How Religion and Business Interrelate – or Not

Statements

In Fiorella Kostoris’s (Rome) opinion, religions and philosophies are different from the point of view of attitudes towards work, money, profit et. and that is a wealth, something to be glad of. Hans-Ulrich Küpper (Vienna) stated that religious faith means that “people have accepted certain commandments and basic values and that they align their actions with them. These values also influence their actions in business and entrepreneurship. Basic values become decisive when it comes to risk tolerance and the assessment of forecasts. In this respect, religious values also gain significant influence here.”

For Tandean Rustandy (Indonesia) religion and business are two separate entities: “God created everything, and it is the human being who works with it and who needs to manage it wisely. When you are running a business you have a mindset that everything is given, and you have to give it back.”

“Business is deeply about human pillars, values, decisions, and outcomes”, so Vijay Katri (Boulder), and “relationships are the social fabric of business.” He encouraged the audience to show relations and to sense responsibility and faith.

Personal Development

The extent to which a person’s personal development and context play a role in his or her views on the connection between religion and business was also discussed. Indeed, it was striking that the roundtable participants were very different in this regard, and they recognized how their personal experiences influence their nowadays attitudes and approaches when it comes to human action in relation to business.

Left to right: Tandean Rustandy, Hans-Ulrich Küpper, Vijay Katri, Fiorella Kostoris, Herman Selderhuis

Being Religious

Examples were also given of what it means to do business for someone who is religious. The roundtable participants agreed that one should not impose religion, but also indicated that one’s religious belief plays a role when doing business. As Hans-Ulrich Küper stated: “In the background your faith is important for your decisions. For the strategies your values become very important and your values are influenced by your religion.”