So I have my MBA, amongst other college degrees and certifications. Although I try not to live my entire business life around my MBA, it did teach me some valuable quantitative approaches to things. Here’s an example.

Recently, my old TV died (interesting that I used the word “died”, instead of just “broke” or “became inoperable”). This was a pretty old TV so I had it outside on my covered porch, because I like to watch weekend football games outside when the weather is nice. I went to replace it and found something interesting. An outdoor-hardened TV runs over $2,000, whereas the cheapest TV of similar dimensions was under $200. So that means, even if the TV only lasts 2 years in an outdoor environment, I can go 20 years of buying new TVs to equate the costs. So my MBA brain kicks in and says, “OK, buy the $180 TV.”

But…

There’s a non-financial aspect to this. I am basically willing to create more waste, resource usage, and planned obsolescence in order to save a few bucks. If I have any sort of mindset of environmentalism then I’m faced with a moral dilemma.

As I said above, this is just an example. But you can see where this conversation can quickly get complex and even emotional. Namely, how do you take non-financial or non-quantitative aspects into your decision making? Generally speaking, business leadership at the senior and executive level relates almost 100% to financials. But is that really the singular and only purpose? Of course many people if asked (especially publicly) will say “Of course not!” and list out all the various tenets from their mission statement about making the world a better place and taking care of employees. But when the actual decisions are made, and actions are taken, what really happens?

Its easy to “run on autopilot” when making decisions. It seems like most modern business is based upon “data” and “quantitative decisions” and since financials are the most obvious numbers then it becomes common for all the decisions to end up simply reverting back to the financials. Since a company’s primary goal is usually to “make money, as much as possible and as fast as possible”, then this makes sense that this is how it would end up. But maybe we should have intentional conversations about when are we willing to “not make as much money as possible right away” if there is a long-term benefit. And maybe those long-term benefits actually DO equate to making money, because it results in more brand loyalty, or goodwill, or creating more customers.