Doing Good? or Doing Well? Or?

It has been said that the first missionaries to Hawaii “came to do good and did very well, indeed.”  While the actual facts of that sarcastic comment are disputed, it points to the tension that often comes to fore when whenever things “evangelistic” try to intersect with things “entrepreneurial”.

But maybe all that is changing.

A few months ago I was invited to a lecture by Thomas Friedman, author of The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century.  Friedman’s perspective of a world that is now so technologically interconnected that it is has the great potential to become more and more leveled intellectually and economically has caused some anxious responses.  How will we Americans with our high costs of living compete in a world where cheaper and better intellectual help is just a mouse click away?  When American tax returns can be completed via computer by American educated and trained Indians in Bombay who can live very comfortably on wages that are 1/3 an American CPA, college graduates see their standard of living slipping away faster than you can say “call center”. 

And technology is advancing so rapidly that in many places it is already rearranging the landscape in most unexpected ways.

When I was in the Philippines two summers ago to speak at a pastor’s conference, every one of the pastors there were far more text-comfortable than I was.  Their shaky “landline” phone system had already been for all intents and purposes scuttled for cell technology.

But even more shocking was going to Malawi, Africa and discovering that in this city that was so poor that Jeffrey Sachs made it the centerpiece of his book on fighting poverty, we were still able to find an obscure “firewire” cord that we needed to make a last minute video production of our mission trip. (And this was three years ago!)

When I was in Costa Rica last year at language school, I took a picture of a farmer, riding his horse down the middle of the street on the way to market—talking on a cell phone.

If Friedman is right, the world is only going to get more connected—and more competitive by the day. But what dawned on me as I sat listening to Thomas Friedman there is also a great opportunity for those of us who want to embrace it to live more connected and more COMPASSIONATE by the day.  But is going to demand that we continually rethink the lines of what is called “business” and what is deemed “mission” and we need more and more innovative thinking for doing good from those who in the past would only worried about doing well.  In a flat world doing good and doing well need not be opposite polls on a continuum but places where creativity, compassion, and sustainable lifestyles can intersect. Indeed, Friedman’s passion is about inspiring “CEOs with soul.”

In the 80’s era film, Working Girl, Melanie Griffith is an aspiring business women who tries to hook up with fast-track exec Harrison Ford with the line, “I have a brain for business and a bod for sin.”   The heroes of tomorrow will be those with a brain for business and a heart for justice.

And tomorrow, I'll introduce you to a website that just may help us figure this out.

Comments

[Steve]

I have to wait until tomorrow? What is this, a 'comic book ending' blog?

[Susan Ashcroft]

You may want to see www.mkpress.com/flat
and watch www.mkpress.com/flatoverview.html
for an interesting counterperspective on Friedman's "World is Flat".

Also a really interesting 6 min wake-up call: Shift Happens! www.mkpress.com/ShiftExtreme.html

There is also a companion book listed: Extreme Competition: Innovation and the Great 21st Century Business Reformation
www.mkpress.com/extreme
http://www.mkpress.com/Extreme11minWMV.html

Best Wishes,
--Susan