Hierachy Of Business Needs

2026-08-27

I really like Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Especially sometimes when I feel down it is nice to remind myself that I have the bottom few bits of the hierarchy covered, having food, water, and shelter is really nice and I should be grateful for it everyday. Just now I made some oatmeal for myself and the kids and it is nice to have the dry goods in the house ready to use at any time. My dad’s parents lived through the great depression and my mom’s parents lived through Japanese interment and they must have thought often about the bottom parts of the hierarchy.

Here a link to Maslow’s hierarchy.

Here are the needs from top to bottom:

And again I am thankful I take for granted the bottom two things and worry mainly about the top three.

But I was thinking about small businesses and thought there is kind of a hierarchy of business needs. This is just my ramblings and is very unscientific but I thought it might be useful to a budding business person.

Provide Value (or perceived value) (This is need number #1, the lowest need, the most necessary part of a business)

A business needs to provide, or seem to provide something to its users. This can be a wide range of things, usually a good or service. A good example would be the muffin company I talked about earlier, it providers its patrons with muffins. I cooked some oatmeal this morning, Quaker oats owns a bunch of farms somewhere and harvests oats, packages them, and sells them to Costco, which stores them, puts them in stores near me, where I can go and buy them. Google provides value, a farmer provides value, artist and entertainers provide value.

Even things that are only kind of businesses, like con men or agencies like the DMV provide value or perceived value. A ponzi scheme makes its users think they are going to get rich quickly, and even if it is a lie (the ponzi scheme will run out of money eventually) the users perceive the value. At the DMV you can get a drivers license even if it sometimes takes a while.

Compete In The Market (Needs #2)

This applies to most businesses and is kind of fluid but most businesses have markets and compete with other businesses. There are some closed markets, there are some monopolies or duopolies or things like that but hopefully those are exceptions to the rule. the DMV has no competitor aside from other DMVs.

Again for the muffin company, if it sells muffins but there are other pastry shops nearby they all naturally compete and the muffin company must have some advantages in order to stay a business. It needs to be a little closer to your house, sell this delicious poppy seed almond muffin that you can’t find elsewhere, have a shorter line, or be a little cheaper. If the muffin company was worse in every way to a store next to it, it would fail quickly.

This could be similar to selling oats, being a Costco, or even Ponzi schemes. There are markets for all of these things and companies competing. And competition is usually a good thing for consumers, we need companies to compete with one another.

Earn Money (Need #3)

This one is probably the most straightforward. Companies need to buy stuff, sometimes raw materials like ovens, labor from bakers, flour, and water for muffins. Quaker oats needs to own land, tractors, contracts with farmers, etc. Costco has a ton of supplier I imagine they need to keep good relations with, they own stores and land, parking lots.

And finally all companies sell things, they have sales people and revenue. They report their earning to the IRS and pay taxes. They have customers and sales volume and what not. Here the DMV example doesn’t work because they have a budget instead of a need to earn money.

Also a lot of companies can temporarily go in the red and lose money for a month or year or even a few years. If they are growing, investing in R&D, or being a Ponzi scheme, you can lose money in the short term but eventually you must earn money.

And this is kind of the line for a ‘self sustaining company’. You can be a company with need 3 but in order to be self sustaining over the long run you need at least 1, 2, and 3.

Provider A Great Place For People To Work (Need #4)

We are getting towards the top of the hierarchy and many companies never get to 4. This is to provide people with a great place to work. There are a variety of work cultures in the world and in the US. I have been at multiple companies some of which were great to work at and some of which no so much. And aside from just making money, if a company can provide a good or even great place to work I find it special.

This can come in lots of forms, good communication between employees, good healthcare, a culture of trust, good work life balance, or empathetic managers. It is sometimes hard to pin down why a company is such a good place to work (or a bad place to work) but when you find it, it is great.

Do Good In The World (Need #5)

I wasn’t sure if this or the previous one should be the top of the hierarchy but this one edged out. Again not all companies have this and some companies will never have it. But sometimes a company’s values align with yours and will give you extra purpose. Aside from taking home a paycheck every month you can feel harmonious with your work and the mission of your company.

Sometimes this is something small, like in the example of the muffin company, you are literally feeding people, giving them one of their basic needs. As fast as oats and Costco go, those are also good things, providing goods to customers. Google is trying to organize the world’s information, artists make art, farmers feed people.

Things like Ponzi schemes will never achieve good in the world.

So it really depends on the type of work and what you believe in. Everyone is different with different values, as for myself some companies I have worked at I believe in more than others.

Summary

So the hierarchy of company needs I came up with (from top to bottom):

And I think when you are building a business you start at the bottom and work you way up, hopefully this is somewhat helpful.

-Gary