Five Reasons Corporations are Great

November 15, 2011 by Taylor Studios in Professional & Industry Tips

Do you hear a lot of bashing of corporations these days? Last week at the NAI we gave a session on how to create a central theme. One of the comment cards left to review our session said something like if I knew you were corporate I would not have attended. Later that day I was chatting with one of our competitors. He saw my name tag and said, “we don’t put the “Inc.” at the end of our name. We don’t want people to know we are a corporation.”

A corporation is a non-human legal entity. Corporations are an entity that is distinct from its owners. They do carry on economic activity and so does a household. They allow an entity to survive an individual. They are as small as one person, they are non-profits (museums are often 501c-3 corporations) and many employ the majority of people in the US. The Latin root of the word corporation means a body of people.

It seems corporations, making money (profit) and business is evil to some people. Yet it is a tool of exchange created by a group of people. If you like a company’s service or product better than another’s you give them money for it. You earned your money and it has value. You trade value for value. Money is made possible by producing something of value. If you accept money in payment for your effort you will then exchange it for the effort of others. Some corporations may not be as ethical or worthy of that exchange; just as some individuals are not. Be careful to not stereotype every corporation. Some are good. Some started with nothing and through ingenuity and ambition made a product that the world desires.

Do you know of some virtuous corporations?