Comment by sbarre

Fair enough! I see your point.. But then I would submit that this is too narrow of a view to take in a complex interconnected enterprise, and that anyone who works this way will end up more behind than ahead.

I'll stand by my first line that nothing exists in a vacuum.

If you only make decisions in isolation or without broader context, whether based on ethics or otherwise, then you will inevitably make the wrong decision, I would argue, more often than not.

Context matters, and the same decision made at different times and in different situations can have completely different outcomes or impacts.

What if "making the customer happy" costs so much money that it puts the company out of business? Do you still focus on only making the customer happy?

What if you have to piss off your customers, for a period of time, to save the business so you can get back to making the customer happy eventually?

Or a less dramatic scenario, what if making the customer happy makes your co-workers' jobs hell, for reasons outside your, or their, control? Is customer happiness then still your singular focus at all cost? Because then you're a shit co-worker in my view.

Is your only responsibility to the customer, or do you feel any responsibility towards your co-workers and/or their jobs & livelihoods?

Life and work are messy and complicated, and everything is a series of trade-offs.