When Harvey Firestone published Men and Rubber back in 1926, he wasn’t just telling war stories from the factory floor. He was laying out a blueprint — a business philosophy that, nearly a century later, still feels radical. Not because it’s new, but because so many have forgotten it.
In his view, if the only reason you’re in business is to make money, you’re already on the wrong track. A business, he argued, must exist to meet a real human need. Without that, it has no reason to exist…and likely won’t for long.
But if it does meet a genuine need, and it does so efficiently and ethically, then success is not only possible, it’s probable.
Firestone saw profit not as the purpose of business, but as the byproduct of doing the right thing, the right way. Improve people’s lives, efficiently and sustainably, and the profits will follow. Simple as that.
“The business that serves the public best, profits most.”
Of course, profits matter. A lot. Try keeping the lights on without them. They’re also the carrot that draws entrepreneurs into the fray; without the prospect for an attractive return why would anyone take on the myriad risks that come with starting or growing a business?
But Firestone’s framing reminds us: capitalism at its best isn’t a zero-sum hustle. It’s a system for allocating resources in a way that rewards those who create genuine value. Not rent-seekers. Not grifters. But builders and problem solvers. Those that help drive human flourishing.
That probably sounds a bit old fashioned or corny. Maybe even a little grandiose. And it’s certainly at odds with how most people think about capitalism today — dog eat dog, profit at any cost and with personal enrichment as the only goal, even if it comes at someone else’s expense.
Which, to be fair, isn’t entirely wrong given the modern bastardisation of what is (or at least was) the capitalist ideal. So-called crony capitalism.
But Firestone’s take wasn’t some rosy-eyed idealism. Nor was it a cynical corporate branding exercise. It was simple blue-collar pragmatism, forged on the factory floor. And when you stop and think about it, one that makes a huge amount of sense.
Take, for example, his view on wages. Firestone, like his contemporary and good friend Henry Ford, championed higher pay — not out of charity, but because it made business sense. Better-paid workers were more loyal, more productive, and less likely to jump ship. It wasn’t philanthropy. It was strategic thinking.
Same goes for customers. If you want more of them, solve a real problem. Do it affordably. Do it better than others. No gimmicks, shady competitive practices or marketing spin. Just value, clearly delivered.
Manage that and sustainable profits are all but guaranteed. And, also, hard to begrudge.
Indeed, when viewed in this way, profit becomes an almost noble pursuit. If achieved, it is nothing other than fair and just recompense for improving the lives of others. (At least, that is, when the playing field is level.)
Firestone’s philosophy might be nearly a century old, but it still holds merit. More than that, it brings us back to what business, and true capitalism, is really about: solving problems in the service of society.
And if you do it in a way that does not rely on exploiting workers, customers, or shareholders, you will not only build a strong business, but an enduring legacy. One with a robust social license to operate, which is itself a form of competitive advantage.
For investors, that means focusing less on near-term profit potential, and more on whether companies are solving real problems, for real people, in ways that are sustainable and scalable. That’s where the durable returns are. That’s where the moats are.
Sure, you can back the rent-seekers — the ones with regulatory protection and friends in high places. Sadly, it’s not a terrible strategy given the current structure of things.
But, eventually, even the best-protected racket runs out of runway. Value and purpose, on the other hand, never go out of style.
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