Worshiping ‘The Gods of Business’

I just finished listening to The Gods of Business on “Speaking of Faith.” This was a *great* program, and very thought-provoking about how far the business world, over all, has gotten from basic morality and ethics. Here’s the basic description:

In an age of Enron and WorldCom, how can we imagine a place for business ethics, much less religious virtue, in the global economy? We speak with a Hindu international business analyst who offers learned, fascinating observations about how the world’s myriad religions have shaped global business norms and practices.

Toward the end, the show excerpt a book by Hindu ethical business expert Prabhu Guptara, who was interviewed:

What positive steps can be taken to ensure a good future for us all? On the basis of our discussion so far, it seems to me fairly clear that, leaving aside for the moment radical calls such as those for abolishing usury, the following five steps would give us some sort of minimum agenda for creating a better sort of globalisation:

(i) inculcate a culture in which there is a high place for the idea of “enough”
(ii) self-restrain or penalize demands for higher wages and profits
(iii) move away from a fascination with economic expansion for its own sake to a concern with holistic development
(iv) replace the notion of private limited companies with “Publicly Authorized Companies” (which take seriously the environment, labor, consumers and civil society)
(v) establish suitable international treaties (e.g. regarding international finance, trade, technology, justice and the environment.

We need therefore a new generation of people willing to be transformed as individuals, willing to create a new sense of community, ready to pay the cost of working for the continued transformation of our global society, and of transforming our companies from engines to make even richer those who are already rich, to engines that work to produce wealth for the globe.