God's purpose for Business

What is God’s purpose for business? Does it even make sense to ask that question? Does God only have a purpose for people in business? Or does God have a purpose for institutions like corporations, economic systems, and governments?

The quote referred to as the Westminister Shorter Catechism (1674) speaks to God’s purpose for humans. “Question 1: What is the chief end of man? Answer: Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever.”

Which leads us to the next question: How? How does a person glorify God? How does a business glorify God? John Piper’s modification of the Westminister Catechism helps to answer this question. His answer to the question, “What is the chief end of man?” is “Man’s chief end is to glorify Godby enjoying him forever.” We glorify God when we place Him at the center of our lives, when He becomes our greatest source of satisfaction and joy.

The result of the Fall and of sin is that humans want to be their own god, and be the source of their own satisfaction and joy. We do this by trying to fulfill ourselves with human relationships, with money, with success, with sex, with power, with the cheap thrills of this world. Our sin is rooted in pride, the belief that we can do a better job than God at fulfilling the desires of our hearts.

What about for business? Does it make sense to say that the chief end of business is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever? Perhaps it seems a bit abstract to think about the enjoyment of a business. But we can think about how a business glorifies God.

Over the past two weeks, I’ve asked various Christians in business this question, “What does it mean to you to honor God in your work and your business?” Here are some of their answers:

· To advance God’s kingdom – seeking and saving the lost, either doing it yourself or helping others to do this

· Have fair employer/employee interactions

· Serve your customers’ needs

· Do your work and run your business ethically

· Use business as a platform to introduce people to Jesus

· Be a selfless, servant leader

· Treat people well

· Pray for and with co-workers

· Genuinely care for clients, for their well-being and eternal salvation

· Value relationships over money

· Reconcile broken relationships even at your own cost

· Give a portion of your profits to God (the more money I make, the more I can give to advance God’s kingdom)

· Walk in the Spirit in all that you do in work and business

· To best display Christ's likeness, running a business that is ethical, with integrity, and displays the fruits of the Spirit

And now I ask you the same question, “What does it mean to you to honor God in your work and business?”

Maximize the good, minimize the evil

Recently I've had some healthy debates with my consultant friends. One works for McKinsey & Company, one of the most prestigious consulting firms in the world and the top employer of new MBA graduates since 1996. The other works for Deloitte, the largest private professional services organization in the world, employing 170,000 people in 140 countries. Heavy hitters.

I've been arguing with them about the evils of having profit-maximization as the ultimate goal of a business. They say profit-maximization is good and has many of benefits to society.

So far our highly intellectual debates have gone like this:

Me: You're wrong.

Them: I'm right.

Me: I'm right and you're stupid.

Them: You're wrong and I'm a genius so listen to me. Plus I'm very good looking.

Just kidding (except for the good looking part, that is true. In fact, one of them is single and very eligible, so if you're interested...) Seriously though, here are some of the arguments so far.

Pro-profit-maximization:

- good businesses operate with high moral standards with much honesty and integrity

- most of the time there is no conflict between glorifying God and maximizing shareholder value

- good businesses maximize profits, serve customers, and treat employees well at the same time

- harming people (customers, employees, innocent bystanders) actually hurts the profitability of the company, so it will prevent a company from doing these things

Anti-profit-maximization:

- when there is a conflict between maximizing profits and serving people, profits always wins, and people can get hurt (there is too much evidence to support this)

- maximizing profits places your own concerns above the concerns of others (loving yourself more than others), and that does not honour God

- all businesses and corporations have mission statements that say they want to serve their customers with excellence, but actually their mission statement is to maximize profits, so really they are lying and we can't really trust them

I agree that many businesses operate with high levels of integrity, that they do much good in the world through offering valuable products and services, provide many people with jobs, that they have done much in helping to minimize harm done to the environment, and have given a large portion of their profits to great social programs in their communities. Lots and lots of good that is done. And surely all these good things far outweigh the evil that is done along the way. The aggregate sum is positive, and that is good.

Should the Christian response be rather than reject the current dominant way of doing business, to engage in it and do our best to maximize the good and minimize the evil? If Christians were in the highest levels of leadership in businesses, then they would be able to maintain the highest levels of integrity and prevent people and the environment from being hurt by the every day operations of businesses. If Christians were to reject the current way of doing business, then there would be less people of integrity doing business which would probably lead to more evils done by businesses.

Do you think Christians in business should engage or disengage from today's dominant way of doing business (profit-maximization)?

I work hard to make my COO rich

Olive and I had dinner with my friend and his wife on Sunday. Mr. Chan (my friend, not me) works as a manager at the 7th largest bank in Canada, with 6000 employees across the nation. He told me that his bank's COO recently gave a speech to the managers in their Burnaby branch, a little pep talk. In his speech he laid out the mission of the bank, which included something about doing the right thing and serving customers. My friend (and distant relative... we Chans are all related somehow) Mr. Chan agreed with everything the COO said, and felt that all those things aligned with his personal Christian values.

The COO continued by explaining that the bank's stock prices were dismal. Then he revealed his true motives: his goal was to increase the bank's stock prices so that when he retires he will have butt-loads of money. Apparently he was not rich enough (it's fun to mock rich people that don't think they have enough money). I can now imagine my friend Mr. Chan thinking, "Yes! I will work diligently and creatively to serve the bank's customers and do the right thing, so that my COO can be rich when he retires." Thanks for the inspirational talk Mr. COO.

I think everyone is searching for meaning and significance in life, especially in their work. Pastor and author Erwin McManus describes it like this: "All of us long to become something more than we are. We are driven to achieve, moved to accomplish, fueled by ambition. It burns hotter in some than in others, but it is within all of us. We're all searching for our unique purpose, our divine destiny, or simply a sense of significance or some measure of success... all of us are united in our desperate attempt to make a future of ourselves. We all desperately want to achieve something, to accomplish something; we just don't know what. Worse than that, we don't even understand why. Yet that doesn't stop us from searching."

If most people were honest with themselves, I think they would agree that making as much money as possible is not a satisfying notion. Working hard to maximize profits for people that you don't know (a.k.a. your company's shareholders) is even less satisfying. How can you give your best to your work when you don't believe that it is really that significant?

Perhaps that is why Mr. Chan is thinking about quitting his job and working for a nonprofit. He is searching for something meaningful to do with his life, and his work is a large part of his life. Mr. Chan thinks working in nonprofit will be more fulfilling than his current work in the business world. And he is not the only person thinking this way.

"In the United States alone, 1.5 million nonprofits now account for $1 trillion in revenues annually of the nation's economy. During the past fifteen years, nonprofits grew faster than the overall economy, with thirty thousand new organizations created each year. In fact, nonprofits are now the third largest industry in the United States, behind retail and wholesale trade, but ahead of construction, banking, and telecommunications." (excerpt from "Forces for Good" by Leslie R. Crutchfield and Heather McLeod Grant)

Many people are fleeing the business world to work for nonprofits, which aim to maximize social change and make a difference in the world. And these nonprofits are. This is significant work; the work of helping those in need. Money is important to fund and sustain the work, but it is not the be all and end all.

People in business recognize the great work that nonprofits are doing. That is why they give money and resources to support nonprofit organizations. You can argue that if the profit-maximizing businesses did not exist, nonprofits also would not be able to exist, because the nonprofit world largely relies on the donations of the business world to operate.

I will end with a very good question another friend, a small business owner, posed to me: "If God has given you the ability to make money through your business, is it your duty to utilize that skill to its full potential and make as much money as you can? The more money you make, the more you can give to help others."

Economic theory: My selfishness helps others so it is good

David Collins, former CEO of Canadian Food for the Hungry, says that the root of all social injustice and evil in the world is always an attitude. The evils of business are rooted in an attitude of selfishness. This is the attitude that my own interests are more important than the interests of others.

This is reflected in our society's creation of the corporation. This "person" was created to be selfish. The purpose of a corporation is to maximize the value (largely understood as profits) of its shareholders, those that own the company. And if they need do this at the expense of others, then so be it.

But we don't like that people are harmed by corporations, so governments are created to protect the interests of all people. Governments create laws and rules that minimize the harm that corporations do to others and the environment. But corporations are so darn clever, and continue to use their creativity to find ways to serve their own interests and harm others. Then some special-interest group finds out, complains to the government, and in turn, the government fines the corporation and makes a new law preventing the harm. The cycle repeats itself.

How did we as the human race allow ourselves to create this selfish corporation and continue to live selfishly? Because we have convinced ourselves that living for ourselves is the best way to live.

Selfishness is the foundation of our current economic system. In fact, modern economic theory states that the world benefits the MOST when every individual acts SELFISHLY. This is largely referred to as the "invisible hand of the market." The economist Adam Smith who coined this term says, "By pursuing his own interest he frequently promotes that of the society more effectually than when he really intends to promote it." Somehow, the reasoning goes, self-interest drives people to the most beneficial behaviour for society as a whole.

In light of this, we will make it illegal for businesses to act non-selfishly. Because acting non-selfishly doesn't help society as much as if you acted selfishly. If you want to help people, you can be a non-profit. But that is an ineffective way to help people. Being a self-serving business is the best thing for society.

When I first learned about this economic principle, I was amazed that my selfishness was actually the best thing for society. In fact, this belief gave me permission and empowered me to pursue selfishness and to promote the selfishness of others in business. My argument was that this is the best thing for society. I have not really doubted this truth until recently. Are we lying to ourselves by saying that self-love = neighbourly love? Or is it really true?

Jesus calls us to love our neighbour as our self (Matt 22:39). This is the second greatest commandant, after loving God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Jesus does not say do not love yourself. But to love your neighbour and yourself equally.

So if modern economic theory is correct and loving yourself above your neighbour leads to the best result for all your neighbours, does that mean acting selfishly is the same thing as loving your neighbour as yourself and therefore God-honouring?

Is there a better way to do business?

Last week I started with an exploration of what's broken with business today. Let's review.

Some businesses harm their customers (manipulation of children through advertising, misguiding customers about products to increase sales, selling customers products they do not need, etc.)

Some businesses harm the environment (pollution, CO2 emissions, habitat destruction, etc.)

Some businesses harm their employees (toxic waste, layoffs, sweatshops, 24-hour work shifts, etc.)

Some businesses harm their shareholders (using creative methods to hide debt and increase share prices in the short term leading to long term loss of shareholder value, etc.)

So to sum it up, businesses harm everyone and everything in the world. If (and when) aliens contact Earth, I'm sure businesses will find some way to harm them as well. Perhaps that is why aliens have stayed away from Earth... because they are scared of evil corporations (which may not be a terrible defensive tactic again alien invasion, but I digress).

At this point, I think the question becomes, "Is this method of doing business acceptable to us? Or is there a better way?" Many Christians in business that I have talked to have responded, "Sure. Businesses can do a lot of harm. But they do a lot of good as well. Plus, I don't know of a better way to do business. So let's just try to do as much good as possible and minimize the harm." Others respond differently, saying that there must be a better way. In fact, the protest-turned-riots last summer at the G20 summit in Toronto was largely response to the frustration many people felt toward the evils of corporations and large businesses.

For many years I have turned a blind eye to the evils of businesses. Here was my line of thinking, "So what if businesses are taking advantage of low cost labour in Asia? They are providing jobs. And the labourers are making a choice to work there, which means it is a better alternative for their life. If businesses do more good than harm, then it is okay. Things will fix themselves eventually." But recently, this argument has not been good enough to convince my heart that these wrongs are justified. God is slowly awakening me to care and to take action.

NDP leader Jack Layton, who led Canada's Official Opposition, passed away early this morning. A CBC article mentions that he used one of Tommy Douglas' quotes often: "Courage my friends, 'tis never too late to build a better world." Jack included this quote in every email he sent.

I agree with the late Jack Layton's heart. If we can make the world better, then we should. Not only for our sake, but for the sake of future generations. My wife and I are expecting a child in December and we want to leave behind the best world for her to live in because we love her. And this includes transforming business for the better, because the business world impacts every person. Everyone is a customer. And the majority of families depend on a the salaries that businesses provide to survive and thrive.

Redeeming the business world will take much courage and hope, perseverance and endurance, passion and commitment, and a deep dependence on Jesus, from people of all walks of life. It is possible.

Do you believe that changing business to honor God will change the world? If so, why?

Is Advertising to Children Ethical?

In the early 1990s when my brother was in his early teens, he got captivated by the CD player (then an amazing new invention, now an almost obsolete product). For weeks and weeks he nagged my parents to buy one. Finally my parents gave in and negotiated a deal with him that if he finished reading the Bible cover to cover then they would buy a CD player for the family. And because of my brother's obsession, persistence, and diligence, our family became the proud owners of a costly Sony stereo system. His first CD purchase was a Mariah Carey CD. Mines was Yanni: Live At the Acropolis.

I finished watching the documentary "The Corporation" this morning, and found out about an interesting study done called "The Nag Factor - Parents, Nagging kids, and Purchase Decisions". This study was done in 1998 by Initiative Media North America, one of the largest purchasers of advertising in North America ($12 billion spent in 2001).

For three weeks, parents were asked to write down every time a children nagged for a product - when, where, and why. This study was not done to help parents cope with nagging, but to help corporations help children nag their parents for products more effectively. What they discovered in the study was that 20-40% of purchases made for children would not have occurred if the child did not nag their parents for the products.

Lucy Hughes, Vice President of Initiative Media and the Co-creator of the Nag Factor said this, "They (children) are tomorrow's adult consumers, so start talking to them now, build that relationship when they are younger, and you've got them as an adult." She continues by saying, "Someone asked me, 'Lucy, is it ethical? You are essentially manipulating those children.' Well, is it ethical? I don't know. But our role is to move products. And if we know that we can move products with a certain creative execution, placed in a certain media vehicle, then we've done our job."

Susan Linn, Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard said this in the documentary, "It's not that products are bad or good, it's the notion of manipulating children to buy products. You can manipulate customers into wanting and buying your products. It's a game. Marketers are playing to children's developmental vulnerabilities. It's not wrong to make things for children, but it's different when you are selling toys directly to the children."

I'm going to be a father in December and I'm wondering what I should (or can) do to protect my children from the manipulation of corporations. I'd rather not have my children convinced that their lives will be better and happier if they owned the latest Justin-Bieber-in-a-Pokemon-suit doll. Should I disallow my children to watch television or go on the internet? Keep them away from other children that are brainwashed by television and internet advertisements? Move to a small town in the middle of the Yukon Territories where corporations have no presence?

There isn't anything wrong with educating a potential customer on the benefits of your product. But is it okay to educate your customer only on the benefits and not tell them about the risks and drawbacks? What about exaggerating the needs the products fulfills, as Listerine did when it invested the disease "chronic halitosis" which helped to increase sales 70 times (read the full story here)? Where do you draw the line? It's already very difficult to determine what ethical advertising to adults it. I can't imagine trying to determine what ethical advertising for children is.

How can advertising directed at children be God-honoring?

Are Corporations Psychopathic?

You may have picked up on my theme this week: the evils of business. I wanted to start by exploring what is wrong with business, to create a healthy appetite for a solution.

My friend BBMed me after I finished my first blog post, "Talk to me about your business paper!!" (Let's call this friend Willy "Billy" Wong during this blog post). Willy is a very bright guy (also a lawyer) and I was curious to hear his thoughts (and surprised at his immediate interest). Meeting downtown for coffee the next day, he tells me that it is not legally possible for a corporation to run its business solely based on Christian values. A corporation is legally bound to work only for the best interests of its shareholders, which means long-term maximum profitability. You can run a corporation according to "Christian values" as long as you maximize profits. But when there is a conflict, profit wins. He told me to watch the documentary, "The Corporation."

Having watched half the movie so far, I am already sick to my stomach and starving for a solution to this mess.

Let me take a few steps back to explain. Corporations are one type of business, but by far the largest and most influential type in the world today. Walmart. Google. Apple. Amazon. Shell. Toyota. All the largest businesses in the world are corporations.

A corporations is recognized by the law to have rights and responsibilities like an individual person. It can buy and sell property. It can run business. It can sue and be sued. It is a member of society. Corporations are special kinds of persons with no moral conscience, designed by law only to be concerned for its shareholders. Interviewed in the movie, Michael Moore says, "The problem of a corporation comes from profit motivation. There is no such thing as enough." It is required by law to place the financial interest of its shareholders above other competitive interests. It is bound by law to put its bottom line in front of everything else, even the public good.

The documentary asks the question, "If a corporation is a person, what type of person would it be?" It then began to explore the actions of corporations.

Harm to human health: Dangerous Products, Toxic Waste, Pollution, Synthetic Chemicals.

Harm to workers: Layoffs, Union busting, Factory Fires, Sweatshops.

Harm to animals: Habitat destruction, Factory farming, Experimentation.

Harm to biosphere: Clearcuts, Co2 emissions, Nuclear waste.

The filmakers came up with this list: Personality Diagnostic Checklist for a Corporation

- Callous unconcern for the feelings of others

- Incapacity to maintain enduring relationships

- Reckless disregard for the safety of others

- Deceitfulness (repeated lying and conning others for profit)

- Incapacity to experience guilt

- Failure to conform to social norms with respect to lawful behaviour

Diagnosis: Psychopath

The writers of the documentary gravely state, "In our search for wealth and profit, we created something (the corporation) that is going to destroy us."

You might argue that this documentary is solely focusing on the evils of a corporation, and I would agree with you. But just the fact that there was so much dirt that could be found makes me feel more than a bit unsettled. What is the source of all this evil and harm? It seems to me that it is the goal of a corporation: to maximize profits for shareholders above all else.

Can profit maximization be a goal that honors God?

Are salespeople the scum of the earth?

What comes to mind when you think of salespeople? I googled this question and here are some descriptions I found: Aggressive. Pushy. Persistent. Pestering. Used Car Salesman. Greedy. Talks too much. Money Hungry. Egotistical. Annoying. These descriptions are not very flattering. I thought I'd point out the obvious.

I recently interviewed someone who worked as a bank teller at VanCity. The number one thing that frustrated Henrik (not Sedin and not his real name) about his job was that he felt continually pressured by his managers to sell more products. Henrik hated trying to sell people credit cards, loans, and lines of credit, especially when they didn't need them.

"But how do you know the customers don't need our products?" his manager would ask Henrik. "They just don't know how great VanCity's products are so you have to find some way to tell them. Then convince them that they need it and it will make their life better. We at VanCity are only trying to serve our customers. And the more VanCity products our customers use, the more we're able to serve them right? Riiiight Henrik?" (okay, maybe the conversation didn't go quite like that, but I'm paraphrasing)

The interesting thing I discovered was how Henrik's work evaluations were done. The categories were 1) Following rules, 2) Friendly service, and 3) Sales. Now I would expect that maybe these categories would be equally weighted, but that was not the case. 10% of Henrik's score was based on following the rules. 10% on friendly service. And 80% on whether Henrik hit his sales targets.

I'm not sure how you feel about your bank teller's work performance being 80% dependant on how many products he/she sells, but it sure doesn't make me feel that good. This doesn't make me feel like the bank really has its customers' best interests in mind.

Take another example. Ethan is a growing Christian who loves Jesus and works for Koodo, selling their phone plans. While talking to Ethan today, he said he prefers getting paid hourly rather than paid on commission (where the money he makes increases with the more products he sells). He thinks that if he were paid on commission, he would feel more tempted to sell Koodo products unethically. Being paid hourly doesn't make Ethan lazy; he still has a good work ethic and does his job well, but now he can focus on genuinely helping customers find products that will benefit them most.

Perhaps the general public's dislike of salespeople stems from their perception that salespeople will do anything to sell more (including being friendly and helpful). Sometimes you hear people use the politically incorrect idiom that a good salesperson can "sell ice to an Eskimo". It reflects the perception that salespeople want to maximize sales, even at the expense of selling something the customer does not need.

Yet even though I generally distrust salespeople, I have to admit that I have encountered salespeople who have been genuinely helpful. These people were able to educate me on the products and leave me with the decision of whether I should purchase or not.

How can sales be done in a way that honors God? Should God-honoring businesses even have salespeople?

Even Business Students are Disillusioned with Business

Yesterday I had a shaken-iced-passion-tea with Ryan, a recent graduate from the Sauder School of Business who loves Jesus and loves people. We talked about his views on business, which can be summarized by one word: disillusioned.

What frustrates Ryan about business is that the hard core business people seem fake, proud, cut-throat, slimy, manipulative, and shallow. Especially the successful ones. Their goal is money, not a passion. Their hidden selfish motives make it hard to have genuine relationships with them. Their business success defines who they are.

Ryan remembers his first year orientation at the business school, where he and hundreds of other freshmen were taught by senior year students to sing chants about how awesome business students are and how great money is. For the rest of his university days, Ryan stayed away from the hard-core business students because he didn't relate to them or want to be like them.

It's hard to blame Ryan for not wanting to be a successful business person. When I asked him if he's ever encountered any businesses or business people that have given him hope, he paused to think for a minute. He replied, "No, because whenever you hear about the good that is done by businesses, you know that it is done with selfish motives." There is nothing he's seen in business that inspires him. And that is a sad reality. Instead he wants to make his mark on the world by serving in an orphanage in China in the short-term and teaching high school in the long-term.

I know Ryan well, and he is a genuine, outgoing, talented young man with a great heart and boatloads of potential. Whatever he puts in mind to he will find success. He wants to change the world. But he doesn't think he can do that in the business world, even though he has a business degree. There is something wrong with this picture. Don't get me wrong, I'm very glad that he will be working in non-profit and education in the future. I'm just sad that there was nothing in the business world that inspired him, nothing that gave him hope or made him excited.

Many young people are not inspired by the shallow ambitions of making lots of money. There must be more to business than economist Milton Friedman's generally accepted definition that "the social responsibility of a business is to increase its profits." But what is it?

Is there anything about business that inspires you or gives you hope?

Why do some people hate Businesses?

Graduating with a business degree, I've always been a little bothered when I encounter people who genuinely hate businesses. At times I get defensive and debate that businesses provide people with jobs, with innovative products, and improve people’s standard of living. Yet something in my gut tells me that these people have valid reasons for disliking businesses.

Damage to the environment. Violation of human rights. Exploitation of people. Deception of customers. Profit-driven. Breaking the law. Bribery. Scandals. Poor working conditions. Child labor. And the list of accusations against businesses go on and on.

Who can forget Enron, who used financial loopholes to cover-up billions in debt of failed deals and projects leading to $11 billion of loss to its shareholders? Or the Melamine scandal, where 21 companies in China were adding the industrial chemical to milk and infant formula to increase protein content, resulting in 6 infants dying and 860 babies hospitalized? Or the current allegations against media giant Rupert Murdoch's NewsCorp for phone-hacking and police bribery?

At the core of these problems is the human heart. Businesses are run by people. If there is something wrong with businesses, then there is something wrong with the human heart.

God has a solution for what's wrong with the human heart. And I wonder if God also has a solution for what's wrong with businesses. What would it look like to run a business in a way that honors God? How do you manage a company that has business practises that reflect the heart of God? What value does a relationship with Jesus have in the workplace.

Over the next month I will attempt to answer these questions. I will write a paper tentatively entitled "Business that Honors God and Changes the World". I will also write a proposal for LeaderImpact Group (a ministry of Power to Change) for creating a ministry that helps people in the marketplace discover the relevance and value of Jesus in their work and business.

This is the hypothesis of my paper: When you do business in a way that honors God, you make the biggest change you can in the world and it is the most satisfying way to do business.

Over the next 30 days, I will interview Christian business leaders, read articles and books on the subject, listen to podcasts, research organizations that do similar work, blog some of my thoughts, and interact with people interested in the topic. If you have any suggestions or feedback for me through this process, I would love to hear it.

At the end of each blog, I'll leave you with a question. My question today is this:

What frustrates you about businesses?