It cannot endure without leaders and colleagues in whom many key virtues are internalized. Businessmen and businesswomen need to be attentive to the nation's moral ecology if the business economy and self-government itself are to survive. There are many habits an entrepreneur needs to succeed in business, but among these three are central. I call them cardinal virtues in the same sense that the ancient Greeks and Romans spoke of the four cardinal virtues of a happy life. The three cardinal virtues of business are creativity, building community , and practical realism.
Business creates new technologies, new ways of organizing labor, new possibilities.
Finally, unlike the dominant ideologies of the academy, which embrace a relativism that denies the possibility of any true reading of reality, people in business, while often romantic in vision, must remain securely fastened to the real. Seven plus Seven Corporate Responsibilities Men and women in business face a great many moral responsibilities. It may help to divide these into two different sets. The first set consists of the moral requirements necessary for business success. Of course, the fact that certain actions make a business successful does not disqualify them from being morally good.