In "Doing Virtuous Business", author Theodore Roosevelt Malloch contends that truly successful businesses couple free enterprise with religeous liberty. This means not only providing a needed product or service but treating each employee and customer with dignity and respect..
Mr. Malloch lists virtues which are important to the real success of businesses, large or small, including faith, hope and charity. Along with those are what he terms "hard vitures": leadership, courage, patience, perserverence, and discipline and "soft virtues": justice, forgiveness, compassion, humility, and gratitude.
He puts forth the idea that while some businesses focus on profits as their main motive, the truly successful businesses do not. One of the main complaints of anti-capitalists is that capitalism fosters greed, and while that is true among some businesses, the author sets out to demonstrate that ones who do, end up not doing well for very long. Those whose businesses are successful long term see the need to focus on honest business pracices that gain the trust of their customers and when that happens, profits follow. Also, treating the employees with value and respect ensures productivity and profitability for the company and a low turn-over rate.
In the back of the book, the author lists virtuous companies by name along with a brief mention of what makes them virtuous. For example, under faith, he lists William Pollard, chairman of Servicemaster. Mr Pollard credits the success of Servicemaster to "its commitment to honor God and develop its people." The author goes on to list a business for each of the virtues.
Overall, I enjoyed the book. However, I felt that portions of it were a bit "dry" because I found parts of it difficult to focus on. I would still recommend it, though, because I feel it offers words of wisdom for all businesses, no matter what their size or type.
I received this book free from the publisher in return for writing a review for their booksneeze review program. I was not required to write a favorable review. I was only asked to be honest. The words are my own.
