We believe the purpose of Northern.tech is the journey. Our mission is to work to secure the world’s connected devices. And while on this journey to fulfil our mission, we must have fun and do the right things.
Doing the right thing is…the right thing to do. Simple, right?
No. Unfortunately, a company's primary focus has been to maximize shareholder value—from its inception in the 1500s through its first scientific management theories in the 1900s to this day. Milton Friedman’s famous 1970 article, “The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase Its Profits,” has long served as a holy script for business. Edward Freeman’s “Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach” from 1984 was the first counter-proposal to shareholder supremacy. CEO incentives are short-term, driven by Wall Street’s transactional business model.
In the 2000s, it first dawned that companies could be and should be a vehicle for good for more than their shareholders. In the last 20 years, there has been a growing understanding of a more holistic approach to the purpose of a company. In 2019, at a famous business roundtable, the CEOs of the biggest corporations in the USA redefined their purpose to be an Economy That Serves All Americans.
Led by the business roundtable chairman, Jamie Dimon, Chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase & Co, stated: “Major employers are investing in their workers and communities because they know it is the only way to be successful over the long term. These modernized principles reflect the business community’s unwavering commitment to continue to push for an economy that serves all Americans.”
Wall Street still reigns, but we see more companies adopting a stakeholder approach over shareholder supremacy. At Northern.tech, we believe in a stakeholder approach. We want to treat everyone with a stake in our company and its impact on the greater society equally. It is on us to make the world a better place. If not us, who? If not now, when? Let’s pick up the torch and join the others in showing the way. No one is too small or too big to embrace this.
Despite being a small company with limited resources, one of our activities has been donating to non-profit organizations. In our operating model, we have something called company objectives. These are targets of importance to the company. Whenever we successfully close a company objective, we celebrate by giving a donation.
A random employee can choose the cause. The employee who gets to choose typically selects something near and dear to us all. So far, 20 donations to organizations all over the world, across eight different countries, have made an impact beyond Northern.tech. The normal size of a donation is $5,000, which means that we have donated around $100,000. To see our success being spilled over to others feels good and right. This is the way it should be.
If you are considering joining Northern.tech, please know that we seek people with holistic mindsets – individuals who value their team over themselves, enjoy giving, and believe sharing is caring everywhere and always.