In business, profits and return on investment are the dominant measures of success.
Good businesses understand that profitability is indispensable to viability, but they see profits as only one measure of success.
Smart executives know that a good reputation, trust, quality products and service, customer loyalty, and employee pride can make major contributions to profitability, but any success achieved will be short-lived and hollow if these “assets” are only valued as strategies to increase earnings, that is, as a means to an end rather than as intrinsically worthwhile.
Good businesses, like good people, see themselves as more that money catchers.
A great book proving this point is Firms of Endearment, by Raj Sisodia, Jag Sheth, and David Wolfe.