Studying Philosophy to learn Business, Part I

MacKenzie the cat staring at you

In my previous post, I had a go at figuring out how philosophy of the social sciences relates with HR. At the end of the article, I deployed a cheesy cliffhanger. And like the cat chasing the mouse that followed the scent of the cheese to the end of the cliff, the inertia of our own curiosity is about to send us on a wild ride. Let’s see if we land on our feet (and don’t die).

When studying business, whether as an undergraduate or otherwise, you quickly learn of the great variety of roles, departments and structures within organisations. You begin to decide where your professional interests lie (marketing, finance, accounting, legal…) and you sooner or later build your higher-level pitch on how your studies give you the superhuman ability to have a general overview of any organisation and see how all its parts fit within deep and meaningful vision and mission statements. And then you land your dream job and make a hundred calls a day, shuffle just as many bits of paper per hour and spend seemingly endless minutes on databases and systems that distract you from everything you thought the organisation stood for. I may be revealing a bit (just a bit) about my own experience here, but most readers have zoned out by now and you and I can get to know each other a bit better.

What business studies provide is a framework within which to find your own niche and build your own career. It’s the language, the numbers and the Powerpoint templates you use to convince others to increase your department’s budget by 10%, to buy your product in larger quantities through longer-term contracts, and to allow you to hire your own PA. Business studies provide both something very basic and something very complex at one and the same time. Social injustice and inequalities aside (big ask), the studies and professional opportunities presented to us are what we make of them. The Powerpoint template is useless without content, much like business studies without a professional who sees beyond the numbers and reads between the lines of annual reports. And that ability, to see how the puzzle-pieces of a company fit together, that comes with time and experience. The recently graduated business student is a shell, a delicate contour within which professional experience can develop and grow. But there are questions, many questions, business studies raise that are (most likely) not dealt with within themselves, let alone by the exam-focussed student. And a quick way to discover those questions is doing as the sceptics do: ask why.

Scepticism is the philosophy that, born in Ancient Greece, has correctly come down in history as a call for very tiresome and pedantic logic. It offers a mental blockade by asking, again and again, no matter the response: “why?” Like the child barely grasping the nuances of tone of voice, but also driven by the desire to hear somebody get into a pickle while explaining things, the sceptic keeps yelling “WHY?!” It’s a philosophy we pursue as curious children, leads us to revolt as rebellious teenagers and finalises in an anticlimactic resignation in favour of conformity soon after reaching adulthood (it may even be what distinguishes an adult from a child; I wonder…). By the time we’ve been beaten, minced and stuffed through the intestines of our education system, we are no longer interested in asking questions. We want a job. We want to crunch numbers and get compensated for it. Get “free” snacks for working at a desk all day. Have travel expenses paid for getting your employer more cash. And it is right, within the social paradigm we live in, to take on business studies with that goal in mind. But isn’t there an emptiness in that? And if all business professionals are exposed to the same business models and manifestos (dare I say “philosophies”?), how can we expect to find anything other than emptiness in the workplace?

We’ve so far referred to education as offering shell-like frameworks and sausage casings within which we can conform as “professionals”; the experience we build within them must therefore be some blubbery and viscous matter I rather not describe any further. Setting aside metaphors being taken too far, the question at stake is: what value does an MBA add to somebody with a bachelor’s in business, or with years of experience out on the field? Not only that, but we are asking why; we are being curious; we are trying to understand not the gooey wet blubber or the glove-like container for it, but the bits in between and their existence as a whole. We are seeking to encounter, for a small moment, the very meaning of education, professional experience, business and the intertwining relationships therein. We, my friend, are doing Philosophy.

The studies and professional opportunities presented to us are what we make of them.

The studies and professional opportunities presented to us are what we make of them. Business as a subject matter offers a fascinatingly complex syllabus of interrelated concepts that are worthy of their own modules, dissertations, books and degrees; but it is for the individual - the student, the academic, the practitioner - to make the most of the subject and try to comprehend it within the greater scope of human life, society and the natural environment. Only then can we get closed to having a glimpse at the superhuman ability to conceive of each department, each employee, each customer and each of our service providers within the business and within a value chain that goes beyond our staff and finances. In being human, curious, compassionate and applying a small dose of scepticism (it’s one of the simplest philosophical tools to explain for a reason), we can go beyond the mainstream mission-vision-strategy-values-synergy narrative and build a more solid conception of business and its role within the world.

Let’s take a business apart one more time: sales, marketing, HR, finance, accounting, IT, facilities, product… When do their professionals not think of their impact on others? When do the heads of department think of their roles as silos? Do sales and marketing not think of human psychology when pitching products (needing vs. wanting and so on)? Is HR not worried about the job market and need for improved skills in current and future staff? Do the finance and accounting departments think only in local currency and ignore financial news and changes in interest rates? Does IT still provide floppy discs, oblivious of the internet of things, AI or the simple rule “don’t use Internet Explorer”? Does facilities not stay abreast of new health and safety regulations? And do product not monitor the market for new competitors and opportunities to innovate? Good businesses are continually seeking feedback from the world around it, from the fields studied by the social sciences. Reflecting on, thinking about and digging deeper into the meaning of business; that’s Philosophy of the Social Sciences.

And suddenly the workplace seems less empty; it seems busy and exciting; thriving, even; filled with new and colourful ideas and personalities connected by an organisation through which they interact with the world outside and provide something positive to society, in turn receiving a sense of fulfilment - not because they love their jobs, but because they are given a sense of belonging within a team, a department, an organisation, a community.

I realise and note here that my previous post’s cheesy cliffhanger posed three questions, of which only one has explicitly been answered here (the first). So this is our cat landing on a small ledge a few feet below the precariously placed cheese. He’s landed safely, as I believe have we, but he’ll definitely be asking more questions about curiosity going forward. And he’ll probably stick around for my next post responding to the questions: why not study something more "mathematical" to make it in business? And will the MSc Philosophy of the Social Sciences guarantee you a successful career in business anyway? I'm also hoping MacKenzie manages to get back onto safe ground!

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If you missed the first post of this trilogy, read it here.