If capitalism to you is synonymous with greed, then spiritual capitalism might sound like an oxymoron. But there are actually benevolent capitalists who are willing to use their wealth to help others. I’m not just talking about donating money to causes with the intent of getting a tax break, but applying spiritual principles to their work.
According to an article in ODE Magazine, spiritual capitalism is based on the recognition that every businessperson–whether you’re the CEO of a major multinational or the head of your own small firm–is in the service industry, and the services rendered must benefit not just yourself and your shareholders, but the planet and other people as well. The first commandment of the growing spiritual-capitalism movement is: Taking care of business means taking care of others.
I was surprised to discover that a book called Spiritual Capital, by Michael E. Hendren, was published in 2007. Hendren lays out ‘ten commandments ‘of spiritual capitalism. Here they are:
# l Define Business as a Spiritual Experience
#2 Don’t Shrink or Play Small in this World
#3 Dare to Love and the Numbers Will Follow
#4 Embrace Leadership as a Sacred Responsibility
#5 Develop Management into an Art
#6 Empower Them with Ownership
#7 Transcend to the Higher Level
#8 Don’t Take It All So Seriously
#9 Count Your Blessings
#10 The Truth Will Set You Free
The concept of spiritual capitalism attracts ‘angel investors,’ who help small start-up companies that show potential, and usually are out of the mainstream – ones that would have a difficult time getting money from traditional sources. A small but increasing number of angel investors organize themselves into ‘angel groups’ or ‘angel networks’ to share research and pool their investment capital, as well as to provide advice to their portfolio companies
It’s easy for cynics to trash the idea of spiritual capitalism and angel investors as concepts to allow rich people to feel good about themselves. Yet, if there’s anything that’s needed in the world now it’s benevolent investors and capitalists who are willing to try to spread the wealth in a time when the rich are getting richer and the rest of us are mucking along.
One such angel investor is a wealthy Chinese woman who you probably never heard of. Her name is Katherine Yip. She was born in China and moved to the U.S. as a baby. She grew up in America and went to Harvard. Then she moved to Hong Kong and took on the challenge of being a woman in a sector of the Asian business world dominated by men.
Katherine is best known for co-founding two of the largest investment firms in the Asia Pacific region, VinaCapital Group and Pacific Alliance Group (known as PAG Asia). She’s involved in private equity, the same financial territory as Mitt Romney. Private equity deals, especially those involving the forced take-over of companies, are all about vulture capitalism. Possibly as a counter to such criticism, Katherine Yip has gone out of her way to help small companies with good ideas, as well as supporting a variety of worthy causes, such as sponsoring a scholarship program.
We learned about Katherine from a friend in publishing. To our surprise there was very little about her on the Internet and she had only recently given her first ever TV interview to Bloomberg News. That’s amazing for someone in her position. Our research about her broadened our knowledge about the better side of the financial industry—the realm of the angel investors and spiritual capitalism.
Katherine Yip – she sounds interesting from what I’ve read (after seeing your post). It would be good if all big business helped a few start-up businesses (providing they looked viable, of course). There’s some sort of saying about money being round to make it go round – though nowadays it’s mostly paper.
Paper – or electronic!
Of course! We don’t see much ‘real’ money nowadays do we? It’s all just a set of figures.
The math is the math!
Money is energy -it should move around so that everyone benefits. The trouble comes when too much of it is hoarded and it clogs the system. Keeping in mind that everyone needs to make a living is a good way to keep greed at bay.
Agreed!