Q.Why is it necessary for a business enterprise to balance its economic, social, human and national objectives? Explain with examples.

The different categories of business objectives can genuinely pull against each other, so a business must consciously balance them rather than maximise any one alone.

Step 1 — Why balancing matters. A business pursues economic, social, human, national and global objectives simultaneously, not one at a time. These objectives can genuinely conflict, and a business that maximises only one of them while ignoring the rest tends to damage its own long-term position, even if it gains in the short term.

Step 2 — Examples of conflicting objectives.

• Profit vs. fair pricing: charging the highest price the market will bear maximises short-term profit (an economic objective) but conflicts with the social objective of fair, reasonable pricing for consumers — and can drive customers away once a fairer-priced competitor appears.
• Cost-cutting vs. employee welfare: reducing wages or safety spending lowers costs (economic objective) but conflicts with the human objective of fair pay and safe working conditions — and a poorly treated workforce is typically also a less productive one.
• Cheapest location vs. balanced regional development: concentrating new units only where infrastructure is already best serves short-term cost efficiency, but conflicts with the national objective of developing backward regions.
• Short-term profit vs. organic survival: cutting corners on quality or research raises profit now, but undermines the innovation and customer trust the business needs for its own long-term survival and growth. …