Doing business, doing good

Can business and ethics successfully co-exist? In what ways can the business world implement the principles of Pope Benedict’s latest encyclical in their workplaces? And, how can the financial world, especially banks, combine the logic of profitability with moral integrity in investments?

These were just some of the many points under discussion at the international summit on business ethics held in the Vatican this month that was attended by dozens of leaders of business leaders of global institutions. One of those attending the conference was Arsenio Rodriguez, Executive Coordinator of the Alliance for a new Humanity, an international network of people aiming to build a just, peaceful and sustainable world, who spoke to Susy Hodges:

Rodriguez says he fears that the 2008 global financial crisis "is not enough" to make people mend their ways and realise "we are one human family and that we need to behave differently."
Asked whether profotability and ethics can happily co-exist, Rodriguez says they can co-exist as "making money is not the objective of a business, the objective of a business is to create wellbeing, social wellbeing, through money, money is energy so the more you create profits and you invest these profits in creating social capital" the better it is.

But as he goes on to warn, if you "hoard those profits" or go to spend them, say, at Las Vegas, that is "totally selfish." How, he asks, "can you have more than you need while others have nothing? ... "to share is the greatest treasure we can have... and love grows when you share, it is contrary to money...."
Listen to the full interview: