Ultimate Questions: A Stakeholder Guide to the Business of Your Life

The accumulated wisdom of a beloved business professor’s signature course

Who are we, and who am I? Why are we here, and why am I here? What is the good life, and what is my good life? How should I get along with others? 

For years, business ethics professor Andrew Wicks pursued these lines of inquiry in his perennially popular course “Ultimate Questions and Creating Value for Stakeholders.” In this book, he presents the core ideas of the course to a general audience. Touching on a variety of possible answers—from philosophers, scientists, and more—without advocating for any single position, the book reminds readers that these questions are present in our lives every day and all the time. When we consider them consciously, we can identify our existing answers and craft new ones as we grow and change. They are at the core of what it means to live a fully realized life. And as the world becomes increasingly polarized, ultimate questions emerge as a critical lens through which to relate across difference. With gentle guidance, this book encourages the kind of difficult, vulnerable conversations that help us learn about and interact with each other more authentically—and offers tips on how to do so in a way that feels more like everyday dialogue among peers than hostile confrontations among rivals.

While this book is about finding individual answers to these questions, it is also about business and business leadership. Business is a fundamentally human activity, in which people work together to make themselves and each other better off. When business leaders and students ask these probing questions, it leads to more understanding, more collaboration, and better business outcomes. The book is deeply tied to stakeholder theory, which posits that a business succeeds when it serves a wide range of people in its value chain: customers, suppliers, employees, financiers, community members, and more. Considering these questions with members of all these groups enables business leaders to better understand how to serve their stakeholders and find new ways to generate prosperity—not just for investors or owners, but for all involved in the value-creation process of a company.

At once conceptual and down-to-earth, Ultimate Questions inspires reflection and offers tools to better understand ourselves and others, to build the kinds of connection and reciprocity needed to lead in business and to live with authenticity and purpose.