Do business owners really love their organisations?

What does one do if one loves something or someone? One would demonstrate emotions and ensure well being of their object of love. Right? We don't expect one to act in a way that endangers the well being or existence of the loved entity or loved being.

So, should the business owners behave any differently towards the organisations they create and supposedly love? Of course not. And their emotions do not betray our hypothesis! However, the policies and practices they propagate do not support the same story.  

We would like to believe that the owners would work towards the well being of  their business organisations. If this is true they should work for ensuring perpetuity of their businesses. But how many businesses perpetuate through generations or centuries? Only a handful. Statistics prove that only a mere 1/3rd of businesses survive every generation. This means we will have a small percentage of businesses surviving till the third generation of owners or managers! Isn't it a very disturbing phenomenon? 

Yes! It is hard to believe how owners or top managers work more towards degeneration of an organisation rather than perpetuity of the same. Leading management thinker Jim Collins had established in his seminal work "Good to Great" that either business organisations are considered as vehicles for the products or the products are considered as vehicles for the organisations. The organisations that perpetuate demonstrate the second type of behaviour, wherein an organisation is build, nurtured and maintained around core values and core purpose, and products that align with them are chosen along the way. How commonly do we see this approach by the business owners and leaders? Rarely.

It is commonplace to see businesses putting together an organisation to work for certain specific products. That way the life of the organisation gets tied to the product life-cycle directly! Isn't this common sense? What do we find when the product sales diminishes? Manpower rationalization decisions, pay cuts, resignations, loss of morale and ultimately death of a corporation when losses become unmanageable. 

Do business owners really lack the wisdom to understand the above principle? Or do they have more overpowering cravings that blind them from setting up their self-destructive journey?