The most recent letter to shareholders by JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon includes important insights into the role business can play in support of communities. Beginning on page 13 of the letter Dimon discusses the relationship of a business to the communities it serves. While he does not yield ground on the common view that the primary goal of a business is to increase shareholder value he identifies three criteria that must be met before a business can achieve this “primary” goal.

• Properly treat and serve customers
• Train and motivate employees
• Be a good citizen in the community

The letter highlights some of the programs the company has initiated to support communities. While the letter does not dive into the details of how these programs work it is clear that they operate at a personal level, supporting the economic growth of small businesses and individuals in their professional development. These are not employees, and possibly they are not even all JP Morgan Chase customers.

Dimon’s position is that an enterprise needs to support customers, employees and communities to serve its shareholders. It can also be stated that an enterprise needs to support shareholders to serve customers, employees and communities. Add that an enterprise needs to support communities to serve shareholders, customers, and employees. It becomes difficult to state that serving any one of these groups is a primary responsibility. For an enterprise to thrive it must recognize that it is a service organization and there are no boundaries between the people it serves.

Dimon writes that helping communities this way helps make the economy work and is both a business imperative and a moral obligation.

This is where lean management, integrated with a deeply felt people-first purpose can help. The lean management philosophy provides operational practices that can greatly enhance any effort to help communities. Individuals and enterprises can to put lean practices in play, in their work and in their communities, to make the places they work and live more joyful and enriching for themselves and their neighbors. It’s when we accept that doing so is much more a moral obligation and a less a business imperative that we draw in the energy we need to enjoy the rigor and discipline of daily lean practice.

Both we and our enterprises need to be understood as having no boundaries when it comes to embracing a purpose of serving others.