Thoughts sparked by Stilgherrian's post of the same title:

Much conventional business practice is simply incompatible with humanity. The less human we can be, the more successful we will be in business.

For too long now there is only one way to do business, and one definition of success, and one goal. The domain of business has long been dominated by the uncreative, the greedy, the exploitative, the ruthless, the heartless, the fearful, the weak-minded, the close-minded, the egomaniacal, the psychopathic.

We as a society celebrate the wrong things about business success, because we have been totally sucked into the consumerist culture. We value stuff too much. If the way you do business gets you loads of stuff quickly, you must be a successful. Yes, bigger IS better.

You need certain "strong" qualities to be successful in business. These are NOT them: being nice, honest, respectful, fair, having integrity, giving a damn about people and doing good work. These are all seen as weak, limited, lacking in focus and ambition.

Do I, however, smell a change in the wind? I hope so.