Two points:

• I do not agree that the point of business is to make money. Money is a measurement tool. It does not make sense to exist simply to be measured. The point (from my distorted point of view) of business is to provide goods and or services that improve life, or provide the perception of an improved life, for people. If a company is good at that, then they do well for a long time(with natural cycles of highs and lows that reflect change). The moment an organization starts making money for the sake of making money, the organization is relatively lost. And yes, that goes for financial institutions as well.
• IT can enable an organization in its efforts to find new ways of improving life, or delivering old ways with less expense. IT is not always used in the above mentioned pursuit, and often suffers because of it.

The neat thing about NASA is that it drives change, and a good percentage of that change adds value to life. I would venture to guess that if NASA changed it's goal to making money, it would loose it's value in less than 6 months, even if there was a fantastic business model and plan in place. NASA does good stuff because it's goal is to learn and apply. Most good business is the same. Money is just a measure of how well an organization sets, pursues, and measures the values of its goals. If the goal is making money, a circular dependency is generated that is unhealthy for everyone(ENRON, Big Tobacco..as I light up another... :-)). Ok, I am wandering.. time to stop.. but it is fun.

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