The Complete Business Person
This is an excerpt from the paper...
There are important reasons why a business person needs to be a complete person. The business person, who may be defined as one whose training ". . . does not have the benefit of an extensive education in liberal arts," (p.5) may therefore be handicapped by the absence of certain virtues and skills, which are normally cultivated, for example, in the Humanities. The appreciation of the Humanities is tantamount to the appreciation of people, which is the reason businesses exist. The science of people is the Liberal Arts: "The individual disciplines concern themselves with universal concepts, of ideas, feelings, matter, form, beauty, right and wrong. They all contribute to the formation of the total human being." (p.8). The complete business person, however, may be identified as one, who exercises the intellectual and emotional faculties (reason, judgment and feelings) as opposed to persons in training (apprentices) and others, whose early goals include the acquisition of professional skills and experience. The important reasons earlier referred to have mostly to do with two needs; the need to enrich the human spirit and the need most business persons have to be extricated from specialization in order to become generalists [with] ". . . a wider perspective, a better ability to compare and evaluate, and, consequently a better sense of direction." (p.13). The task of enriching the human spirit is not incompatible with the development of the complete business person because both
. . .
Peter Drucker observed: ". . . knowledge is not enough, he must have knowledges, plural." (p.31). Because the acquisition of this knowledge must be enriching, feasible, affordable and continuous, three additional qualities are required: tenacity, patience and maturity. Although the foregoing litany of qualities may appear excessively circumspective, and possibly impractical, it should be recalled that the acquisition and perfection of these qualities are fixed in no time frame. Furthermore, it should be noted that many qualities; for example, cultivating humility, being independent, challenging the status quo, and developing emotional maturity, are qualities which the business person may not require in one's early career.
What appears utmost among the desirable qualities of a complete business person is a sense of splendor and wonder. Whether one concentrates on philosophy, history, cultures, literature, music or business, the truly complete business person has an unquenchable thirst for more knowledge. In the end, the complete business person realizes that the genius of so many civilizations deserves to be studied, cultivated, interpreted and applied, and it is in this sense that maturity and awakening were mentioned. It is
. . .
Some common words found in the essay are:
Peter Drucker, Liberal Arts, , business person, complete business person, complete business, qualities complete business, qualities complete, wider ideas, human spirit, business persons, pragmatic business person, intellectual emotional faculties, qualities appear, cultivation humanities, deal wider ideas, study philosophy, businesses change,
Approximate Word count = 1781
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)
|