Beyond Profit When businesses partner with disadvantaged communities, everybody benefits
People start businesses in order to make money. With profit as the ultimate goal, businesses often compete fiercely, sometimes ruthlessly. They spend millions not only to perfect their product but also to outthink, outdo, and outproduce their competitors, with the ends often believed to justify the means. Thus the oft-quoted “It’s just business,” a phrase used to excuse a multitude of sins. But can “just business” be turned on its head and redefined to mean business that seeks to be just? Is there a higher, more life-giving purpose for businesses, one that goes beyond profit to challenge the assumptions of our capitalist society and to share opportunities and resources rather than compete for them? As the stories on the following pages attest, there is indeed a way to conduct business that creates room for compassion, mercy, and justice, a way that serves the poor and underprivileged, gives glory to God, and profits the whole community. These corporate models testify to the possibilities of transformation when Christian businesspeople think beyond profit and commit to the vision of the kingdom of God, where no economic or racial divides exist. PRISM 2008
8