GIVE as a PURPOSE: Business lessons from Parshah Noah
Executive summary: the episode of Noah caring for the animals in the Ark tell businesses that there is immense value in striving to radically fulfill their ecosystems’ needs.
Noah entered the ark […] with Noah’s sons […], and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons with them. And with them, every kind of beast, every kind of livestock, every kind of creatures that crawls on the ground, and every kind of flying creature (Bereishit 7:13–14). This is a lot of animals for very few people to take care of them. And it lasted close to a full year ! (1)
The task of caring for the animals in the ark was indeed extremely tenuous. Noah often groaned or even split blood from sheer exhaustion. Once, he was late in delivering the lion’s meal, and it struck him (2).
Hassidut teaches us (3) that Noah’s feeding the animals can be read as a metaphor for us providing spiritual nourishment to others. We must be super sensitive to our fellows’ discomfort and provide for their needs in due time, even overlooking our own hardships in the process (4). Chazal (5) adds that we should not even analyze whether what others require is a necessity or a luxury.
Noah went over himself to provide for what his fellows needed -all of them-and when they needed it. As a reward, G-d simply made him the father of humankind! In business terms, this is like piling up the equity value of every companies from 20th century Ford to 21st century Tesla and putting it under one balance sheet!
Torah is giving businesses a blueprint to access this kind of value creation. Be like Noah. Understand the needs of everyone in your ecosystem : your people & your customers & your suppliers & your funders & your investors & your bankers & your 3rd party providers & any other direct & indirect stakeholders. Don’t judge what they feel they need. Just provide it to them, exactly when they need it, whatever the costs.
Strive to give as a purpose, and get rich as an unintended result.
Some companies are currently borrowing from Noah’s playbook. Japanese pharma giant Eisai, Swedish bank Handeslbanken, large Norwegian retailer Reitan, or French business events planner Chateauform are among examples of companies which decided to walk that path (6).
The blueprint is there for any venture willing to use it.
B’H’
(1) Source: Lubavitcher Chumash, Bereishit p.53
(2) Lubavitcher Chumash / Likutei Sichot vol 5, pp. 52–53
(3) Lubavitcher Chumash / Likutei Sichot vol 5, pp. 53–56
(4) It is to be noted that G-d never asks us more than what we can do (Bamidbar Rabbah 12,3). Thus, the hardships and discomforts we can experience very very rarely go to the point of “groaning and spitting blood”! (Likutei Sichot vol 5, pp. 53–56)
(5) Lubavitcher Chumash / Ketubot 67b
(6) See Isaac Getz, Laurent Marbacher, The Altruistic corporation
