You’re working for … well, you get it by now.

It’s all about people. Therefore, it’s all personal.

Now, that’s different than “taking something personally,” which denotes a different issue.To be clear, let’s talk in terms of “sender” and “receiver” in this writing. Some kind of communication is being delivery by someone to someone else. Taking something personally is on you, the receiver.

But the idea that “it’s just business” is on you, the sender. “It’s just business” gives you license to ignore the other person’s, well, “person-hood.” It gives you license to communicate badly, coldly, impersonally. It may give you license to take actions you might otherwise reconsider or restructure.

You can never forget that you’re working with and talking to people. You still have to deliver bad news and corrective communication sometimes, and you shouldn’t shy away from that duty. But remembering that the person to whom you’re talking is a real person may help you deliver that communication better — not more softly, not watered down, but better, more completely, and with more empathy where appropriate.

It is business, yes. But business is about people. Take your employees, your project team, your customers, or your stakeholders for granted and treat them like “resources” as though they’re replaceable (I got plenty of new customers coming all the time, so I can afford to mistreat you lot) and you’ll soon find out how well business runs without good people.

Case in point.

Last fall, my very trusted mechanic sold his business to a fellow from out of state. The shop manager stayed, with the short-term (unwritten) promise from the new owner not to fire him or a key mechanic in the shop. This shop owner has a real gift of taking care of people — customers and employees alike. He’s the kind of guy that will come get you in the middle of the night if you’re stranded, just because you’re a customer. He’s the guy who takes care of things quickly and equitably for that soldier’s wife while he’s deployed on the other side of the world. Soldiers come home, shake his hand, and say thank-you. Fathers come thank him for taking care of the teenage daughter who was alone one weekend and had flat tire.

The new boss finally fired the shop manager just before Christmas last month. Seems the new owner perceived — and I’m quoting, albeit second-hand — “We don’t have any good customers.” The shop manager couldn’t let that stand, and they discussed it for a while, and since their perceptions were not and would never be aligned, he was let go soon thereafter.

It’s valid enough to say that we need to cultivate a new customer group, a more profitable customer segment, etc. But there’s something dismissive and telling in the idea that “we don’t have any good customers,” especially with the high loyalty the customer base demonstrates. And as the news spreads, that loyalty is walking out the door. It belies a certain disdain for one’s customer base. Dangerous ground for a businessman.

Sure, it’s business. But business is about people. And this “bad customer” now goes elsewhere, as do many others. Too bad the shop manager is changing industries; I’d cross the valley to do business with him.

Related posts:

1. Riff on Integrity, Ethics, and Communication