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'I have faith we can build a strong, sustainable future'.

Document Cited in Related
Vincent
AuthorBabber, Gulzari
PositionA word from the president - Editorial

When I recently visited the CIMA India office in Mumbai, the first thing I was invited to do was to light a candle. It was the same when I arrived at my hotel in Sri Lanka for the Global Business Challenge final in July. This is a symbolic gesture to bring enlightenment--or perhaps a better word would be wisdom--to the staff and organisation as a whole.

In a similar vein, when CIMA's chief executive, Charles Tilley, was asked to open CIMA South-East Asia's newly renovated office in Malaysia, the ceremony centred on a lion dance that was introduced to ward off evil spirits and summon up luck and fortune.

During my travels as CIMA deputy president, and now as president, I have observed how business and spirituality converge. Clearly in the East, spirituality in the workplace appears to be open and shared.

In the West it seems to be far more closed and individualised. Indeed, if I lit a candle at CIMA's headquarters in London, the only expected effect would be to set off the fire alarm.

I am not suggesting that spirituality or morality has died in the Western workplace. Only that it is considered a very personal and private experience. My conclusion is that Western spirituality may be more subtle, but evidently it's still there in the small print.

Google's "Don't be evil" code is a case in point. Although the word spirituality is not specifically used, the company recognises the strength of trust and respect--the basis of every belief system. "Our commitment to the highest standards helps the company to hire great people, build great products and attract loyal users," the code asserts. "Trust and mutual respect among employees and users are the foundation of our success."

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But in a summer when record fines were imposed on some of the world's biggest corporate hitters--Barclays, GlaxoSmithKline, HSBC--for corporate malpractice, questions are once again surfacing. Has the Western business world's moral compass gone into a terminal spin?

This topic came to the fore in...

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