What’s in a Name? The King’s thinking is most commonly known as the “Sufficiency Economy Philosophy” because of his emphasis on avoiding extremes and promotion of taking the middle path. The authors of this book feel that “sufficiency” invites skepticisms and misinterpretations because the word too closely resembles “self-sufficiency” which connotes a lack of growth, a rejection of globalization, and a return to agrarian society, all of
which are never intended by the original Thai term for sufficiency por-pieng. Peter Warr, an Australian academic, prefers to translate the King’s thinking as the “Economy of Enough” which captures the essence of the Thai word. We feel that in the business realm the word “enough” may connote a deliberate restriction of profit, which, again, is not intended by the King’s thinking. For this reason, we propose the use of another name for the King’s concept, the one that both delivers the original connotation and is familiar to the business community. From now on and throughout this book, we will call it: Corporate Sustainability under the Sufficiency Economy Philosophy.