• This is part of a series of profiles on faith and work initiatives from various faiths.
  

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This talk was given on December 16, 2018, at Rissho Kosei-kai’s Great Sacred Hall at a gathering of more than 2,000 business owners and managers from across Japan seeking to apply Buddhism to business and management.

[Script of Mr. Hideaki Goto]

Hello everyone. My name is Hideaki Goto. I’m a member of Suginami Dharma Center. Thank you for giving me this opportunity to share my story.

“I want to be my own boss!” That was what I was thinking about when I came out to Tokyo from Oita prefecture. As I was young, I worked feverishly and tried frantically to seize a chance. Since I was working for a newspaper company, I saw and heard many things and I set my eyes on health foods. I was confident that the health business would undoubtedly grow since Japan was becoming a super-aged society. So I established a health food company in 1994. I was 35 years old. Today, health food products can be found at any household. But 25 years ago, you rarely heard a word such as “health foods” or “supplement”.

During the first few years, I struggled very hard with my business. But aided by a health boom, sales increased and surpassed 100 million yen a month.

I achieved the success I wanted. Then, I became arrogant and skimped on my business. Instead, I played 100 rounds of golf a year.

In 2013, Rev. Kunitomi introduced me to Mr. Fukumori. The very first words he gave me was “Are you “earnestly” doing business?” I felt shocked at his harsh wards as if I was hit with a hammer.

Although I joined Rissho Kosei-kai when I was young, I wasn’t an active member. Although I didn’t listen to my wife’s suggestion of reading the sutra, when I heard Mr. Fukumori’s words, I felt that he was not an ordinary teacher.

Back then, I thought my company was performing well. But due to my sloppy business management, my company was collapsing from within. Our distributors colluded with each other and broke out of contracts. Sales went down 80% like a stone rolling downhill. Before I knew it, we were on the verge of bankruptcy. It was all because I didn’t try to grasp the essence of business management. I was selfish. I was only concerned about sales figures. I finally got what was coming to me for my mismanagement. The infighting was a lesson from the Buddha.

I sought for Rev. Kunitomi’s guidance and he suggested that I receive individual coaching from Mr. Fukunaga. Mr. Fukunaga said, “There are principles for business. You need to tap into them. In addition, if you have a philosophy, you will be able to survive difficult situations. Then, he taught me three basic principles.

The first one is “Do not give into emotions.” That is, never hold grudges, hates or regrets. I felt he said that because he could stay on the sideline. Remembering his words, I was upset and couldn’t sleep. I ended up drinking too much that night. But then, what hit home to me was that a company would collapse when its manager gave in. “Let the lawyer handle the traitors. What you have to do is to focus on the management of your company!” I decided to leave everything behind and consciously tried not to think about.

The second principle was that you must align the effort of everyone to reconstruct the company. He said, “No company will grow beyond the capacity of its manager.” In order to unite the minds of the remaining distributors, I gathered them and earnestly talked to them each about my desire, belief, and aspiration. Then, together we set higher goals and share the purpose of our business. Finally, we all came as one. I couldn’t pull this off without his tough coaching.

And the last thing—Elevating your mind. He said, “What’s happening is all a reflection of your mind. If you don’t polish your soul and change yourself, your business won’t grow. So change your mind by practicing the Six Perfections”. I have come to realize that what matters as a leader is character not talent, that it’s the humanity of a leader that influences and attracts people and win their cooperation.

I finally understood the meaning of his words. Until then, I thought that the teachings of the Lotus Sutra had nothing to do with management. Back then, my priority was all about making money and took a perfunctory attitude toward everything else. Instead of trying to change others, I was determined to change my way of thinking through the Six Perfections and applied it to my business.

In 2016, three years after the infighting of my company, I reported to Mr. Fukunaga, “Now I had prospects to achieve a recovery of my business. We are out of the red and sales bounced back by 14% last year.” Then, Mr. Fukunaga said to me, “Why don’t you put your gratitude into a concrete shape?” So, I made a donation of 10 million yen to show my heartfelt appreciation. Then, to my surprise, my mind began to change.

Previously, I was consumed by cash flow problems and payroll responsibilities, debt repayments. Those occupied 70% of my head. However, practicing generosity removed my attachment to money. I was able to let myself relax, thinking I just need to work hard and make money again. It gave a new perspective.

I learned how to maintain my own mental attitude. I realized that the growth of a company depends on its people and their minds, and that your mind will dictate the course of your business. If you keep striving to perfect your character, you will inevitably achieve the best results. My company’s mission is that “We provide opportunities for the material and intellectual growth of all our stakeholders.”

I’d like to close by praying for the repose of Mr. Fukunaga’s soul and by vowing to continue to practice the Six Perfections in order to grow my business and contribute to society.

Thank you for listening, everyone.

• This is part of a series of profiles on faith and work initiatives from various faiths.
  

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This talk was given on December 16, 2018, at Rissho Kosei-kai’s Great Sacred Hall at a gathering of more than 2,000 business owners and managers from across Japan seeking to apply Buddhism to business and management.

[Script of Ms. Keiko Kawamoto]

Hello, everyone. I am Keiko Kawamoto, the director of Gingamura RIV Research Institute. My company offers services to help child-rearing. As it was referred in the introduction on myself, I have fun with children every day. It gives me a purpose of life to interact with parents and children.

I started my business when I was struggling with my feelings of emptiness and depression. I started developing these feelings after I moved to Odawara. Away from my hometown, I had no friends. I have a real difficulty adjusting myself to a new environment.

It was around that time that I participated in a lecture held at HOJU vocational college. (Rissho Kosei-kai’s women’s college.) The speaker was a woman who herself ran her own business. “Women can shine by pursuing their dreams,” sad she. She also touched upon the “home nursery school,” which reminded me of the seven years I spent working as a nursery teacher at Kosei- Ikujien daycare. “Yes, this is it!” My heart trembled. I felt a powerful desire to work for parents and children and serve others through my work. It felt like the fog surrounding me finally lifted. So this was how I opened a home nursery school in my own house.

Sometime later, I met Ms. Seiko Mochizuki, who also ran a business of the home nursery school in Yokohama. This encounter encouraged me to set up my own company Gingamura, which offers services to help child-rearing.

My company’s motto is that “each and every person shines and finds happiness.” We aim to create a reliable daycare center where mothers can leave their children to have some “me time” to refresh and resume child-rearing with a rich spirit; an anchorage for child-rearing where mothers can discuss their child-rearing, and children meet new friends.

My business model utilizes a private homes and apartment rooms as business sites and set up daycare centers, community cafes, and nursery schools. We are also entrusted by Odawara City to manage child care support centers.

At those facilities, mothers who identify with our motto can work while doing their own child-rearing. The last ten years have passed so quickly. I tried everything that was considered good for parent and child. Now, I have more employees and operate those facilities at seven places including Yokohama and Odawara. And finally last April, we were able to establish a formal nursery.

I stated studying at Buddhist Business Manager-Juku in Kanagawa just after I opened the nursery school. My staff were already experienced nursery teachers. It was not easy to align our efforts before we developed a trusting relationship. I received complaints from each of my staff. I was desperate to resolve their dissatisfaction. The more I listened to them, the more I was swayed by what they said.

So when I heard Mr. Fukunaga said, “don’t get caught up in other’s feelings,” “don’t give into emotions,” I was moved to the point of tears. His words saved me. Looking back on those days, I dwelled on their feelings. I got swayed by them. I was struggling.

To improve the situation, what I practiced was to maintain an ardent desire in mind. I reflected on my desire, my passion on nursery, and my ideal as a nursery teacher. Then, I strived hard to embody my ideal. I also discussed it with my staff at various occasion. When rooms were messy, I myself did the cleaning. I believe that each child is unique and different, so I encouraged my staff to accept who they were. When I heard criticisms against parents, I said, “Let’s put ourselves in their shoes!” I also ask them to always try to keep a smile. Every time I notice something that needed attention, I conveyed it to them so that it would permeate their subconscious minds.

At the same time, I kept striving harder than anyone else. I read various magazines on nursery and developed my own nursery philosophy. I also tried to get close to the hearts of my staff as to what kind of nursery school they wanted to create as well as what kind of teacher they wanted to be because we are working as a team.

By conveying my expectation for them, their words and deeds began to change. We came to spend more time discussing child development rather criticisms and complaints.

By expressing my desire for my work, I found myself getting less and less caught up in others’ feelings. We became more considerate of each other. Our efforts were finally aligned. My staff even tell me that they want to be someone like me, who is cheerful and energetic, and that they want be someone who can think from the perspective of parents. We have become a team where everyone shines and respects others for who they are.

In fact, it was I myself that have changed the most thanks to this Juku. I’m confident that I can always find a shining light for my business if I keep elevating my mind and having an ardent, persistent desire.

I maintain the same belief that I had when I started my business. By getting close to the heart of parent and child, I aim to offer our support to more parents. I am also determined to realize our company motto based on the spirit of altruism and Buddhism, which I have inherited from my parents.

Mr. Fukunaga taught me that if I maintain an ardent, persistent desire, I can always receive support from the Buddha, and that my desire, dream, hope and earnest aspiration for my business will change not only my company but also society.

Mr. Fukunaga brought out fortitude in me with his smile and encouragement, saying “I want to support young business managers like you.”

Mr. Fukunaga, it’s regrettable that I can’t say “thank you” to you in person today. But anyway, I’d like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to you. I will continue to live earnestly with a smile. Thank you so much, Mr. Fukunaga.

Thank you very much for listening.

• This is part of a series of profiles on faith and work initiatives from various faiths.
  

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More than 2,000 people gathered on December 16, 2018, at Rissho Kosei-kai’s Great Sacred Hall in Suginami Ward, Tokyo. This was the first nationwide gathering of business owners and managers to study Buddhism’s application to management and business today.

The purpose of the gathering was to utilize the Buddhist spirit in business management, create a network to provide business value and new value for society through the application of Rissho Kosei-kai’s teachings.

Two of the talks from the conference are available in English translation, thanks to Rissho Kosei-kai:

– Maintain Ardent Desire, Receive Buddha’s Support to Change Business and Society, by Ms. Keiko Kawamoto

– Practice the Six Perfections in Order to Grow My Business and Contribute to Society, by Mr. Hideaki Goto

RFBF President Brian Grim attended the gathering as a guest of Rissho Kosei-kai President-designate Kosho Niwano, in follow up to their previous meeting in October.

Also see: The No. 1 business rule of a Buddhist billionaire: Make workers happy

• • This is part of a series of profiles on faith and work initiatives from various faiths. 

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On February 22, 2019, thousands of Christian business professionals across the country will join in person or via livestream for the second annual Work As Worship Retreat, a one-day event to hear featuring experts on connecting faith and work. Last year, over 13,000 business professionals participated.

With the aim of communicating a complete and biblical picture of work and faith, the organizers defined eight tenets of the Work as Worship message.

1. Work is good.

In the beginning, God created everything—including work. And as with all things He created, work was good. Free from toil and adversity, humans worked in the garden as an expression of worship to God. In its original created form, work was one of the ways humans engaged in relationship with God. As those made in the image of the working God, humans also worked—and it was good. GENESIS 1:28; 2:15

2. Sin corrupted work.

The pure goodness of work didn’t last forever. In one disobedient act, humans severed their relationship with God. Sin caused a ripple of destruction throughout all creation. As a result, work was also broken, corrupt, and cursed because of the Fall. Instead of worshipping God through work, we have a tendency to worship the hollow god of work. Work can cause personal stress, relational tension, and global problems. Work was in desperate need of redemption. GENESIS 3:17–19, 23

3. Jesus makes it possible for work to be redeemed.

God wanted to make things right again, but sin couldn’t go unpunished. Compelled by His love and mercy, He sent His Son, Jesus, to pay the price for sin. Jesus paved the way to redeem us and redeem work through us. He died and rose again not just to save sinners, but also to restore all of life, including work. By grace through faith, Jesus renews us and our approach to work. Work is no longer broken with no hope for repair. Work no longer rules over our lives. With God’s favor upon us, we don’t work to earn His approval. We work motivated by the love of our Savior. In Christ, we are free to work for God’s glory. EPHESIANS 1:7–10; 2:1–10; 2 CORINTHIANS 5:21

4. God gave us a mission.

When Jesus left the earth, He commissioned His followers to the mission of God—to make healthy disciples who grow in Christlikeness and love God’s Word. God gifted us with the Holy Spirit who now lives in us, empowering us to fulfill God’s mission until Jesus returns one day to restore all things. With this new perspective of life, we are on mission for God wherever we go—even at work. Work has a role in the kingdom of God because work is an avenue for fulfilling God’s mission. With a newfound purpose, we chase God’s mission with perseverance— in the boardroom, on lunch break, or at the cubicle. Because of Christ and His mission, we have purpose in all we do, especially our work. MATTHEW 28:18–20; ACTS 1:8; HEBREWS 12:1–3

5. We carry Christ into our work.

Compelled by God’s mission, we carry Christ with us wherever we go. Following Jesus isn’t limited to Sunday morning—spirituality and work aren’t separated. All of life qualifies as spiritual as we carry the truth of Christ into the workplace. We are Jesus’s ambassadors at work—in the conference room, around the water cooler, or at the lunch table. We represent Him as lights in the darkness of the marketplace. Everything we do at work should be done in the name of Jesus, motivated out of adoration for Jesus, and presented with the love of Jesus. COLOSSIANS 3:17, 23–24; 2 CORINTHIANS 5:20

6. God grows us through our work.

When we enter into relationship with God through Jesus, God grows us into the image of His Son. The Spirit of God works in us as we work. He uses our relationships, successes, failures, and experiences at work as a significant tool in our spiritual formation. He teaches us to have the mind of Christ at work, to treat people as Jesus did, and to bear the fruit of the Spirit. We make mistakes, learn, and grow in our jobs under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Through work, God shapes how we view Him, the world, and ourselves. We become mature followers of Jesus as we pursue God at work. EPHESIANS 4:14–16; PHILIPPIANS 1:3–6

7. God can do more with our work than we can imagine.

God does more through us at work than we can ever imagine. He designed work for the good of the world—not just ourselves. God sees our small acts of obedience at work and those actions have a profound impact in His kingdom. Our work impacts our coworkers, clients, and managers. It also provides jobs, fuels the economy, and allows culture to flourish. In some ways, we may never know the profound impact of our work, but we can trust that God uses work to influence people around the world. MATTHEW 13:31–33; 25:29; MARK 10:45

8. Work is worship.

Our work goes beyond being a mission field, a place of growth, and an avenue for impact. Work is also worship. Everything we do—work included—can glorify God and honor His name. God gives our work purpose. He uses it to mature us. And He uses our work to reach people and communities. When we work, we taste the goodness God intended for work in the beginning. 1 CORINTHIANS 10:31; MATTHEW 22:37–39

• This is part of a series of profiles on faith and work initiatives from various faiths. 
  

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One CEO’s Quest for Meaning and Authenticity

• August Turak, Columbia University Press

August Turak is a successful entrepreneur, corporate executive, and award-winning author who attributes much of his success to living and working alongside the Trappist monks of Mepkin Abbey for seventeen years. As a frequent monastic guest, he learned firsthand from the monks as they grew an incredibly successful portfolio of businesses.

Service and selflessness are at the heart of the 1,500-year-old monastic tradition’s remarkable business success. It is an ancient though immensely relevant economic model that preserves what is positive and productive about capitalism while transcending its ethical limitations and internal contradictions.

Combining vivid case studies from his thirty-year business career with intimate portraits of the monks at work, Turak shows how Trappist principles can be successfully applied to a variety of secular business settings and to our personal lives as well. He demonstrates that monks and people like Warren Buffett are wildly successful not despite their high principles but because of them. Turak also introduces other “transformational organizations” that share the crucial monastic business strategies so critical for success.

Reaction of Kent Johnson, Senior Corporate Advisor, RFBF:

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

After a corporate career with companies like MTV, August Turak founded two highly successful software businesses, Raleigh Group International (RGI) and Elsinore Technologies. He received a B.A. in history from the University of Pittsburgh and is pursuing a Masters in theology at St. John’s University, Minnesota.

Turak’s essay “Brother John” received the grand prize in the John Templeton Foundation’s Power of Purpose essay contest. He has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, Selling Magazine, the New York Times, and Business Week, and is a popular leadership contributor at Forbes.com. His website is www.augustturak.com.

A new article by Ali Aslan Gümüsay, Michael Smets and Tim Morris has been published at the Academy of Management Journal. It is entitled ‘God at Work’: Engaging central and incompatible institutional logics through elastic hybridity and examines how the first Islamic Bank in Germany maintains unity in diversity by forming what the authors call an elastic hybrid that remains resilient despite contradictory beliefs and values that persist over time.

Unity in Diversity

The authors explain that existing approaches to managing hybridity focus on solutions that are organizational, structural and static. These approaches manage institutional tensions on behalf of employees. Yet, where competing values are incompatible and central to both the organization and the fundamental beliefs of its employees, it is impractical for an organization to prescribe how individuals manage them.

Gümüsay and colleagues outline polysemy and polyphony as mechanisms that dynamically engage conflicting logics through an organizational-individual interplay. Borrowing from paradox theory, they explain how hybrids can empower individuals to fluidly separate and integrate logics when neither structural compartmentalizing nor organizational blending are feasible because management cannot prescribe a specific balance of logics. The result is a state of elastic hybridity, constituted through the recursive, multi-level relationship between polysemy and polyphony. Elastic hybrids maintain unity in diversity. Like the bank, they are capable of institutionally bending without organizationally breaking and thus enable individuals to practice more of their personal convictions at work while still experiencing a sense of shared organizational purpose.

Implications for politics

According to the authors, implications for politics can be read in-between the lines. They argue that populists advocate for homogeneity as it reduces complexity, put people into boxes and separate them. Effectively, they compartmentalize societies. In contrast, heterogeneity is much more challenging, but also more rewarding. Heterogeneity is not just blending: people do not become all the same, but they cope with this diversity – with unity in diversity. Societies become elastic, accommodating, and enriched by plurality. For Ali Aslan Gümüsay, this is one of the fundamental social and societal challenges of our time: “Do we embrace the complexity of humankind or do we attempt to reduce it?”

• * Dr. Ali Aslan Gümüsay |University of Hamburg | guemuesay.com | tw: @guemuesay

For more discussion, see When organisational purposes conflict: leading with deliberate vagueness, Oxford University’s Saïd Business School.

Executive Trainings and New Index Prepare Executives for Next D&I Challenge

IMMEDIATE RELEASE, Washington, DC: Feb. 13, 3019

The Religious Freedom & Business Foundation (RFBF), the Religious Freedom Center of the Freedom Forum Institute (Religious Freedom Center) and the Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding (Tanenbaum) today jointly launched a cutting-edge executive training for mid-level corporate executives by RFBF and the Religious Freedom Center, and a groundbreaking Corporate Religious Diversity Assessment by Tanenbaum and RFBF. Both resources are designed to help companies improve the bottom line by addressing religion at work, and both were piloted with major corporations before being made available to companies across the nation and world today.

“Studies show that the most successful businesses enable employees to bring their full self to work,” RFBF’s president Brian Grim notes. “When employees are comfortable, willing, and able to talk about what is important to them, including their religious beliefs and practices, employers’ benefit.”

In-House Executive Education

RFBF and the Religious Freedom Center are unveiling full and half-day executive seminars and trainings to educate mid-level business leaders on how religion at work impacts the bottom line. Developed by expert faculty, the seminars train participants to understand the positive relationship between religious diversity, inclusion and liberty, and business strategy, talent retention and economic growth.

Kristen Farrington, executive director of the Religious Freedom Center, explains: “Businesses thrive when they’re inclusive and their employees have diverse backgrounds and life experiences, but religious diversity is often undervalued. Our executive training prepares business leaders to navigate these issues so they can create religiously inclusive policies and workplaces where religious diversity is respected.”

Real Measurement Using Corporate Religious Diversity Assessment (CRDA)

To provide clear guidelines and measures of success for global corporations to take action, Tanenbaum and RFBF today launched the Corporate Religious Diversity Assessment (CRDA). The CRDA was inspired by RFBF’s 2016 global Corporate Pledge on Religious Diversity & Inclusion and reflects Tanenbaum’s two decades of work on religion in companies.

It offers global companies a framework for self-evaluation of their current and ongoing religious diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. The CRDA evaluation covers four overarching criteria: religious discrimination and harassment; religious accommodation; promoting business goals with freedom of religion and belief; and accommodating religious or belief freedom in society.

Mark Fowler, Tanenbaum’s Deputy CEO and leader of its global Corporate Membership program, explains how the CRDA breaks new ground. “Though more and more companies are addressing religion, the subject is often still taboo. The CRDA provides an answer, with a hands-on approach for tackling religion. By self-assessing, corporate leaders will be able to identify realistic action steps and then reap the benefits.”

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For more information regarding the trainings, please contact Erin Shellenberger (202-292-6372 or eshellenberger@freedomforum.org) of Religious Freedom Center.

For more information or to request a review of the CRDA, please contact Dasha Tanner (212-967-7707 or dtanner@tanenbaum.org) of Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding.

–> Register

Studies demonstrate that employees who can bring their “whole selves” to the workplace perform better in many bottom line key indicator areas. Bringing one’s whole self includes religious identity. Many companies, however, are struggling to navigate religion and beliefs at work.

In fact, 36 percent of American workers — approximately 50 million people — have experienced or witnessed religious discrimination in the workplace, with religious majorities, minorities and non-religious employees all reporting this experience. This has direct impact on employee and company performance. Additionally, while companies have rightly paid significant attention to discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, workplace religious discrimination complaints to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) outnumber sexual orientation complaints two-to-one.

Addressing religion and belief in the workplace is the next big focus. Join us Wednesday, Feb. 13 for an in-depth discussion of workplace religion and beliefs and an introduction to resources to help organizations large and small design successful policies and procedures for honoring religion in the workplace.

Business Case for Workplace religious D&I

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Business Case for Workplace religious D&I