The Gods of Business podcast was very interesting. Mr. Prabhu Guptare of USB gives an excellent presentation of how the American system of setting up moral and just corporations is a fine example for the rest of the world to replicate.
Ironically, this presentation was around the time when Enron halted that system with their focus on greed and easy money. The Enron incident failed to uphold the tradition of being that moral workplace. It is easy to see the difference in Malden Mills and Enron. Aaron Feurerstein treated his employees as treasure and Enron took all that their employees had. Enron wasn’t “policing themselves” but had others policing them.
The first question that was asked was why cant businessmen bring moral backgrounds and values into the business world and ethics. Mr. Guptara said that the ethics of most business squares with Jewish and Christianity (developed or best business practiced). He said that Christianity promotes “transformation of the workplace,” meaning, that it allows the workers to develop their product with a greater sense of satisfaction, not just with profit on their minds.
To establish a good strong company, for the long run, you need to base it off trust, something that is absent in some major companies today. Mr. Guptara says that a business, affects the world around them, and should change the environment, poor, suffering, etc. for the better. If your company does not have trustful views and is moral, it is very hard to produce world-class competition because no one will want to exchange business with you. The world’s business world was based off gentlemen’s agreements, “looking eye to eye” and that was that, no going back on your word. In addition, to achieve success is to “build trust and characters in individuals, if not the West (USA) will not be a prosperous society.” what is missing in the generation today, is the willingness to transform oneself for a greater meaning, according to Mr. Guptara.
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Mr. Guptara explains how religion has helped nations to become a profitable society. In the United States case, Judaism and Christianity has shaped the way the U.S. has done business, business based off loyalty, trust, and determination (hard work).China used Marxism to clean up their economic troubles, but due to communism, they went back to their old ways. U.S. is the “most religious active society in the world,” 70% say yes there is a God, and 40% go to church every Sunday. Mr. Guptara says that with beliefs in their religion it helps the U.S. work with morals and trust easier because that is what is taught in their faith. Mr. Guptara also stated that, “U.S. is the example that the rest of the world follows to hopefully become Americanized,” because no other country has the economy like we do, no one produces more than we do, and no one lives as great a life as we do.
To sum it up, the world uses religion as a base to develop their society that the rest of the world wants to do business with. The world leaders in economic advancement U.S., Europe (as a whole), Japan, India, and the Middle East, use religion as the basis of their entire drive and background.
