Jonathan Wellum offers a reading list in Christian business, from spirituality to leadership and profit-making for investors

The reformational general-interest magazine Comment (both print and online) has published its fourth reading list for Summer 2k8, this time for those with business interests, especially students with such curiosities. Jonathan M. Wellum's article is "Reading 'business' this summer" (May4,2k7). Wellum is CEO of AIC Investments, "Canada's largest private mutual fund company" and a Senior Fellow of the Work Research Foundation, publisher of Comment.

When I was first approached about writing an article suggesting books to stimulate students' minds during the summer season, I jumped at the opportunity. The key reason for my enthusiasm is the importance of reading excellent books and developing strong reading habits early in one's career. In reflecting I was reminded of a quote from the very wise old sage Charlie Munger, Warren Buffett's sidekick, when he said the following at the Berkshire Hathaway 2003 Annual Meeting:

Munger: I have said that in my whole life, I have known no wise person over a broad subject matter area who didn't read all the time—-none, zero. Now I know all kinds of shrewd people who by staying within a narrow area can do very well without reading. But investment is a broad area. So if you think you're going to be good at it and not read all the time, you have a different idea than I do. You'd be amazed at how much Warren [Buffett] reads. You'd be amazed at how much I read.

Wellum: What books should you consider this summer that will help expand your thinking, anchor your principles and provide practical wisdom to help you become a cultural leader? I have arranged my reading list in four general categories: philosophy and worldview, leadership, real-world examples, and (my favourite) investment books.

Philosophy and Worldview

Francis Schaeffer, True Spirituality.

Nancy Pearcy Total Truth: Liberating Christianity from Its Cultural Captivity.

Malcolm Gladwell, The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference.

Chris Anderson, The Long Trail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More.

Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams, Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything.

Wellum: ... leaders must think differently about how to compete and how to be profitable and embrace a new art and science of collaboration which the authors call 'Wikinomics.' The book goes beyond open source, social networking ideas and focuses on some of the deep changes in the structure and operations of the corporate entity and our economy, based on some of these new competitive principles such as openness, peering, sharing and acting globally. Even traditionally mature and stodgy companies such as Procter & Gamble and BMW are taking advantage of Wikinomics in order to cut costs, innovate faster and co-create with customers.

D.A. Carson, The Gagging of God

Wellum: "the ultimate book dealing with the issue of Christianity and pluralism" ... Carson responds comprehensively to one of the most pressing questions of our day, "Is Jesus the only way to God?" If one wants the best work dealing with this crucial question, this is the book to buy and read and re-read.

An interspersed comment by EconoMix: I found this first section on "Philosophy and Worldview" quite interesting because it combines 3 books the thinking of which is overtly presented in terms of a Christian faith-focus and philosophizing, with 3 other books that are not explicitly Christian but explicitly focused on the economics/corporate milieux (perhaps these latter 3 are even founded on a spiritual-ultimacy that may well be rooted in Enl+tenment values ... that's an unknown matter, at least to me, but neverthelss an appropriate minor speculation here).

So I ask the reader here to keep in mind Dr Thomas McIntire's distinction in his field of historiography as to texts that are explicitly Christian, and those that are implicitly Christian (and, let's add for completion, those that are otherwise in ultimate faith-perspective and -horizon ["non-Christian"]).

Further, along these lines, let's not forget Herman Bavinck's distinction between kernels of truth in all serious studies, truths which we can christianly-critically appreciate once we've located them in each text of scholarship as gifted to us in God's common grace, despite perhaps the subchristian frameworks of those very texts (see Jacob Klapwijk, editor, Taking Every Thought Captive), whereas the Antithesis to God's global grace cuts thru all of us and all human institutions (S. U. Zuidema), including business and the world's economies (Bob Goudzwaard, Capitalism and Progress), no matter what our sincere wannabe religio-ethical ultimate values--individally and as boards of directors or indivdiual market-savvy investors or corporate venture capitalists or holding companies, lending only for the profit of their investors; and as workers, labour-union members and labour leaders. It was Bavinck, I add in passing, who took the classical starting point of ethics as a science attendant upon the idea of the summum bonum, casting it in distinctively Reformed Christian terms strait from the Bible. The greatest good, said Bavinck, is the coming of the Kingdom of God and His shalom thru Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour. Yes, we can think normatively about business life and work, about a corporation's organization and strategy, about labour relations and representation -- all from the principial base, the core beginselen bespoken by Bavinck. Now, back to Wellum's list:

Leadership

James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner, The Leadership Challenge (mid-1990s).
-----. A Leader's Legacy (more recently).

Ken Blanchard, Leading at a Higher Level: Blanchard on Leadership and Creating High Performing Organizations.
------ co-author of The One Minute Manager: The Quickest Way to Increase Your Own Prosperity.

Real-world case studies

Roger Lowenstein, When Genius Failed: The Rise and Fall of Long-Term Capital Management.

Wellum: ..."A 'must read' because it shows how educated and highly intelligent people can through arrogance and greed shake the global financial system. Lowenstein captures the roller-coaster ride of Long-Term Capital Management in detail! Founded in 1993 by notoriously successful bond arbitrageur John Meriwether the company was hailed as the most impressive hedge fund in history. The firm boasted a partnership that included two Nobel Prize-winning economists and a cadre of Wall Street's best and brightest elite traders. After four years of incredible success they suddenly suffered catastrophic losses thatj e o p a r d i z e d not only the biggest banks on Wall Street but the stability of the global financial system. Unbridled hubris and arrogance in the hands of exceptionally bright people is one of the greatest risks we face in our financial system today. Students will find this a compelling and riveting read and better appreciate that pride goes before a fall, and that principles and ethics really do matter.

Jim Collins, Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap . . . And Others Don't

Collins and his team start with a universe of 1,435 companies. After analyzing and studies the companies that made the greatest improvements in their performance they hone in on the business practices of only eleven businesses. What they find is that these companies share common patterns of success.

Investment

Warren Buffett. Berkshire Hathaway Inc.: An Owner's Manual (4-page booklet).

Peter Lynch, One Up on Wall Street: How to Use What You Already Know to Make Money on Wall Street

Philip Fisher, Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits.

Benjamin Graham, The Intelligent Investor: A Book of Practical Counsel (1949).

Wellum: "... for the hard-core investor or business student. ... timeless philosophy of 'value investing' which helps protect investors against making short term decisions based on fads, trends, and momentum instead of on the substantive long-term value of a business."

Economix: An area where I found a gap in the list was the lack of any work of full-dress philosophy (with substantial overtones for people in enterprises and labour unions, of course). And, in the circumstance we live in to date in Canada, to ask for a title that was credentialed as reformational Christian philosophy for business and labour, I guess, is still out of the question. So, that's not a gap in Wellum's reading any more than my own. But, since additionally there's not one title on the list for this Summer in Business Ethics as such (ethics as a philosophically-informed modal science as it pertains to economics and businesses in their various types a la Dooyeweerd), the closest we get is "counsel," moral guidelines for business practice, etc. Still, no ethics proceeding from a modal science narrowed to a focus on business (again the lack of any such titles from a reformational philosophical ethics for business and labour) is no lack on the part of the author of the list at hand.

Again, one nevertheless mite hope that Mr Wellum were aware of the long list of such works as published and/or promoted in past decades by Uniapac, the world federation of Christian entrepreneurs and business executives, largely Roman Catholic and thus creatively beholden to the Church Magisterium around its societal doctrine of subsidiarity, rather than that of reformational philosophy's contrary but related teaching of societal-sphere specificity, universality, and sovereignty--to which I adhere and for which I am thirsty to read further h+ calibre volumes in the trajectory of the future development of this Protestant ethics (Dr M.D.Stafleu, PDF format).

The 22nd World Congress of Uniapac was held May25-27,2k6, in Lisbon, Portugal, on the theme: “Empowering Business Leaders to Serve Mankind in the Modern World – How to improve a responsible leadership as Christian Executives in a Complex Global World?”. A report on this Congress is now available in French, English, and in Spanish, even more important perhaps are the nearly 10 titles on the library page. All the titles are downloadable (PDF format?). There used to be a much larger list of scholarly works on business from a Roman Catholic view, but since Uniapac (launched in 1931) became in 1962 an ecumenical Christian business leadership organization, it seems that the older list must have been obsolesced.

Writes the now-retiring General Secretary of Uniapac, Benoit Bonamy:

The XXII World Congress of the International Union of Christian Business Executives was held from May 25 to 27 2006 in Lisbon, hosted by the ACEGE [Portugese national affiliate]. The theme was: “Empowering business leaders to serve mankind in the modern world”. Four hundred business executives from around the world (and more than one thousand for opening night) participated in debates and work groups. You can now find in our library page a synthetic report in English, in French, and in Spanish. Several noteworthy points were drawn from these debates. Some of them, chosen randomly, have been highlighted in this publication, in the hope of sharing with the reader some of the strong impressions made during the meeting. May we dare here a few short comments from the Congress through some of these quotations…

First, Bertrand Collomb, at the very beginning of the Congress, followed after by many other guest speakers, strongly and clearly stated that Executives still do have the choice of behaving according to their own morals or faith beliefs, despite the impression left by the atmosphere of increased business competition. This is of course a crucial starting point, but it is obvious that, in day to day life, we have to be more confident in this than we often are.

Second, and foremost: “…the fundamental question is the means which we give ourselves, or not, to ensure that each person has the position he or she deserves in the company...”. Bearing in mind this strong interjection, repeated throughout the Congress, helps us to avoid the harmful but classic pitfall of paying heed to [fine] speeches and incantations. It redirects us, when necessary, towards concrete action, towards being graded on the effectiveness of means used to attain the goals we are trying to achieve, and even towards subjecting the results of the measures put in place to arbitration.

Next: “…a company reflects its executives…” This (hopefully!) will be obvious to many, but it is the type of statement worthy of hearing over and over again. It points to the heavy onus put on business leaders, especially Christian business executives, and also points out their potential to act, their privilege to do [so as] to be able to react, to profoundly influence their company (especially its culture, cohesion and employee development – their behavior with responsibilities for people, for the company…).

Finally, “It is during crises and tension, when all human notion of hope is gone, that Christianity must manifest its difference by initiating action that is sensitive to our human weaknesses.” It is here, and fortunately so, that the concerns of Uniapac members join those of many other good-willing people, which leads us to question:

“Where [dwells] the Christian difference?” This final question offers us a reply. We are not, on our own, better, stronger or more competent than others. However, because we are supported by Christ Resurrected, we should not fear to take up the challenge with clear objectives, and to be confident in serving mankind even, and especially, when it no longer seems possible.

EconMix: North America is missing from the zones of Uniapac national affiliates around the world, but in Canada we have the Canadian Christian Business Federation [CCBF], a small organization closely tied to Reformed churchly faith-confessions, but this follows a pattern in Canada of sectarian organization of Christian business organizations, no broader ecumenicity. And, in my opinion, this business-org sectarianism results in part from very meagre scholarly resources to motivate and backup broader but distinctively Christian organization in the field of business/labour study and action (whereby there would resultantly develop over the longterm a systematic referencing by business and labour practioners of the most appropriate scholarly sources in the disciplines of philosophy, worldview studies, ethics, business ethics, labour-union ethics, freedom of association in the workplace, method of workers representation in the enterprise and industrial sectors, as well as method of investors representation on the board of directors of the enterprise, microeconomics, macroeconomics). My fond wish is that CCBF could hire a competent business ethicist (indigenous to Canada, and knowledgeable about USA economic life as well) to teach one course each week at Redeemer University on the senior undergraduate level, and one each week at the graduate Institute for Christian Studies, and otherwise work with CCBF's membership, serving occasionally as ambassador to outside groups in Canada which want a bit of the scholary side of Christian business development, and also as a delegate perhaps to Uniapac on the global level where Canada's Christian business leadership could contribute to and monitor that larger and related more-global Christian business scene, very much present in the 2/3s world.

If you've made it thru my presentation of Jonathan Wellum's list, you may also want to go directly to his page on Comment (above; frontpage) to read the full treatment he gives of each title, and to take advantage of the live-links he provides so that you can easily purchase many of his mentioned books. And a fine summer of good reading to all!