Business Philosophy: We want to do good in the world. On a technical level, we hope to improve individual experiences and the environment in which they live, work and play. On a personal level, we want to build lasting relationships with customers, suppliers, employees and stakeholders and play a meaningful role in their lives as they help us address significant global problems.
I agreed, not because we will change anything we will do, but because of the old addage from writing "Show. Don't tell." Also, "Actions speak louder than words." So, I took it out of the written business plan, but it remains central to the business plan. I'm a firm believer that we can use business to do good. I also believe in a God who will reward us for doing good, and so doing well is a natural consequence of doing good.
I recently read a book that articulated much of this belief wonderfully, "Business for the Glory of God: The Bible's Teaching on the Moral Goodness of Business." In it, Wayne Grudem, a professor at the Phoenix Seminary, explains why things such as ownership, employment, profit, money, competition, borrowing and lending are all morally good, though they can also be temptations to sin. He does a terrific job in a little 83 page book that can be read in one sitting.
Here's the Cliff's Notes:
Basic Premise: Most facets of business are morally good, but can be perverted to evil. Examples are in each chapter.
Ownership: "I believe the reason God gave the command, "You shall not steal," is that ownership of possessions is a fundamental way that we imitate God's sovereignty over the universe by our exercising "sovereignty" over a tiny portion of the universe, the things we own." We become stewards of our possessions, and can use them for good, to care and love for others, for our own enjoyment and the enjoyment of others; we can give them away, we can save them for another time when they may be needed more. All of this is fundamentally good. Of course, possessions can also make us prideful, covetous, and greedy, and these are necessarily bad.
Productivity: Producing goods and services is fundamentally good, a way to care for and serve others who willingly purchase those goods and services, giving them things they cannot make for themselves, at least not as efficiently, and doing things for them better and more efficiently than they would do themselves. Work in itself is fundamentally good in that it benefits others and so is a way for us to express our love for them. However, it can be a temptation if we focus on the material things themselves, or allow the money we receive in return for work to become our dominant purpose.
Employment: Hiring people or being employed is fundamentally good, allowing them to contribute to others. As employers, we give our employees an opportunity for a greater contribution, and also provide for their families and their future, and hopefully also give them the means to be generous to others. Of course, employment can also lead to greed, to jealousy and covetousness, and to conflict, none of which glorify God.
Commercial Transactions: Buying and selling are fundamentally good--we are exchanging something we need less for something we need more. Voluntary commercial transactions benefit both parties. We must practice honesty, fairness, and faithfulness to our committments. If we don't we are giving in to the temptation to sin. Also, globally, a network of business transactions has a stabilizing effect on society, because we are reliant on each other and there is a mutual cost for conflict that interrupts the flow of transactions.
Profit: Earning a profit is fundamentally good, and concrete evidence that we are creating value and providing it to others--that what we are doing is worth more to them than it is to us and because of that they will willingly pay more than it cost us to produce. Also, profit forces efficiency, which means that those who create the most benefit the most efficiently will thrive, while those who are less efficient will have to find another way to serve. However, someone with a monopoly who takes advantage of others, depleting their wealth and forcing inefficiencies elsewhere in the system, or who lie or cheat to obtain a profit--these are sinful and not to God's glory.
Money: Money is fundamentally good, allowing us to exchange our goods and services for unlike goods and services, with people who have something we need but who don't necessarily need what we can provide. It also allows us to save the value we create, and to give it generously to people who don't need what we deliver. Of course, the root of all evil is the love of money, and we cannot serve two masters, so we must take care to make sure that money is our servant and not we its servant.
Inequality of Possessions: Just as in heaven there will be inequality of stewardship (Luke 19), so too here on earth. Many people are not able to bear under the temptations and responsibilities that come with stewarding large amount of resources, and they will be happier and enjoy a better life in heaven with less of a resource burden here on earth. Others can bear this responsibility, and we should be grateful that they do. People with larger stewardship can be more generous and give a larger share of their possessions to the poor (think John Rockefeller financing polio vaccines in the South). However, we can come to rely on our riches, to become greedy, the let the love of money force us to compromise our integrity and our other values. These do not glorify God.
Competition: Competition is fundamentally good, allowing us to assign jobs to those who will perform them best. (Think: would it glorify God to have someone who got D's in math designing airplanes?) It also allows us as consumers to assign profit to those companies who deliver the most value to us. As individuals it helps us to find a place in society where we can contribute the most. (I imagine John Grisham was a moderately successful lawyer, but after the success of "The Firm," contributed to the enjoyment of many millions of people and changed his profession.) However, competition can be perverted for evil and people can cheat, lie and slander others in an effort to get ahead.
Borrowing and Lending: Borrowing and lending multiply the usefulness of the resources of society, but must be done with propriety and generosity, and everything that is owed must be paid when it is owed. (A debt is not owed--the payments are owed and must be paid when promised. Similarly, there is no need to pay our taxes five years in advance, though they will be owed.) So money, or a book or my car may be used by another when I do not need them, and returned to be used later by me, sometimes with a fee or interest.
Effect on World Poverty: All of this will have the effect of forcing efficiency and allowing the equitable distribution of wealth, and so reduce poverty across the globe.
Personal note: When I finished the book the first time, I smiled and thought to myself, "Now he gets it. Why would anyone start or get into a business other than to effect all of this good in the world--create wealth, give people contexts within which to thrive, generate transactions that are more valuable to each party, provide for others families, give greater stewardship opportunities to those who can handle them--what other reasons are there? I also was struck with what a terrific task it is to do well, and how many, many pitfalls there are along the way, and also how our society pulls us like gravity into those pitfalls.
So, yes, I've removed it from the written business plan, but it is central and core to the business.
