Workmanship by Allen Laudenslager and Bryan Neva (2005)

Workmanship

This following article entitled “People are the key value in a business enterprise!” was published from Rimini, Italy in September 2003 about the French entrepreneur François Michelin and the influence of his Christian faith in his business:

François Michelin, for 51 years head of the Michelin Group, highlighted the importance of Catholic culture in valuing the person, who he said is fundamental to success in business.  Addressing last week's "Meeting for Friendship Among Peoples," organized by the Communion and Liberation movement, the French entrepreneur revealed the secrets of his tire-making enterprise, demonstrating that a Christian can successfully apply evangelical teachings in the production process and in the market.  Michelin, now his firm's honorary president, explained that "a true businessman responds to the client, and this is why he is always looking for a product of better quality that can be offered, while controlling the price."  Vital for a well-functioning business is the ability "to bring out into the light the diamond that is in each person," he said.  In this connection, Michelin said that one of the people who contributed most to the development of tires was a worker who had been hired as a printer. Eventually, the personnel office realized that he had many other qualities, such as imagination and the ability to do research.  Referring to the importance of people, Michelin emphasized the specific contribution of Catholic culture and recalled the work of Mother Teresa of Calcutta, who valued even the most seemingly miserable life.  "Every human being is unique, irrepeatable," Michelin said.  "Functions and labels don't count, the person does."  "Both in the factory as well as in society, life is possible only if we listen to and understand the other's reasons," he added.  "To love is to see in people what they are."

Christians believe that the ultimate purpose of business is to satisfy the needs of people rather than to increase profit, power, or material possessions for the owners, investors, and managers of a business.  Profit is only a byproduct of a successfully run business.  Part of running a successful business is recognizing the contributions of the employees through effective leadership and management.  But these can only take a company so far; workers must do their part in order for a business to succeed.

Christians believe that honest work gives each of us meaning and purpose in our lives, as we help contribute to God’s continued work of creation.  All of us have a duty to work, as this is how we satisfy our needs and the needs of those dependent on us.  “If anyone will not work, let him not eat,” St. Paul wrote in 2^nd Thessalonians 3.10.  Work also gives us honor and glorifies God when we use our gifts and talents to help others.  Work can also be redemptive as we endure the hardships of work throughout our lives it helps build character, and we grow in our love for God, our families, and others.

Work encompasses a large part of our lives, but it’s not the-end-all-and-be-all of our existence.  There’s a cycle to life: a time to be born, to grow, to develop, to learn, to love, to hate, to laugh, to cry, to work, to play, to eat, to sleep, to create, to mature, to rest, and finally to die.  But there are some who believe that life’s a bitch and then we die!  They’ve lost their hope in life, and they take no pleasure in their work.  There are others who believe they work for the weekend!  Rather than trying to live up to their full potential, they work to accumulate material possessions and satisfy their sensual cravings.  In both these cases, work is meaningless and a form of slavery.  But it doesn’t have to be that way. 

Some years back, there was a documentary on public television about people who’d won multi-million dollar lotteries.  After the euphoria was over, they felt something missing in their lives.  Their expensive homes, cars, material possessions, exotic vacations, and country club memberships no longer fulfilled their needs.  One man who’d been a long-haul truck driver before winning the lottery actually wanted to start driving a truck again because he was so bored with his life.

The lives of many popular entertainers are the subject of newspapers, magazines, and television shows, and most of us are shocked by their ostentatious, immoral, and self-indulgent lifestyles.  It’s fairly obvious that their wealth and material possessions have not satisfied their innermost needs for meaning and purpose in their lives.

From these examples we’re reminded that money won’t buy us happiness.  Part of the way we can satisfy our needs for meaning and purpose is through honest work.  Work not only helps meet our physical needs, but it helps meet our emotional, mental, social, and spiritual needs as well.

The world does not owe us a living!  We must take responsibility for earning our own way in life.  But, many workers sabotage their own livelihoods through poor work habits.  Some years back, the major automobile manufacturers in Detroit, Michigan began to hire poor, chronically unemployed people from the inner city to work on their assembly lines.  Most people would have thought the lure of a well paying automobile assembly line job would have motivated these people to get to work on time…unfortunately, it didn’t!  As a result, these companies actually purchased alarm clocks for these people and gave them classes to teach them responsible work habits.  Ultimately, the social experiment failed miserably because many of these workers were unable to learn responsible work habits like simply showing up to work on time. 

Many people who were once good workers end up unemployed due to poor performance and their inability to get along with others.  Some may have had personal setbacks such as a divorce, a death in the family, or a major illness, but others simply got complacent.  Excuses run the gamete why employees don’t put forth their best effort at work, but it really comes down to personal integrity.  If an employer, a colleague, or a customer doesn’t treat us right, it doesn’t excuse poor workmanship.  It’s scandalous and poor stewardship for a manager to cause their employees to be less productive; nevertheless, it’s still wrong for employees not to do their best at work.

If we find ourselves in a difficult working environment, it’s all right to honestly try to improve things or to just quit.  Unfortunately, most people choose instead to silently protest through poor workmanship and passive aggressive behavior.  In his letter to the Ephesians (excerpted from 6.5-9, NIV), St. Paul wrote:

[Workers], obey [those in authority over you] with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ.  Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but like [workers] of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart.  Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men, because you know that the Lord will reward everyone for whatever good he does…  And [managers], treat your [workers] in the same way.  Do not threaten them, since you know that he who is both their [Lord] and yours is in heaven, and there is no favoritism with [God].

Labor or work is a necessary ingredient for producing and selling a product or service.  The other ingredients are: Capital such as money, tools, equipment, vehicles, machinery, buildings, schools, power plants, technology, animals, etcetera; Natural Resources such as land, water, minerals, or anything provided by nature; and Entrepreneurial Know How which is the people who mix these ingredients together to produce a product or service.  Economists call these ingredients or resources of production Labor, Capital, Land, and Entrepreneurship respectively. 

Christians believe that God created the world and all its natural resources for our benefit; then He gave us the job to work and subdue the earth and everything in it.  Consequently, Christians have always believed that human Labor takes precedence over Land and Capital.  Regardless of our position or status in this life, we can all only sell our time and our talents to the marketplace, so no one should be ashamed of how they make a living.  Regardless if we labor in the hot fields harvesting produce, move furniture, sweep floors, dig ditches, design rockets, or perform brain surgery, God commends all honest work.  Since God does not play favorites, we shouldn’t either!

Businesses are challenged to find a balance between the various competing needs of all the stakeholders.  Therefore, all the resources of production—Labor, Capital, Land and Entrepreneurship—must cooperate with one another if they want to produce goods and services.  Yet the needs of workers, or Labor, should always take precedence over Capital, and Land. 

Each ingredient of production cannot produce goods and services by themselves.  How can a carpenter build a house without trees or a saw?  How can a nurse treat the sick without medicine or a hospital?  How can an entrepreneur start a business without money or workers?  Yet, different goods and services require different combinations of these ingredients.  Some businesses are almost all Labor such as a hair salon or a computer software company.  Some businesses are almost all Capital such as a finance company or a steel plant.  And other businesses are almost all Land such as a farm, an oil company, or an iron or coal mine.  But, it’s the Entrepreneur—a person who works or Labors—who combines these ingredients to produce goods or services, which proves that Labor always takes precedence over Capital and Land.

A corollary to this principal of the primacy of work or Labor over the other ingredients of production is our right to own property.  Our basic human right to own Capital or Land is necessary so we can provide for ourselves and those dependent on us.  For example, how could we live without food to eat, clothing to wear, a house to live in, or transportation to get us to work?  Or, how could we be psychologically balanced if we didn’t have pastimes and hobbies?

Our right to own private property also includes technology, skills, know-how, and other intangible assets.  For example, a physician must invest about twelve years and hundreds of thousands of dollars to earn the right to practice medicine and surgery.  Consequently, they should have the right to fully profit from their intellectual investment to practice medicine and surgery.  A person who writes a best selling novel owns the copyright for publishing that book.  They deserve to profit from their intellectual labor for writing that book.  A person who invents a popular device deserves to fully profit from the sales of their invention.  And a movie or record company deserves to profit from the movies or records they produce.

Futurists have predicted that work will eventually evolve into something akin to George Jetson solely arriving at Spacely Sprockets and pushing one button to start the machines and robots that actually do the work of production.  The implication is that technology will eventually displace jobs and cause greater unemployment.  We on the other hand are not inclined to believe this scenario of the future where jobs and careers will disappear.  

Although it’s true that the nature of work has evolved over the centuries and many tasks are now performed more efficiently by technology, it’s not likely that work or labor will ever go away.  For example, fifty years ago office documents were reproduced by dozens of secretaries working in a huge manual typing room.  Today, one administrative assistant can produce as much using a computer word processor, a printer, and a copy machine.  So technology has eliminated some jobs, but it has created even more jobs in engineering, computer programming, manufacturing, and electronic repair.  

Another reason we’re not pessimistic about the future of work is that God established work for our benefit.  Work is sacred.  Although technology has altered the way we work, it has not altered our basic humanity.  Times change, things change, but people basically don’t change.  So as long as there are human needs and wants, there will always be work regardless of the technology that helps to satisfy them.

With the exception of very few people, all of us must work for a living.  Unfortunately, even homeless people have to eke out a meager living for themselves.  All honest work is commendable, and a big part of applying Judeo-Christian business principals is getting up and going to work everyday.  And doing our best at work everyday—despite obstacles and impediments—shows moral maturity and genuine love for God and others.  It’s easy to criticize poor leadership and management; it’s harder to be critical of our own poor workmanship.  Before we criticize others, we should honestly look at our own work habits. 

Investors by Allen Laudenslager & Bryan Neva (2005)

With all the turmoil in the stock market this past week, I thought I'd post an article my writing partner Allen and I wrote over ten years ago about business investors.

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Investors

Investors supply the capital (money, buildings, or machinery) an entrepreneur needs to start a business. Given the high risk of failure for new companies, investors typically demand a very high rate of return (RoR) on loans or a significant equity ownership stake in the business. If the company is not yet publicly traded, the stock is purchased directly from the company and the money is used either as startup or operating capital. In these cases, the investor generally has some relationship with the founder or someone involved in the day-to-day operation of the business. If the stock is publicly traded the investor is less likely to know the founder or any of the people operating the business.

Investors have perhaps the simplest needs of any of the divers groups of business stakeholders because their involvement is mostly financial. This is not to say that the investors don't care what the business is or what it's business practices are, but first and foremost the investors want a return on their investment (ROI). Money hidden under a mattress actually loses money because a dollar today is worth more than a dollar a year from now which why interest is typically paid for the use of that dollar. So money is generally put to work so that it generates more money and doesn't lose its value. We all work hard for our money, so it's only fair that our money work hard for us. Once the investor is satisfied with the ROI then they need to be satisfied with the kind of product or service supplied and how the business is managed.

Warren Buffet (nicknamed the "Oracle of Omaha") is probably the most famous investor today. Starting in 1957, he amassed a multi-billion dollar fortune from very astute, long-term investments through his investment partnership company Berkshire Hathaway. Typically, his company makes investments in undervalued companies that are frugally managed and have good long-term growth potential. Berkshire Hathaway has outperformed the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average for over forty years. Buffet is a graduate of the University of Nebraska and also has a Masters in Economics from Columbia University. His father was a stockbroker and U.S. Congressman from Nebraska.

Buffet has been very successful because he looks at the big picture and invests for the long-term. When Buffet buys a privately held company, he'll remind the owners that the company isn't worth a cent more after sale than it was before the sale. His involvement after he buys a company is to hire the top managers and establish their compensation package. Usually his top managers work for relatively small base salaries (around $100,000 per year) and a significant share of the profits. If their companies earn a good profit, the managers can earn millions, but if they don't earn a profit, the managers only earn their base salaries. Needless to say, his managers could lose their jobs if their companies consistently lose money. Buffet's most famous quote is, "If a business does well, the stock eventually follows!"

Where the investor looks beyond the ROI there are many non-monetary needs to fill. For example, some investors will buy stock in a company that operates pornographic websites if the ROI is high enough; others will not invest in that type of business, no mater what the return. Beyond the simple decision to invest in a certain type of business, other investors will look at management practices. The most obvious example is the investor who seeks out businesses that try to minimize their impact on the environment such as “green” mutual funds that only invest in environmentally friendly companies. There are other investors that only invest in companies which practice social justice.

Father Claude Lenehan, O.F.M. (a simple Franciscan Friar who resides at St. Anthony Friary in Ho-Ho-Kus, New Jersey) has spent the better part of his professional life advocating corporate responsibility and social justice. Under the umbrella of a socially conscience, religious advocacy organization that promotes corporate business responsibility through its members (The Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, www.iccr.org; the organization includes most of all the major Protestant Christian denominations and over 270 Catholic Christian religious orders and diocese) he has tirelessly worked to influence multinational corporations into behaving ethically and responsibly especially with people in developing nations. He's done this mainly through an active role as a proxy at shareholder meetings that make decisions on corporate governance. Father Claude believes we all should use some of our investment dollars to help the poor in underdeveloped countries rather than exploiting them.

For Father Claude, being a good investor means being a good steward of our investment capital: finding a balance between the practical and the charitable; that is, the practical side of investing would be going after the highest yield with the lowest risk and the charitable side of investing would be perpetuating the condition of the poor and fostering dependency. In his unpublished essay titled Roman Catholic Rationale For Alternative Investments, Father Claude writes: 

Generally, alternative investments use their resources in low interest, long-term loans for development projects, leading to self-reliance, social justice and people’s participation in their own economic growth. Capital is thus used in response to poverty and under-development. Furthermore, it would challenge us to examine our unquestioning investment in the multi-national corporations and commercial banks, which can be exploitive in their pursuit of profit. Alternative investments would be “good news for the poor” and a sign of the times in accord with the challenge Pope John Paul II addressed to American Catholics on the use of our (financial) resources: “Nowhere does Christ condemn the mere possession of earthly goods as such. Instead, he pronounces very harsh words against those who use their possessions in a selfish way, without paying attention to the needs of others. Christ demands openness from the rich, the affluent, the economically advanced; openness to the poor, the underdeveloped and the disadvantaged. Christ demands an openness that is more than benign attention, more than token action or half-hearted efforts that leave the poor as destitute as before or even more so (Pope John Paul II, October 2, 1979, New York, NY).” 

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As investors, we all have to be cognizant of our important role in business and the good our investment dollars are doing.