Does faith have a practical role in shaping decision-making in business?
Blueprint is not faith led but it is faith enabled. In developing Blueprint we wanted to explore the extent to which faith teachings could contribute to a ‘better’ outcome in business.
- Is it appropriate to mix business and faith?
- What is the role of business today?
- What are the weaknesses in our current business system and can these be resolved by the use of principles which draw on wisdom from society, including faith teachings?
- What are business, government and wider-society demanding from ‘a better business’? What is the role of each?
- Who is well-placed to promote better business?
We believe the values in our Framework and Principles resonate with people from different faiths. We tested this by forming an interfaith group. Initially the members of the group discussed our Framework and looked to see if they were able to map teachings or texts from their faith to it. The group then met regularly for a few years to discuss the application of faith values to business. We also held meetings to include prominent business people drawn from different faiths to discuss the application of Blueprint thinking to business in practice.
The interfaith group included the following representatives:
- Rabbi Naftalki Brawer (Jewish)
- Shaunaka Rishi Das (Hindu)
- Shaykh Haythim Tamim (Muslim)
- Malcolm Brown (Anglican)
- Sister Helen Alford (Catholic)
- Jnanagarbha – Alan Ashley (Buddhist)
- Bhupinder Singh Minhas (Sikh)
We also believe the Framework resonates with those of no faith and met with the chief executive of Humanists UK to test this.
