A spiritual formula for entrepreneurs

Last month, I took time out to understand Islamic principles to prepare for a research trip to Indonesia that involved interviewing entrepreneurs who ran their businesses along such principles. Let me share some interesting findings.

One entrepreneur was born and raised as a Christian but critical events in his life led him into becoming a Moslem. During the interview, he proudly declared that ever since he practiced Islamic principles in the enterprise, factory tools and other production materials were no longer missing. In addition, the quality of the product also kept on improving.

He cited other strategic benefits. The factory was a metal working facility yet the work area was very clean. There was a general feeling of harmony in the workplace. The profitability of the enterprise was sustainable.

Further into our dialogue, I found out that they adopted a different type of job interview process where the owner conducts the final interview of all applicants for managerial as well as rank and file positions. During the session, he puts a copy of the Koran before the applicants and asks if he/she reads the holy book. No matter what the answer was, he would ask–Why?–the point being that he believed that religion must be practiced in the workplace. Thus, to this entrepreneur, religion is not a matter of ceremonies and rituals. Rather, one must live and practice his/her faith in going about life, and this includes work.

Every Saturday, the owner conducts seminars for the employees on topics drawn from Koranic passages and their relevance to the enterprise work and their lives. Asked what story had a great impact and resulted in the eradication of theft in the factory, he proceeded to draw a straight line with several nodes on the white board of the conference room. It started with one node and, after successive nodes, it terminated into two separate nodes.

He explained that each person starts as a spirit (the first node) and then moves on to become an embryo. The next node is birth on this earth. Life in this world is terminated by death. The last nodes moves towards an upper node (equivalent of heaven) and a lower node (equivalent of hell). He believed that compared to one’s time on earth, the time spend in the terminal nodes is more than ten times longer. As such, it is best to aspire to terminate in the upper node.

Curiously, I asked him what it would take to end up in the inner node. Saying that this was a common question asked of him, whenever he completed his drawing, he proceeded to elaborate that one’s final destination will be governed by what happens here on earth. There are three things that will influence this:

• First, good deeds–the more good deeds one does on earth, the greater the chance to go to the upper node;

• Second, continuous improvement–the greater the improvement the person has made from birth to death, the greater the chance to go to the upper node; and

• Third, people praying for you–the more people on earth praying for you, the greater the chance to go to the upper node.

Translating this to the enterprise, one must always do good deeds on earth. Since the firm is an entity on this earth, therefore, it can be a venue for practicing good deeds. Stealing or taking what is not yours is not a good deed. Thus, it must be avoided. Making customers happy and satisfied is a good deed. Making customers dissatisfied and angry is not a good deed. Thus, it must be avoided.

Continuous improvement of self will increase the chances of ending up in the upper node. Acquiring new knowledge and skills will improve ourselves. Applying new knowledge and skills to improve the firm’s product quality and productivity is a means to practice continuous improvement. Developing new products and/or services is also the result of continuous improvement. Thus, improving quality and productivity of existing products/services and developing new products and services must be practiced in the workplace.

People who benefit from good deeds and continuous improvement will pray for those who initiated and implemented them. As such, the chances of people praying for you will increase as one does good deeds and improves continuously.

As can be seen from my dialogue with the Indonesian entrepreneur, there is no dissonance between practicing you spirituality and good business practice. As a matter of fact, spirituality ensures that the source of the good deeds and improvements is deep within the person and is not merely driven by some management-made policy or program being implemented. Improvements and good deeds that come from within will continue to increase even if the policies or programs have been lifted. The drive to improve and to do good deeds is a matter between the individual and Allah, not between employees and the entrepreneur.

Before we parted, I was able to inject this final question: "Since you were raised as a Christian, what is the difference between the two religions?" He smiled and quipped, "Less than 1%."

Translated into a formula, this proves that entrepreneurial spirit + spiritual entrepreneurship= enlightened entrepreneurship. Definitely, practicing one’s religion in the workplace is good for the enterprise.

(Alejandrino Ferreria is the dean of the Asian Center for Entrepreneurship of the Asian Institute of Management. For further comments and inquiries, you may contact him at: [email protected]. Published "Entrepreneur’s Helpline" columns can be viewed on the AIM website at http//: www.aim.edu.ph).