--- title: "Community First, Profit Second: Rethinking the Corporate Model So Everyone Wins" description: "Is it true that a successful company has to make a profit? Before you answer, I invite you to think about this: What is a company’s purpose in the world?" image: https://blog.kintone.com/hubfs/AdobeStock_27094337.jpeg --- [![Kintone](https://blog.kintone.com/hubfs/KintoneGlobal/svg/logo_kinton_black.svg)](https://www.kintone.com/en-us/) [![Kintone](https://blog.kintone.com/hubfs/KintoneGlobal/svg/logo_kinton_black.svg)](https://www.kintone.com/en-us/) ![](https://blog.kintone.com/hubfs/KintoneGlobal/svg/icon_search_black.svg) - Product Product![](https://blog.kintone.com/hubfs/KintoneGlobal/svg/icon_plus.svg)![](https://blog.kintone.com/hubfs/KintoneGlobal/svg/icon_back.svg) - Product ![](https://blog.kintone.com/hubfs/KintoneGlobal/svg/icon_plus.svg) ![](https://blog.kintone.com/hubfs/KintoneGlobal/svg/icon_back.svg) - [Intro to Kintone](https://www.kintone.com/en-us/intro/) - [Why Kintone](https://www.kintone.com/en-us/why-kintone/) - Features ![](https://blog.kintone.com/hubfs/KintoneGlobal/svg/icon_plus.svg) ![](https://blog.kintone.com/hubfs/KintoneGlobal/svg/icon_back.svg) - 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[![](https://blog.kintone.com/hubfs/2018%20S2/assets/kin-heart-white.png) ![](https://blog.kintone.com/hubfs/2018%20S2/assets/kin-heart-grey.png) ![](https://blog.kintone.com/hubfs/2018%20S2/assets/kin-heart-red.png) Company + Product](https://blog.kintone.com/company-news) - Business with Heart <3Operations for the Digital First Team - [Company + ProductLatest News from Kintone](https://blog.kintone.com/company-news) - [Business with Heart <3Operations for the Digital First Team](https://blog.kintone.com/business-with-heart) ![](https://blog.kintone.com/hubfs/AdobeStock_27094337.jpeg) [Digital Transformation,](https://blog.kintone.com/business-with-heart/tag/digital-innovation) [Improving Teamwork,](https://blog.kintone.com/business-with-heart/tag/improving-teamwork) [Tips and Tricks,](https://blog.kintone.com/business-with-heart/tag/tips-and-tricks) # Community First, Profit Second: Rethinking the Corporate Model So Everyone Wins Apr 20, 2017   |   by [Osamu Yamada](https://blog.kintone.com/business-with-heart/author/osamu-yamada) [Tweet](https://twitter.com/share) Is it true that a successful company has to make a profit? Before you answer, I invite you to think about this question: *What is a company’s purpose in the world?* The purpose of all companies should be to contribute to society in a meaningful way for making the world a better place for everyone. But the rise of the shareholder capitalism has led companies to focus on short-term financial targets, even if it means cheating customers and cutting their most "valuable resources" with massive layoffs. LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman and entrepreneurs Ben Casnocha and Chris Yeh phrased it well in their book "[The Alliance: Managing Talent in the Networked Age](http://www.amazon.com/The-Alliance-Managing-Talent-Networked/dp/1625275773/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1403618941&sr=8-1&keywords=the+alliance&tag=bisafetynet-20)[.](https://www.amazon.com/Alliance-Managing-Talent-Networked-Age/dp/1483014622)[.](https://www.amazon.com/Alliance-Managing-Talent-Networked-Age/dp/1483014622)" > "A business without loyalty is a business without long-term thinking. A business without long-term thinking is a business that's unable to invest in the future. And a business that isn't investing in tomorrow's opportunities and technologies -- well, that's a company that's already in the process of dying." If you cut labor cost, your profit increases, and your investors are happy. But these investors will sell the shares. I’ve seen this reality and have come to a conclusion on what we want to achieve. We can make investors, clients, and employees all happy – not one over the other. This is our contribution to society. Our goal at **[Kintone](https://www.kintone.com/)** and parent company **[Cybozu](https://www.kintone.com/build-applications-platform/) **deviates from traditional corporate principles. We work to create a more equitable society full of teamwork, even if that means we’re not market winners. **RELATED: [Lessons From Silicon Valley -- How One Company is Re-Imagining Work/Life Balance Globally](https://blog.kintone.com/blog/lessons-from-silicon-valley/)** But a company will never fail as long as it has these two things: 1. Goods and Services that people need 2. Happy employees. We recognize we need to make a profit and if we fail to sustain ourselves, we won’t be able to continue the challenge to make the world a more equitable place. That’s the game we want to win. Often college students ask me, “what’s your corporate social responsibility?” It’s more than just volunteering a couple days a year and donating money – corporate social responsibility is embedded in the way we run our entire organization. It’s a KPI that makes us socially responsible leaders, not just profit generators. When we place the majority of value on shareholders, we are doing a disservice to our communities and driving greater income inequality. If the market cap is high enough, shareholders might sell and generate a profit. But after they sell the stock, somebody else will buy that stock. Then we as a company have to continue slashing budgets and raising sales at any expense just to make a profit. But for what? So I ask again, what is a company’s purpose and do we really need to pursue profit first? When customers pay us because they are happy with our product and service, we can create a high quality of living for employees and their families while also paying our share in taxes to support community and infrastructure projects. With this power, we, along with other companies, are responsible for creating a more equitable society. There's a long way to go, but we're in this to win this. **Will you join us?** [![New Community Coalition non-profit tech database](https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/1857320/8a9384d8-33ed-4d35-bd03-bbeb561b9559.png)](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/1857320/8a9384d8-33ed-4d35-bd03-bbeb561b9559) [![Kintone Free Trial CTA](https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/1857320/a0c9f62e-cc45-42e5-ade0-913fa2ddcd53.png)](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/1857320/a0c9f62e-cc45-42e5-ade0-913fa2ddcd53) [![](https://blog.kintone.com/hubfs/Osamu-2.png)](https://blog.kintone.com/business-with-heart/author/osamu-yamada) About the Author [Osamu Yamada](https://blog.kintone.com/business-with-heart/author/osamu-yamada) With over 20 years executive leadership experience in finance, HR, and administration at the #1 collaboration and office solutions provider in Japan, Osamu is the CEO of kintone, a San Francisco-based industry leader in Enterprise Application Platform as a Service (aPaaS). He has led and contributed to some of the most innovative discussions in IT and the future of work at venues such as Gartner and Harvard Business Review. Osamu is an internationally recognized expert on progressive company/work culture with insight into how innovative HR policies can have a transformative impact on a company’s long-term success. Recommended Posts Up Next [Want to Drive Process Transformation? Start Bottom-Up](https://blog.kintone.com/business-with-heart/drive-business-process-transformation-bottom-up) Previous [Transformation Talk: How To Move Your Org Toward a Process Excellence Culture](https://blog.kintone.com/business-with-heart/transformation-talk-how-to-move-your-org-toward-a-process-excellence-culture) [Back to Business with Heart <3 Blog Page](https://blog.kintone.com/business-with-heart) ### Subscribe to Blog #### Recommended Posts [![](https://blog.kintone.com/hubfs/Kintone%20%281%29-Jun-30-2026-04-48-58-0381-AM.png)](https://blog.kintone.com/business-with-heart/replace-microsoft-project-online-with-no-code-tools) Digital Transformation ##### Replace Microsoft Project Online With No-Code Tools Microsoft Project Online officially retires on September 30, 2026. After more than a decade as a core platform for project scheduling and portfolio management, the service will no longer be available after that date. But for many teams, this retirement is also... [Read More »](https://blog.kintone.com/business-with-heart/replace-microsoft-project-online-with-no-code-tools) [![](https://blog.kintone.com/hubfs/Kintone%20%281%29-4.png)](https://blog.kintone.com/business-with-heart/tribal-knowledge-into-team-knowledge) Digital Transformation ##### How to Turn Tribal Knowledge Into Team Knowledge Every team has someone who just knows how things work. They know which vendor to call when a shipment stalls. They remember the workaround for the billing system glitch that was never fixed. They can close out a monthly report in 20 minutes because they built ... 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[Read More »](https://blog.kintone.com/business-with-heart/how-to-build-a-culture-of-process-thinking) [![](https://blog.kintone.com/hubfs/Kintone%20%282%29.png)](https://blog.kintone.com/business-with-heart/vibe-code-and-no-code) Digital Transformation ##### Vibe No-Coding: Combining The Best of AI and No-Code Vibe coding has recently taken over the conversation about how software gets built. The concept is simple enough. You describe what you want in plain language, let AI generate the code, and ship it without development experience or a wait for IT. For rapid pro... [Read More »](https://blog.kintone.com/business-with-heart/vibe-code-and-no-code) ### Try Kintone For Free! Our clients have built and deployed over 340,000 Kintone applications. Join them by signing up for a free trial–no credit card required–or scheduling a customized product demo. 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