{"id":18136,"date":"2024-02-14T14:10:49","date_gmt":"2024-02-14T19:10:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mhgoldberg.com\/blog\/?p=18136"},"modified":"2024-02-22T07:17:40","modified_gmt":"2024-02-22T12:17:40","slug":"businesses-are-in-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mhgoldberg.com\/blog\/?p=18136","title":{"rendered":"Businesses are in business"},"content":{"rendered":"

Businesses are in business and are supposed to make money. Milton Friedman’s 1970 article in the New York Times, said it succinctly in its title, “The Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Its Profits”<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Businesses do not set out to be non-profits. One might even say that profit – making money – is the primary purpose for any business. In a Harvard Business Review<\/a> article about the Friedman doctrine, Justin Fox wrote “You might disagree with Milton Friedman\u2019s famous claim that the sole social responsibility of business is to increase its profits. But you can\u2019t deny that it sounds simple and straightforward.”<\/p>\n

In the opening segment of a podcast on The Hub<\/a>, Rudyard Griffiths and Sean Speer discussed “the bizarre reaction from commentators and politicians” to Bell Canada\u2019s recent financial results<\/a>, “and what it signals about Canada\u2019s policy-making mindset when it comes to big business.”<\/p>\n

[Rudyard Griffiths] The key thing here that drove this steep cut by Bell to defend their free cash flow, to defend their dividend, to defend their share price, to defend their ability to access capital, to finance the infrastructure investments they need to make, all goes back to that CRTC decision to allow their competitors onto their fibre networks in Ontario and Quebec, but did not require Bell’s competitors in Western Canada to do the same. This decision effectively, like semi-nationalized these fibre networks on the part of Bell. And you can say ‘That’s great. It will lead to lower prices for fibre in Ontario and Quebec.” OK. It also led to 4,000 job losses and an increasingly difficult situation for Bell to create the free cash flow that it needs to operate as a high dividend yielding business, which is its value-proposition to investors, who give it capital in the first place to do all the things that the government wants it to do. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

An open letter<\/a> from Bell’s CEO described the challenges associated with the transformation of the company. <\/p>\n

At Bell Canada every year we can expect to lose over $250 million in legacy phone revenues. At Bell Media, our advertising revenues declined by $140 million in 2023 compared to 2022. Across Bell Media\u2019s news operations, we continue to incur over $40 million in annual operating losses despite having the most-watched network of local TV stations. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Financial illiteracy can be the only explanation for politicians of all stripes drawing a parallel<\/a> between the $40M annual operating losses at the news operations and $40M in regulatory relief provided to Bell Media.<\/p>\n

In the National Post<\/a>, Terence Corcoran writes, “It\u2019s a toss-up as to which of the two \u2014 Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau or British Columbia\u2019s NDP Premier David Eby \u2014 deserves top billing as the economic and political ignoramus of the month.”<\/p>\n

For some reason, the concept of profit seems to have escaped the leaders understanding of business. The opportunity to make a profit is how investors are attracted to a segment. That is how businesses grow, invest in infrastructure, hire people, pay taxes, contribute to the country’s overall economic well-being. <\/p>\n

More than a dozen years ago, I asked<\/a> why profit is dirty word. Canadians need to get over that hang up. We need to celebrate entrepreneurs and investors that want to make money.<\/p>\n

Businesses are in business. In business to make money. That’s a good thing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Businesses are in business and are supposed to make money. Milton Friedman’s 1970 article in the New York Times, said it succinctly in its title, “The Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Its Profits”. Businesses do not set out to be non-profits. One might even say that profit – making money – is the …<\/p>\n

Businesses are in business<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","two_page_speed":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nBusinesses are in business • Telecom Trends<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Businesses are in business and are supposed to make money. 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