Born privileged, but died poor, St. Francis of Assisi is an epitome of morality not only in religiosity but also in business. The life of St. Francis of Assisi is leavened from a master of wealth to the servant of all. Being a wealthy man would allow St. Francis, then, Francesco di Bernardone live a life of sumptuousness; however, he abandoned his riches for the humility and serenity of serving the destitute. Godliness and goodness characterized his life’s journey. In the face of the dynamic business world, Francis would not have lost an inch of his immaculate prestige embedded in his belief for penance and humility. Endeared to Francis was the love of giving rather than receiving. Today, many due to the many financial revere running a global company and reputation benefits associated with it. To St. Francis, it would have been an opportunity to live for the greater good rather than an accumulation of more wealth and individual opulence. St. Francis’ business would be an embodiment of The Vocation of the Business Leader's teachings. This paper details some of the core values that St. Francis would have cultivated in his global business venture. Despite the changes witnessed in businesses today, St. Francis’ international business would not only be a success story in wealth creation, but also in `promoting goodness guided by the teachings of the Gospel, servant attitude, human dignity, contribution to the common good, solidarity with the poor, and creation of a participatory structure.
Business Guided by the Gospel Teachings (1)
Running an international business, St. Francis would be guided by the holy teachings. As acknowledged in The Vocation of the Business Leader (2018) , in the Gospel, Jesus tells us: “From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked” (Lk 12:48). Indeed, businesses are endowed with massive resources that translate into huge profits. While operating an international business requires dedication and commitment, it comes with greater accumulation of benefits. Businessmen owning global firms have in their control great resources that allow them to expand to various profit-landed ventures and regions. The resources allow entrepreneurship to exploit many business opportunities. In the words of Pansters (2018), companies need resources to identify and harness the power of emerging opportunities. Therefore, international businesses have a unique capability and capacity to stretch their resource far and beyond. They are blessed with a rare gift of competitive advantage over small businesses.
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As the scripture teachings illustrate, the resource vastness of international companies is laden with huge responsibilities. St. Francis of Assisi with his delight for humility and service to the poor would have exploited the great resources to help the less fortunate. The Lord demands that people blessed with extensive resources use the same to do great things to society. While in the spirit of this vocation, many business organizations have invented or supported spectacular innovations that have helped the world differently including curing diseases (as seen in the Microsoft-Belinda and Bill Gates Foundation) or created prosperity by bringing people close together. For instance, inventions such as Facebook have facilitated networking and communication between people who are remotely located. From St. Francis angle, international business should go beyond the financial numbers and dedicate greater resources to the service of the poor. Throughout his life, St. Francis illustrates an admiration to use his resources to help those in need.
St. Francis comes from a wealthy family. Before renouncing his inheritance, St. Francis would have gained massive wealth from his father’s cloth business. However, Francis demonstrated interest in using his access to the company resource to assist the poor in society. After returning from the war, St. Francis was a changed person. He would later sell his horse and clothes from his father’s business to help the poor priest and the Church (). Francis is seen to care more for the destitute rather than the expansion of his family wealth. In other words, he sees his father’s wealth as an opportunity to give back to those unable to cater for their livelihood. St. Francis goes against the evils associated with contemporary business empires. As recounted in The Vocation of the Business Leader (2018) , businesses in the modern world are characterized by “scandals, serious economic disturbances, growing inequality, ecological damage, and an erosion of trust in business organizations and free-market institutions” (4). St. Francis, chose the practice of love and confidence of hope, which are the core attributes of a Christian business leader. Sometimes, he gave away his clothing or money to the poor (Acocella, 2013). This commitment to assisting the suffering would characterize St. Francis’ international business because with the numerous resources at his command, serving the poor is seen as his vocational call.
Servant Attitude (13)
St. Francis’ international business would be guided by serfdom to others. Intense competition in the search for a competitive advantage to cut competitors and maximize profits is the order of many global businesses. The thirst for financial performance at the behest of the poor is insatiable. A look to the life of St. Francis shows that his business would seek to foster service to others rather than be blinded by the urge for greater financial numbers. The Vocation of the Business Leader (2018) highlights that well-integrated entrepreneurs should use servant attitude while responding to their demanding obligations to their businesses just like Jesus did when He washed His disciples’ feet. In this gesture, Jesus illustrated that serving others while demanding nothing in return is a demonstration of humility. Free service does not translate into slavery but self-effacement and appreciation for the greater good. Servant spirit differs from the authoritarian power exercised by business organizations. Most businesses uphold orderly responsibilities guided by stringent financial goals. Servant attitude replaces the need for service-gain with the fulfilment of the heart for serving those in need.
Christian executives as St. Francis would promote a work environment that embraces servant leadership. According to The Vocation of the Business Leader (2018), servant leadership entails leaders or other people giving their abilities and expertise freely to the needy in society. Business leaders should be ethical while serving their collaborators in the course of their business (Shaw, 2016). Giving to those in need should not be driven by the need for potential material gain but subjection to the service of others. During St. Francis time lepers, were associated with sin and therefore held in disgust from the rest of the society; to the contrary, St. Francis held them in equal measure to other people, an aspect that influenced his charitable gesture to the lepers (Acocella, 2013). With his charity, St. Francis expected nothing in return from his beneficiaries. In light of this note, St. Francis’ international business would be embedded with the values of giving and serving those in need.
St. Francis established the Friars Minor in recognition of his belief in free service to others. While businesses should make profits to be sustainable, their sole purpose should not be to gain financial prowess. However, they should be inclined towards promoting service to the people at no cost. This concept is what in today’s business world entails the corporate social responsibility in which goodwill from the receivers is the only payback to the business organizations. As envisioned in his Friars Minor, St. Francis taught his followers to do service unto others but accept no money but alms that they could continue the service but not profit from it (Pansters, 2018). As Acocella (2013) presents, besides preaching and praying, the friars tended to the lepers, renovated Churches, and did manual labor for artisans and farmers freely; all they could accept is fruit and bread for their labor rather than money.
Businesses should not condone or promote discrimination among the people they serve. While some popular brands in the contemporary world such as technology-driven companies, including Apple Inc. have connived a customer-attribute that places some people of a certain social class above others. In light of the living experiences and teachings of St. Francis, this would not be the case with Francis’ international business. Despite its breadth and strength, technological prowess, and resource base, the St. Francis multinational firm would be humble to all. The company services would seek to promote equity and equality but not injustice of discrimination. Acocella (2013) writes that St. Francis taught the friars that they should respect all people equally. Francis wrote in the “Testament” that the friars and himself included were superior to none; to the contrary, they were subject to everyone (Pansters, 2018). In this case, the friars would serve all people equally including the rich who opposed their mission.
St. Francis's service to all regardless of their social position, class, or authority earned him the scorn of many critics. While his message of service sought to promote humility and nobleness, political reformers decried his lack of drive to incite people’s agitation for social change. For instance, St. Francis the Francis’ teachings would attract the scorn of his socio-political critics among them, Antonio Gramsci, the Italian Marxist scorns who saw his message as “mattress against the bullet” (Acocella, 2013). Truly, businesses thrive amid criticism sometimes from collaborators. The St. Francis international business empire would have flourished even against the views of those who sought his message for personal gain. He was not swayed but stayed steady-fast in teaching humility and respect to all including opponents.
Human Dignity as an Obligation for the Greater Good (33)
With the rise of the St. Francis international business, promoting human dignity would have been the quintessence of his vocational values. A business grounded on respect for human dignity sees people as the end value rather than a means to an end (Shaw, 2016). In light of God’s image, St. Francis's business empire would seek to promote dignity as an aspect bestowed not by human authority but God-given. The Vocation of the Business Leader (2018) documents that “Because of human dignity, each person has the right—indeed the obligation—to pursue his or her vocation and to strive for personal fulfillment in communion with others” (11). This viewpoint implies that while pursuing personal fulfillment, people should take into account the desired happiness of others. No one should seek contentment at the expense of other people. Likewise, businesses should strive to create the greater good for all while pursuing their business objectives. Their goals should not be attained by suppressing the rights and freedoms of the people. This common good approach to business would be the guiding principle of St. Francis's international business, as embodied in the continuance of human dignity.
The greater good obligation envisioned in upholding human dignity would ensure the St. Francis transnational company makes decisions that hurt no segment of the society. Each decision would endear to create responsibility for all as contained in The Vocation of the Business Leader (2018). Everything to St. Francis including all people, the environment, and the animals, constituted either a brother or a sister (Pansters, 2018). St. Francis respect for all is the symbol of wealth that would ensure dignity for all is upheld. In the excerpt of Shaw and Barry (2013), the St. Francis business venture would be the real example of utilitarianism. According to Shaw and Barry (2013), utilitarianism calls for the standards of happiness maximization be applied not only “to individual actions but [also] to moral codes as a whole” (77). In this case, the moral code should apply to the whole society in the pursuit of happiness optimization. In this case, the St. Francis global business would ensure it does not discriminate against people from certain areas but treats all of them equally. It would further ensure that the company's business goals are not superior to the expectations of the community it operates in or the customers it seeks to serve. On the contrary, the company’s business goals would be met while at the same time attaining the common needs of the people.
Contribution to the Common Good (43)
By producing useful goods and services for society, a business would be of service to the larger community. St. Francis's international business would strive to be others-centered. As The Vocation of the Business Leader (2018) indicates, the role of business is to promote service to others by coordinating people’s talents, skills, energies, and gifts to meet the needs of other individuals in the society while at the same time promoting the development of those working. Consequently, the common tasks performed together to generate the products required to create a healthy community. In his teachings to the friars, St. Francis said that, as his followers dedicated to service to others, they should do so for the benefit of the whole society without expecting to be paid (Acocella, 2013). However, acknowledging that the friars would need to feed and survive, he allowed them to receive alms except for money. In this case, while the community benefited from the works of the friars, they too gained something in return. The recipients of their services got something to celebrate while the friars got their needs fulfilled. In light of this view, the St. Francis international business would ensure that it is never deprived of its will and ability to serve the people. However, it will provide goods and services modestly in a way that the people gain and the business remains sustainable in the end.
Christian leaders are supposed to innovate and create goods and services that are truly good and serve respectively. The goods and services produced should not offer instant justification such as skill acquisitions, save lives, or promote other social values such as fair trade, and affordable housing but should contribute genuinely to human fulfilment and development while taking care for the people’s common home ( The Vocation of the Business Leader , 2018). As the publication further expounds, the common good incorporates simple products, including fabrics, tables, as well as complex systems such as transportation, waste removal, and green businesses. Based on this perspective, the common good would be a key concern in the St. Francis global business. St. Francis encouraged the friars to help farmers and artisans (Acocella, 2013). Helping these people would not only assist in creating products for sale to generate income, but also to feed others or satisfy their individual needs. This selfless performance of the common good is the height of corporate social responsibility in which a company would invest in community service projects such as waste removal or road maintenance. The waste removal as well as the roads constitute a common good in society.
Another example of St. Francis's gesture in solving problems for the common good is seen in his care for the ecosystem. Notably, as Shaw and Barry (2013) pointed, the pursuit for fulfilment and amelioration of societal needs should not be met under the compromise of ethical practices. People should be guided by the truth regardless of its consequences. St. Francis did not shy from reprimanding the wolf that terrorized the Gubbio citizens. In a truth-filled lecture, St. Francis reckoned that the wolf should have been hanged for the crimes it committed (Pansters, 2018). Furthermore, St. Francis stated that the wolf preyed on the people out of hunger and thus if they did feed him, he would not attack them. Although St. Francis's lecture is designed to demonstrate the importance of truth in taking personal responsibility, its result is the common good that he creates for both the Gubbio people and the wolf. The solution to the incessant attack was to feed the wolf and the people would live in peace. Based on this notion, the St. Francis business would thus reason with the suffering while finding a common good in the truth.
In Solidarity with the Poor (45)
Solidarity with the poor is seen as a critical aspect of trade. The Vocation of the Business Leader (2018) reports that solidarity with the poor raises pertinent issues while at the same time presenting opportunities to the business community. The Vocation of the Business Leader highlights that one of the issues is the identification, “in a spirit of solidarity, the real needs of the poor and the vulnerable, including people with special needs” (14). With short-term profits being the driving force of many company companies, such needs are mostly overlooked. Contrariwise, a Christian business leader harnesses the chance to integrate the neglected sections of the society and see them as a greater business opportunity besides being a social responsibility ( The Vocation of the Business Leader, 2018). St. Francis of Assisi is awake to this opportunity. He is quick to identify and embrace the needy in society. For instance, instead of avoiding the leper as the norm, St. Francis rouses and catches up with him; according to St. Francis, the needy represented the last agonies of Jesus and therefore needed to be accommodated rather than abandoned (Acocella, 2013). Considering the St. Francis actions, it is clear that, his international business would tap on the needs of the vulnerable as an opportunity to help them besides being a business opportunity. Siding with the needy is truly a great way of showing his solidarity with the poor.
St. Francis is deeply immersed in the works of siding with the needy and helping them rise from their suffering to prosperity. In his World Meetings of Popular Movements, Francis discusses the importance of solidarity of the poor. Francis notes that social solidarity brings with it immense benefits to the poor communities, key among them enhancing social, economic, and ecological improvements (The Vocation of the Business Leader , 2018). Francis sees the opportunity to help the poor as a chance to lift the people from paucity and at the same time spark creativity and entrepreneurship to them thus contributing to the launch of progressive development in the larger society. Therefore, as demonstrated in his works, St. Francis's global business would be characterized by sensitivity to the poor.
Creating Participatory Structures (50)
Superfluously suppressing or constraining the talents, abilities, and freedoms of the people belittle their dignity. Being God’s image, human beings would flourish best when they use their freedom and gifts optimally as conceived in “the principle of subsidiarity” ( The Vocation of the Business Leader , 2018, p.16). This principle upholds that within larger communities, there exist small ones. That is, a family exists in a village, which in turn forms a section of the county, which grows within a state, then the nation as the largest community. St. Francis started with two followers who grew to twelve and into a larger group that split to spread the Franciscan teachings to France, Hungary, Middle East, Spain, and Germany while he left for Egypt for the Fifth Crusade to convert al-Malik al-Kamil, the ruler of Palestine, Syria, and Egypt to Christianity (Acocella, 2013). His understanding of the role a smaller community could play for the common goal of the larger community enabled him to let his followers participate in spreading the Franciscan message of goodwill and penance.
Furthermore, the principle of subsidiarity envisions a form of respect between a community of higher-order and that of a lower order. Neither of which should arbitrarily disregard the gifts and freedoms of the other. That is solidarity is the binding factor in participatory structures in that a community of higher-order respects the internal of a lower order including its functions ( The Vocation of the Business Leader , 2018). Given the St. Francis's international business, respect between it and other collaborators within its supply chain would be the norm. All it needs is recognition of authority and respect to the role played by those higher in the orderlies in promoting the common good. Before St. Francis set off with his followers to spread the Franciscan message, he understood above him was the Catholic leadership based in Rome under Pope Innocent III. Cognizant of the St. Francis gifts of obedience, humility, and prophesy that he had already practiced the San Damiano Church, the Pope allowed St. Francis to establish a new order (Acocella, 2013). In the same breath, in the practice of obedience, humility, and respect for higher and lower orders, St. Francis international business would embrace participatory structure.
Conclusion
The teachings of St. Francis stretches beyond religiosity to encompass different human life aspects, business included. The world of business has witnessed monumental changes. Regardless, St. Francis’ international business would not only be a success story in wealth creation, but also an embodiment of goodness grounded on the teachings of the Gospel, servant attitude, human dignity, contribution to the common good, solidarity with the poor, and creation of the participatory structure. Endowed with vast resources just like any other international business, St. Francis venture would seek to give much to the society as it receives. Equality and equity would indeed be the principles of service to the masses besides promoting respect for human dignity. With his demonstrated service to all, the business would strive to work for the common good of society. St. Francis's international business would be sensitive to the poor while at the same time fostering participatory structure. Given the broad lessons from the life experience of St. Francis, people and businesses alike should follow embrace his teachings to make the world a better place.
References
Acocella, J. (2013, Jan. 7). Rich Man, Poor Man: The Radical Visions of St. Francis. The New Yorker. Retrieved from https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/01/14/rich-man-poor-man
Pansters, K. (2018). Franciscan Virtue Ethics. Franciscan Connections , 68 , 22-26.
Shaw, W. H. (2016). Business Ethics: A Textbook with Cases . Nelson Education.
Shaw, W. H., & Barry V. (2013). Moral Issues in Business. Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
The vocation of the business leader: A reflection (2018). Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development and the John A. Ryan Institute for Catholic Social Thought of the Center for Catholic Studies. 1-30.
