Meaning ● Utilitarianism, in the context of Small and Medium-sized Businesses (SMBs), denotes a strategic philosophy centered on maximizing overall benefit when implementing growth strategies, automation initiatives, or operational changes. This involves evaluating potential outcomes of various decisions to select the option that provides the greatest good for the largest number of stakeholders, including employees, customers, and owners, measured through metrics such as increased profitability, improved operational efficiency, or enhanced customer satisfaction. Determining automation investments, utilitarian thinking necessitates balancing cost savings against potential job displacement, ensuring minimal disruption and considering reskilling opportunities for affected staff. Growth opportunities should equally align with customer needs and business impact, maximizing benefits for the business and the served market. ● Consider, for instance, implementing new CRM software. The utilitarian approach would examine not just increased sales (positive outcome), but also the training costs, learning curve for employees, and potential initial disruption to workflows (negative outcomes) to measure the actual worth of the system to the company. Ultimately, the net utility should be maximized for practical applicability, where the investment should be a benefit to all, enhancing performance of company across verticals such as human resources, marketing, or logistics.
