Biblical wisdom for the business leader

In the season of goodwill, perhaps we can turn to words of a more spiritual nature to seek inspiration.

The Bible is the world’s bestselling book, but it is not often viewed as a literary work.

The Book of Ecclesiastes, however, is a work brimming with poetically depicted truths.

“All is vanity” is its central thesis: all is nothing; nothing means anything. We toil and struggle to achieve our earthly goals, but like the river, we must return to our source. We preoccupy ourselves obsessively with feeding our senses, but are our eyes, ears and tongues ever satisfied?

We imagine that our modern world of television, internet and smartphones is unique: but, as Ecclesiastes points out, there is nothing new under the sun.

What has been will be again; what was done will be done again.

We merely repeat the cycles of behaviour that were there at the time of the Old Testament.

The human condition remains the same; only the packaging changes.

Without a higher purpose to our lives, all is indeed nothing.

In the world of management, similarly, we imagine we are at the cutting edge: that the modern world is full of fresh and modern thinking about business and managerial practice.

Think again! In the business world, too, there is nothing new under the sun.

The central aim of business is still the same it has ever been: to sell something at a profit.

And the way in which to do this well is also the same: by creating a unique product or service, and by motivating employees to sell it and in the process create an enduring bond of goodwill with them.

Those who can do that well prospered in the time of Noah’s Ark; and they prosper equally in the time of the worldwide web.

Every generation thinks what it is experiencing is fresh and new.