Soundbites
Novels abound — but not about daily work When was the last time you read a novel that took work seriously? “The modern world of work is not represented in literary fiction,” says novelist John Lanchester. He finds this startling, “given how many people define themselves through work and how central work is to many people’s selfdescription.” In most fiction today a job is as marginal as a character’s hair color. That wasn’t always so, says Lanchester, noting great books by authors like Herman Melville, Charles Dickens and Leo Tolstoy. Certainly the workplace figures as a backdrop in modern entertainment (hospitals, offices and police stations) but usually the depictions are
unrealistic. Why does literary fiction ignore a serious exploration into work and business? Probably, he says, because “the complexity of modern working lives is too much.” Any serious novel would bog down with the details of authentic workplace descriptions. — Quoted in Initiatives
each person can fulfill his or her God-given purpose. And, as the sole means of wealth creation, business makes it possible for all of society’s social institutions to exist — from governments to charities. — Coca-Cola executive Bonnie Wurzbacher in Our Souls at Work
Feeding charities
Misery of miseries
Churches, schools, charities, and mission fields are voracious consumers of wealth. Successful businesses are the only creators of that wealth. Through my Christian worldview, the role of business is to build and advance the economic well-being of communities throughout the world so that
The Marketplace September October 2010
The misery of being exploited by capitalists is nothing compared to the misery of not being exploited at all. — Cambridge economist Joan Robinson
CEO as maestro I practiced the top‑down, hierarchical model of conducting for years. Then I realized something amazing: The conductor, the most physically active person in the entire music world, doesn’t make a sound! The conductor’s power depends on his ability to make other people powerful... to make sure that every voice is heard. A symphony is the
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sounding of all the voices. It’s true in the family. It’s true in the corporation. The conductor, or leader’s, job is to make the people in the family sing and make beautiful music. — Benjamin Zander, conductor of the Boston Philharmonic
Running America Our nation [India], though it has no drinking water, electricity, sewage system, public transportation, sense of hygiene, discipline, courtesy, or punctuality, does have entrepreneurs. Thousands and thousands of them. Especially in the field of technology. And these entrepreneurs — we entrepreneurs — have set up all these outsourcing companies that virtually run America now. — Indian novelist Aravind Adiga in The White Tiger
Really exclusive The unbiblical use of the terms “ministry” and “laity” is the most extensive and oppressive form of exclusive language in the church. When we use
