Happynomics - business, wealth and happiness

Futurist Topics - Management

What is ‘Happynomics’ ?

Happynomics is about the links between wealth and happiness. Everyone wants to be happy – and most advertisers try to persuade us that the secret of happiness is the next thing we will buy. But we know that long lasting happiness usually depends on many deeper things: friendship, strong family relationships, good health, personal fulfilment and so on.

The search for personal happiness is important, and there is a growing amount of new research into Happynomics.

It is hard to be happy if you have many worries about money, too little or too much. In fact great wealth brings many pressures of its own. Once basic needs have been met, happyness does not usually go on rising in direct proportion to personal income.

Happynomics is about the economics of happiness. Contentment can be measured not only in individuals but also in communities, or indeed across entire nations, looking at a national sense of well-being. On a national level, Happynomics surveys show that happyness is enhanced to varying degrees by wealth, education, peaceful government and trust, but weakened by things like corruption, insecurity and unemployment.

Happiness is a dominant concept in marketing, customer loyalty, product design and workplace motivation.

For example, most employers don’t seem to realise that number one or two career priority for many younger executives is work-life balance – more important than a big annual bonus, share options, larger car or better private health care. Gallup research on engagement shows that highly engaged teams are usually more productive, serve customers better, and more willing to change.

It is hard to feel engaged if you are unhappy at work.Unhappiness is a major cause of lost productivity: people take time off work at the least excuse, cannot concentrate, work more slowly. They may be unhappy with work, or with their personal lives – and these emotions connect together. There can also be medical reasons for unhappiness which may require antidepressant treatments, as well as emotional support. In the UK alone the cost of depression to business could be more than $18bn a year.

Happynomics is fundamental to every business success and every long term business relationship. For example, all advertising is based on a promise of happiness. This product will make your life easier. This food tastes wonderful. This holiday will be a wonderful rest. This insurance will help you sleep at night. This mobile device will help you do more work in less time. It is hard to think how a company that can survive by promising to make people miserable.

All successful businesses want their customers to be happy, suppliers to be happy, workers to be happy. Win, win, win. That means treating people like we would like to be treated ourselves, fairly, with respect, with care and understanding.

We know that the future will not be driven just by technology, innovation, products or clever new services. History shows us that the future will be driven by emotion: by how consumers feel about themselves, their lives, and the products or services they use.

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