Philosophy as a discipline doesn’t necessarily result into concrete solutions, why then is it still relevant and why must we engage in this discipline, especially for businesses?

Somehow I think that @notDoombringer is going to try and sell us something.

The real answer is that a business – any business – has to operate by some sort of ethical rules that will govern how it interacts with customers, clients, other businesses, banks, and so on. In other words the business is part of community, and the community is part of society at large.

So the average business owner may not intend to (or have immediate use for) Socrates and Plato, or even Rousseau, but the business owner is part of a society what follows societal rules that date back to the famous philosophers.

We are all the products of those who came before us.

Philosophy still exists because people still have questions that can’t be easily answered by psychology and religion.

Sounds like a required course for business majors. I hope they get to think about some good questions.

To me, philosophy is all about asking questions. In business, as in any other activity, we need to find our personal answers to the great questions of life.

Philosophy is essential because it is above all the premium exercise in logic. When I was a kid in prep school I couldn’t understand the Jesuit obsession with the field, but believe me, in this country in these times, logic is a sparse and dwindling commodity.

Like her or not, Ayn Rand gave a speech to the graduating West Point class of 1974 called “Philosopy-Who Needs It. The text of the speech, even recordings, are all over the internet. Example – http://aynrandlexicon.com/ayn-rand-works/pwni.html
If you can’t get past her accent there is this- http://aynrandlexicon.com/ayn-rand-works/pwni.html

It will answer your question.

Could it then be called a theory?

A theory? It’s about as much “a theory” as thinking or mathematics. It is a DISCIPLINE.

Because it causes people to think. To ponder. To see.

Either they’re selling, or it’s a homework question. Regardless, I have no idea.

Businesses don’t always result in ‘concrete sooitions’ either, but for various historical and doctrinal reasons, we put up with these private tyrannies where workers get to take orders from bosses for half their waking lives,

I took a variety of classes in college and was a philosophy major. I’m currently the practice administrator for a small surgical practice. My philosophy classes were among the most practical in my daily decision-making from all of classes I took. Philosophy teaches you about the process of problem solving, analyzing arguments, figuring out logical flaws, decomposing complex ideas into simpler pieces and using precise language and reason to articulate viewpoints. Being able to speak and write with a high degree of specificity is invaluable in business. It allows you to prevent costly misunderstandings and defuse interpersonal conflict which can have a huge negative impact on the bottom line.

I use these skills daily in business to evaluate business opportunities, negotiate with 3rd parties and my staff, and plan for the future.

It has been my experience that people who believe that philosophy is not a practical subject have generally never taken a serious philosophy class. There seems to be a naive and popular false belief that philosophy is some undisciplined activity of pondering unanswerable questions in an unstructured manner. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Philosophers engage in rigorous examination of ideas using very specific logical tools and methods to analyze different philosophical ideas. The process is intense and applying these methods to business questions makes those real-world problems trivial by comparison.