Heat Treat Today publishes twelve print magazines a year and included in each is a letter from the publisher, Doug Glenn. This letter first appeared in March 2025 Aerospace Heat Treating print edition.
Feel free to contact Doug at doug@heattreattoday.com if you have a question or comment.
The world is a better place when people know what their job is and then stick to that job. When the carpenter knows that their job is working with wood and then works with wood, things go well. When the pipefitter doesn’t try to be an electrician but sticks to pipefitting, things go well. It’s only when we forget (or never knew) who we are or why we’re here that things begin to go terribly wrong.
This is just as true in the C-suite as it is on the shop floor when it comes to running a business. CEO, CFO, COO, presidents, and VPs all benefit the business by sticking to their huckleberry bush just as the welder, the electrician, and the plant operations guys prosper the business when they do what they’re called to do.
In the C-suites, however, there seems to be more confusion about what it is they are there to do and company leaders more frequently get distracted from their huckleberry bush than do the guys in the shop. Here are some good, yet ultimately unhelpful things that have kept company leadership from focusing on profits — which ought to be their huckleberry bush.
Environmental Concerns
If ever there was a worthy cause, caring for the planet should be toward the top of the list, coming in second only behind caring for people. Business leaders proceed at their own risk if they completely ignore environmental issues. But elevating “saving the planet” over profits is a common mistake made by well-meaning leaders. The driving question that should underlie all business questions is whether or not profits will increase, not only what impact the decision will have on the environment. The EV craze, which has petered out significantly since this time last year, is a great example of company leaders losing sight of profits in favor of the environment. The number of car manufacturers who boldly announced electric-only or significantly enhanced EV fleets in 2024 only to have the two-by-four of company profits hit them squarely upside the head is astounding. Most of them have backtracked or are in financial hardship for not backtracking.
Well-meaning environmentalism should never come at the expense of profits.
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion (DEI)
Another distraction from focusing on profits has been, while to a lesser degree now as compared to this time last year, the DEI movement. DEI, to its credit, is people-focused and, undoubtedly, was well-motivated by many. Nonetheless, kowtowing to externally imposed social norms in order to avoid becoming a corporate pariah carries with it the seeds of failure, because profits and overall corporate health will suffer. Such was the case for countless large and small companies, including McDonalds and Harley Davidson, that elevated DEI above profits. The primary (though not the only) factor that should drive hiring and promotional concerns within a company should be competency and effectiveness. Will the individual help enhance company profits or not?
“Profit” Is NOT a Four-Letter Word
In her classic work, Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand makes this very point. When we vilify “profits,” we do not do ourselves or our fellow man any good. One might say, “It is not profitable to vilify the word ‘profit.’” Profit is good, and it is enormously comforting to see company leaders of all stripes returning to a good, healthy embrace of the profit motive.
Obviously, the ill-founded desire for profits at all costs regardless of the impact on the freedoms and liberties of others is not good and is the exact reason why we have courts of law. Profit cannot and ought not be at the expense of others’ freedoms. Further, the profit motive should not go right up to the line of violating personal freedoms. A true and good profit motive is not devoid of compassion and long-term thinking. It values human life and liberty and tempers its decisions based on what is good in the long run for human flourishing. Sound, profit-motivated decisions are often not easy black and white decisions. There are countless intricacies and complexities. Nonetheless, our default position ought not to be the disparaging of profits. Quite the opposite.
Company leader, stand strong as you do all that you can to build your company profits and don’t be ashamed to say so.
Publisher
Heat Treat Today
Contact Doug Glenn at doug@heattreattoday.com.
