An organisation has no existence of its own; it does not create itself. A human being (or a few of them) has an idea or a purpose, and to bring this idea or purpose to fruition, a vehicle called an organisation is created. We usually call these human beings founders.
Now this human being not only creates the organisation but also pledges to spend a considerable time working on this idea. Not just that, but other human beings get involved in this project and begin to spend considerable time and energy on this organisation — these may be employees, vendors, customers or shareholders. So an organisation is essentially a collection of human beings who spend a considerable time and energy to carry out a certain enterprise, a certain project.
Since an organisation is about human beings spending their time and energy, we need to ask how a human being would want to spend his or her time and energy. In the context of one's work life, it can be safe to assume that you would wish to spend your time and energy in a manner that maximises your potential, maximises your peace of mind and fulfils your financial needs. And since you have decided to spend a considerable amount of your time on this organisation, it would be a terrible transaction indeed if it does not help you achieve those objectives. So what should an organisation be?
An organisation should be an enterprise that, to begin with, enables all the human beings who are a part of it, to maximise their potential and their peace of mind to enable them to achieve the purpose of the organisation. So when you think about starting or joining or investing in an organisation, the question you need to ask yourself is: will the time and energy that I plan to spend on this organisation maximise my potential and peace of mind?
An organisation should not be looked at as a vehicle to maximize shareholder value. It should be seen as a vehicle to maximize your potential and your peace of mind. But that does not mean you will not be financially successful, because this is not a binary choice — either maximise your potential and peace of mind or get financially successful. If you do it right, you can achieve all those objectives.
Why would you want an organisation with only a large financial value, when you could maximize your potential and peace of mind as well along the way?
But for that to happen, you need to do things in a manner that helps you achieve all those objectives. If your goals and thoughts and behaviour are focused largely on maximising financial value but not on maximising your potential and peace of mind as well, it is quite likely that the latter objectives would be ignored and hence not achieved. If you want them, aim for them to begin with.
So what is an organisation? An organisation is a vehicle to maximize your potential and peace of mind. Now let us understand what potential is.