My Favorite Baha’i Business Book!
In my last blog, I explored the idea of service to the Faith within the structure of a for-profit business. I tentatively concluded that yes, this was an acceptable thing. But that’s not the end of it, is it? Obviously, many traditional ”old world” business practices would be inappropriate in an enterprise that endeavours to spread the word about Baha’u’llah.
What would be appropriate? Now that is an interesting puzzle indeed!
I have actually been working on a business plan for Verdanta, and in it I was asked to describe the corporate culture. What would it be like to work there? So this isn’t just a pie out of the clear blue sky question. I really want to know, what makes a Baha’i business different?
Two things spring immediately to mind: the first is operating the business based on the writings of Baha’u’llah and Abdu’l-Baha. The second is the spiritual consequences of doing it wrong. I guess the place to start is exploring what they have to say that’s relevant to the situation.
Well, Baha’u’llah told us that ”Truthfulness is the foundation of all human virtues,” so that’s probably a good place to start. A Baha’i business must be impeccably honest. Dealing honestly with suppliers, customers and employees, paying bills on time, and following through on commitments all fall within that maxim. But so do not fudging numbers, not lying by omission, and not taking questionable “gray area” tax deductions.
Abdu’l-Baha has said that “With education [the inner reality of man] can achieve all excellence; devoid of education it will stay on, at the lowest point of imperfection,” so constant and continuous education must be built into the structure of a Baha’i business. Everyone in the organization should be allowed – and encouraged – to learn about new things, to gain new skills, and develop latent talents. Personally, I can say that starting a business is a completely new thing for me, and I learn so much every day that my head hurts from all the neural pathway construction!
Baha’u’llah has also stated that “Work done in the spirit of service is the highest form of worship.” I don’t know about anyone else, but if the work I do is equivalent to worship, then I’m going to make darn sure I’m working to the absolute utmost of my ability. Which means excellence and perfection must be the norm, not only for the members of the organization, but also for all products produced by them.
And since unity is the central principle of the Baha’i Faith, unity must also be a primary goal within the organization. Most companies today have no clue what that might look like, let alone harbor any realistic expectations of achieving it. But if you can’t think it, you can’t achieve it. Fortunately, “So powerful is the light of unity that it can illumine the whole earth.” And where unity is the expectation, it can be accomplished.
Of course, backbiting would have no place within a healthy Baha’i business, because “backbiting quencheth the light of the heart, and extinguisheth the life of the soul.” The company culture should be shaped such that everyone knows backbiting is unacceptable.
I could go on and on, but what I notice in writing this is that a Baha’i business must strive for the same spiritual perfections that individual Baha’is strive for.
Hmmm. One last quote comes to mind, and that is ”Bring thyself to account each day, ere thou art summoned to a reckoning.” It seems that I must not only bring myself to account each day, I must also bring to account the dealings of my business, for they ultimately reflect back on me and my spiritual progress.
Wow. How different would the world be today if all our leaders felt that way? Post your comments here:
This is so true, our business and work must also be in line with the teachings and principles of Baha’i Faith. Can you show me where I can find more writing on Bahai Faith and business model, please.
You might want to start your search here, Madhav:
EBBF – Ethical Business Building the Future
Articles of Interest:
Bahá’í Faith and Business
Bahá’í Faith and Economics
Cooperative Capitalism Training
Ethical Leadership: Baha’i Principles at Work
The Business of Business
Unions and Management – 3 Ways to Stop the Strife
There are many more books here: https://bahai-library.com/tags/Business
My favorite books are:
To Build Anew
Attracting Perfect Customers
I haven’t read this one, but it looks good too:
Spiritual Enterprise: Building Your Business In The Spirit Of Service
Baha’is who Provide Coaching Services to Business Owners:
Alice Bing is a consultant who makes joy at work easier. She conducts speaking and conference engagements for youth and adults, and processes career assessment to help students, graduates, and working adults find the career that matches their unique profile.
Dariush Khaleghi, MS (Org Psych), MBS, SPHR, ACC, integrates Baha’i Principles to his work as a leadership development facilitator, educator, and coach, enabling him to develop inspiring and innovative people and organizational solutions that enhances commitment, high performance and sustainability. Dariush has extensive background in leadership and management in the private, public, and non-for profit sectors. In 2007, Dariush was honored with the Washington State Prestigious Governor’s Leadership Award his innovative accomplishments. Dariush helps leaders and organizations envision new and strategic possibilities, develop greater capacity, and realize their people’s potential and greatness through the integration of the spiritual Baha’i Principles. Dariush’s believe in collaboration and co-creation and his mission is to help leaders, “Envision leadership as an act of service to transform organizations into communities of meaning, purpose, and action.” You can contact Dariush at 360 878-2706 or dkhaleghi@msn.com for a free consult.
Dimity Podger designs and facilitates learning and development processes with organisations to create, evaluate and deepen their Corporate Values Strategy and implement sustainability and CSR initiatives. She works strategically, creatively and collaboratively with leaders and teams to develop programs that build values literacy and capabilities, ownership and commitment for organisational goals, and values-inspired sustainability innovations.
Farideh Ceaser is a business launch strategist who has helped hundreds of online entrepreneurs launch big ideas, brilliantly. Whether you want to expand your business, launch a live event, e-course, podcast, digital product, e-book, album, or ad campaign, she’s here to help. She promises that your launch will be fun, creative, easy, on time, and profitable. Let her show you how.
Heather Luxion: is a career coach and Professional Certified Life Coach whose ideal clients are those who are in transition — especially when it comes to careers.
Jan Stringer: is a Business Coach and co-author of Attracting Perfect Customers. She’s an international Business Coach, Best Selling Author, enthusiastic, playful speaker and Co-Founder of PerfectCustomers, Inc. with a mission to change the way business is done in the world.
Kay Felix is a medical doctor and business coach, who helps people experience the power and beauty of work. She works with those who dare to believe that work can be enlivening, meaningful, challenging, stimulating and prosperous and who are audacious enough to want more energy, freedom, power and prosperity at work.
Kertu and Nelson Kelem: are passionate about designing and building websites and products that you will love in HTML & CSS, WordPress and Magento Commerce. Kertu is a graphic artist and web designer and Nelson is a photographer, specializing in 3D design in developing apps and websites.
Mishkin Berteig: and his team work to transform people, process and organizations! They believe that your organization has the capacity to transform itself to be hyper-productive and highly motivated to deliver the greatest value to your clients and stakeholders, and that when you effectively engage individuals in your organization you will create dynamic teams who will dramatically improve your results, giving your organization a significant competitive advantage. They will help you to become more efficient, productive, and produce higher quality work, faster.