ABSTRACT
Principle 6 states that Profit = total value. It argues that conceptualizing economic value as an independent construct, separate from other kinds of value (such as social, ethical, and moral), demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of what profit represents. Although imperfect, profit is the best measure we have of capturing the total value added by a specific company and product/service during production and consumption. Rather than asking firms to focus on profit maximization (both impossible to prove and unhelpful because it distorts decision-making), the goal of profit optimization better reflects the value judgments made every day as firms balance competing stakeholder interests. Even better, understanding the total value added in terms of the separate processes associated with production and consumption provides a mechanism by which society can more easily identify those behaviors that create (and destroy) total value.
