8 BUSINESS ORIENTATIONS – IN ANALOGIES
8.1 The analogy with the legal protection of business environment
Civilized society has four basic instruments to protect the business environment: the Contract, which safeguards relational agreements; the Copyright, which protects entire works; the Patent, which secures specific methods of doing things; and Private Ownership, which underpins the entire system
Private ownership is based on the concept of ownership—namely, the assumption that a person has the right or the ability to own something (or even someone else). Legal systems use this concept to define rules of ownership in both the private and public sectors. Without the notion that humans can own land, there would be no laws establishing the conditions for private or public ownership of land. This notion is not self-evident to nomadic or so-called “primitive” societies.
Likewise, without the ability to own one’s own business, there is no real foundation for responsibility or creative development. In countries where people could not create, own, and develop private businesses, technological and organizational decline soon followed.
Beyond the legal instruments that protect the business environment, businesses must choose a legal structure that defines the scope of their liability and capital requirements. The four fundamental forms of business ownership also mirror the 4 Business Orientations (or rather 4 Perception Spheres):
Business ownership: 1) Sole Proprietorship 2) General Partnership 3) Limited Liability Company 4) Corporation.