Business was invented by humans, for humans. Right? The fundamental concept of trade emancipated our hairy hunter-gatherer forbearers, allowing us to stop and smell the roses.

But today, as complex capitalist forces shape a business landscape far removed from the worker bees within it, this simple truth starts to feel less true. I’m often confronted with the existential question of whether my business can be a positive force—for our customers, for our employees, for our planet, and for our society. And when I can’t answer that question positively and immediately, I know I need to explore why.

Because on the whole, I’m someone who believes that we can manage the above. And yet I’m also a pragmatist and now that 2023 has come to a close, I can’t help but feel as though the business community has sadly fallen short.

As the term “woke capitalism” brought the culture wars to our boardrooms, we watched the insidious nature of economic forces play out on the world stage. While hosting COP28, the United Nations’s own summit on climate action, Saudi Arabia’s leaked documents highlighted the huge potential profitability of selling oil to emerging markets. Two-faced, yes.

Meanwhile, as Unilever’s share price declined, so too did their confidence around social impact with the firm’s new CEO Hein Schumacher recently calling corporate purpose an “unwelcome distraction.” Disappointing, yes.

Let’s not forget that as 2023 unfolded, Elon Musk’s acquisition of the platform formally known as Twitter for $44 billion took surprising twists and turns including cutting the team from 8,000 to just 1,500. Shocking, yes.

This move set the tone for what should be dubbed the year of layoffs, clocking in at over 150,000 globally—more than in 2021 and 2020 combined. From giants like Goldman Sachs to CNN, not to mention PepsiCo and Spotify as well as small scale-ups like my own, we’ve all had to make tough decisions this year.

Admittedly, that’s an all-too-easy-to-use euphemism for paying fewer people—and paying people is one of the most fundamental ways that business can be a force for good, which is why it’s important that we’re open and frank about it.

In the same breath, what we’ve seen in 2023 is a marked increase in the bottom line. Fewer overheads mean higher profit margins, which explains, at least in part, why Meta’s profit has more than doubled year-on-year.

Let me be clear: Making a profit is no bad thing. Indeed, it’s a great reason to be optimistic about 2024. With strong profits, companies can pay taxes, hire people, purchase from vendors, and treat their employees fairly. As we look to 2024, profit is arguably the most important consideration for business leaders, as we hunker down for what’s sure to be a year rife with economic and geopolitical turbulence.

I’d also say that that same optimism comes (or should come) with its fair share of accountability.

Because the more money you have, the more good you can do.

This is the basis of effective altruism (EA) and its core premise of “earning to give”—the belief that individuals should maximize the amount of good they can do in the world by intentionally embarking on lucrative careers to ensure they can “give back” as much as they can.

And given the context of corporate efficiency and profitability, effective altruists would be quick to suggest that the primary question that the business world should be exploring is where and how that profit is invested.

Now whether you’re bought into EA or not, doesn’t matter. What matters is the desire to actively seek to add value (not just dollars)—you know, as in that accountability bit mentioned earlier.

This necessitates auditing where value was added in the past or can be added—or alternatively, where it was drained out of the ecosystem before being sucked up by a select few.

Let’s look at 2023’s failed attempt at putting a cap on profitability. AI is a seismic engine of profit, and so, after failing to remain an NGO, OpenAI became a for-profit business in 2019. To constrain their profits, they established a governance structure and nonprofit board that was intentionally designed to protect ethical integrity.

It was an inspiring idea and, for many of us in the “business for good” club, it felt genuinely exciting. That was until earlier in 2023 when Microsoft publicly “neutralized” this “ethical” board, before ultimately reinstating fired CEO Sam Altman in a matter of days.

It begs the question: How does one constrain profit in the interest of social good? Or rather, perhaps the better question to be positing to business leaders is how they can harness profit, rather than constrain it? Profitable businesses can afford to invest, and the savviest leaders among us will see the opportunity to invest in the future of our species.

Profit is our ticket out of the hand-to-mouth doom cycle of 2023. Profit, when invested intentionally, affords us the collective opportunity to stop and smell the roses. And perhaps even plant a few roses for the next generation.

Apple, for example, is an extremely profitable business, operating on a 26% margin. Unlike Unilever who made a 17% profit in 2023, the firm has the resources and space to think bigger and more long-term.

Both are fundamental if we are to address complex issues like the climate crisis. No profits can be made if we’re not here. Even Apple doubled the company’s total commitment to funding carbon removal and made impressive progress toward its ambitious goal to make every product carbon-neutral by 2030.

So for the business leaders around the world who are preparing for the months ahead, I would suggest taking a moment to think like an effective altruist. For one, how can you make the most amount of money possible in 2024? And just as importantly, how can you use that money to do the most amount of good?

Because the more we make in 2024, the more good we can (afford to) do.