Capitalism, trust, and love are three words we don’t usually hear in the same sentence. Yet, love and trust absolutely matter when you’re curating a business culture where everyone thrives. Only when love flows and trust runs high can we deliver for customers, suppliers, employees, investors, and communities at large.
What might this look like?
- Love your customers with their lifetime value in mind.
On any given day, customers have options and choices. It’s much easier to keep existing customers happy than it is to acquire new ones, so empower your customer service professionals to respond to customers’ needs on the first call. If a customer is dissatisfied, the lifetime value of the customer must be top of mind.
As an example, my internet service provider recently rolled out a price increase, right as its top two competitors were filling my mailbox with far better offers. I wasn’t unhappy with my internet service, and I wasn’t thrilled with the work a switch might take, but the difference in price was meaningful at $480 a year.
When I called to ask for a price match, the service team was prepared and handled my inquiry with professionalism. In the end, they kept my business and beat the competitors’ low prices. I appreciated the way I was treated just as much as the discount. Because of that, they’ll still have me as a customer—one worth $9,000—a decade from now.
In the business world, I’ve watched similar lessons play out, with companies denying claims worth $30,000 only to destroy trust and lose business to the tune of $1,000,000. After apologizing and making things right, customers started purchasing again, enjoying a new relationship dynamic made possible by repairing and restoring trust.
- Love suppliers with respect and care for their success.
Imagine a supplier has two primary customers. The first customer always plays a win-lose game, demands price concessions every year, seeks to control innovation, and treats suppliers with disdain. The second customer uses a win-win playbook instead. They integrate operations, collaborate on value-creation plans, and support their suppliers through good times and bad.
Guess which customer receives better support and is the first to know about lucrative or exciting developments?
Loving leaders help employees foster strategic and strong supplier relationships. Your teams should deeply understand supplier capabilities, clearly communicate business objectives, negotiate fairly and with market awareness, and embrace each other’s employees as partners.
- Love employees by knowing them, focusing on them, and caring about them.
Protect your employees’ psychological safety and nurture peak performance with “KFC”: know me, focus me, and care about me.
When you recognize people for their unique skills and interests, and they feel safe to bring their whole selves to work, they’ll freely bring their best to any challenge or opportunity. Teammates who know we care about their health, mental health, families, and dreams will also feel safer sharing sources of distraction. A colleague whose spouse received a cancer diagnosis last week or whose parent had a stroke yesterday should not be on the forklift today.
When we’re aware of each other’s true needs, we have safer workplaces, increased loyalty and retention, higher productivity, less downtime, reduced sick leave, lower turnover, and less burnout. Love drives lower costs and higher profits, so let it flow!
- Love investors to enable business growth.
As a board member and executive, I’ve seen firsthand how relationships with banks and shareholders are critical to a firm’s success. Investors and lenders require data and insights to protect their capital and ensure returns. When you’re transparent, proactive, and alert financial partners to risks and challenges while there’s still time to act, these relationships will deepen.
When these relationships are strong, surprises are rare and growth is all but guaranteed, with all eyes assessing situations and building a business that serves all stakeholders together.
- Love communities so people flourish.
Capitalism is the greatest force to lift people out of poverty. The trade that happens within communities protects home values, food supplies, educational institutions, and even our quality of life.
Loving leaders stay engaged with the communities where their factories and offices operate. They participate in activities and investments that educate future workers, train skilled labor, encourage local living, and ensure basic needs are met for employees today and the workforce of tomorrow.
When we invite everyone to participate in work and create value, we enable and empower individuals and families to meet their basic needs. Once basic needs are met—and success leads to discretionary income, savings, and wealth—the wages and salaries earned in our companies are reinvested in restaurants, arts, sports events, concerts, and travel, which benefit everyone.
Love Builds Profits—and Everything That Sustains Them
There’s never been a more important time to lead with love. As polarization and inequality threaten the fabric of our communities, businesses can offer a powerful counterforce. When love and trust become part of the strategic agenda—not just values on a wall—we create cultures where performance thrives, people flourish, and profits follow.
