Blueprint for Better Business is an opportunity to create greater awareness on the value of business when it is conducted in the right way.

It started with a conference in September 2012 championed by Cardinal Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster, with the theme ‘A Blueprint for Better Business?’ The speakers included McKinsey & Company global managing director Dominic Barton, Vodafone Group plc CEO Vittorio Colao, Unilever executive director Paul Polman and Lord Maurice Glasman, a Labour peer with a long-standing interest in Catholic social thinking. Top executives from the City of London together with others from all over the UK congregated in London to seek ways for society to regain trust and confidence in business.

The series of 21st-century accoun­ting and finance scandals, starting from Enron, Worldcom and Parmalat, and followed by the severe financial crisis triggered by Lehman Brothers and continuing even today, has seriously dented the reputation of business and the corporate world. This has affected the relationship of business with all stakeholders, including customers (with lost loyalty), employees (with difficulty to attract and retain) and society at large (with pressures on strengthening corporate governance).

It is in the interest of all in a stakeholders’ society to run a business in a morally correct way

In October last year, a follow-up conference held again in London addressed in more concrete terms ways and means by which business can successfully serve society. Speakers included the academic John Kay, Barclays chairman Sir David Walker and Blackrock managing director James Macpherson. Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby was the keynote speaker.

In summary, the conference made a statement that the job of business is that of being a good business. It is in the interest of all in a stakeholders’ society to run a business in a morally correct way.

It all starts with a thinking process that gravitates towards a purpose which is in itself good. The thinking process relies on intellect and emotions that are a product of genes, family upbringing, education and social interaction.

The principle is simple: garbage in, garbage out. In reverse, a morally good decision and ensuing action will deliver positive and morally acceptable outcomes.

The conference and its follow-up workshops and meetings are aimed at designing a purpose-driven and action-oriented blueprint for conducting better business through a thought- and decision-making process starting at board level and trickling down to all levels of management. The principles that have so far been drafted centre around five ‘purpose-driven business areas’ related to customers and suppliers, citizenship, employment and posterity.

Lasting and beneficial relationships with customers and suppliers have to be built on honesty and fairness. Relationships with employees are to be based on treating everyone as a human being with dignity, and caring for his and her development and progress. As good citizens, business decision-makers need to look at their role in the community, giving special attention to the less privileged. Business is also a ‘guardian for future generations’ as it protects the environment and invests in creativity and innovation.

These principles reflect the major tenets found in Benedict XVI’s masterpiece encyclical Caritas in Veritate, where human dignity and development is to be central to the new model of business and economy.

The ‘Blueprint for Better Business’ initiative places society at the core as it acknowledges that both are inter-related. Society provides business with talent and consumers, and business adds value through work, job opportunities, research and innovation, besides providing utility through the consumption of products and services.

The financial and economic crisis has created an opportunity to chart a new course of how to run business and an economy which is more respectful of the human person.

The ongoing journey started under the banner of Blueprint for Better Business is one such opportunity to create greater awareness on the value of business when it is conducted in the right way.

www.blueprintforbusiness.org