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n his sermon on leo tolstoy’s the death In using literature to discuss ethics in business, text. Charles Geschke, who was one of the founders of Ivan Ilyich, the Rev. Scotty McLennan asks a which authors and works do you study? of Adobe, and who is an active practicing Roman tough question. If the title character is respected Some American works would include F. Scott Catholic, talks about how to do that in your business as a government official, if he is fair as a prosecu- Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and The Last Tycoon, life. I use a case study by a now-deceased business- tor and dutiful as a husband and father, why as Flannery O’Connor’s The Displaced Person and A person from Boston named Samina Qureshi, who Ihe lies dying at age 43 does he feel like a failure, Good Man is Hard to Find, Arthur Miller’s Death of was Muslim, and how she saw herself responsible for that his life hasn’t been “real”? The congregation a Salesman, Willa Cather’s O Pioneers!, Saul Bellow’s the spiritual as well as business life of employees of pondering that question isn’t necessarily seated in Seize the Day, and the Norwegian writer Henrik Ib- her design and architectural firm. pews, for the Rev. McLennan is a theologian not sen’s An Enemy of the People. A third course I teach is called “Global Business, only to the faithful but to students of business. On I also was interested in helping people think Religion, and National Culture.” If you’re going to do the faculty at Stanford Business School, he lectures about how to do business around the world, in dif- business in India, it behooves you to know something on ethics and spirituality, exploring how to recon- ferent cultural settings and with different religions about Hinduism, and in the UAE, Islam, in Japan, cile the pursuits of prosperity and spiritual growth. than Christianity and Judaism. So, Chinua Achebe’s Shinto and Buddhist origins, in China, Confucian- As evidenced by Tolstoy’s 19th century masterpiece, Things Fall Apart. A well-known Arabic language ism, and in Mexico, Roman Catholic Christianity. these aren’t new questions. Nor is the Rev. McLen- novelist, Naguib Mahfouz, wrote a book called Mi- nan new to examining them in a business-class set- ramar about a hotel in Alexandria, Egypt, and busi- Do you have counterparts at other business ting. Back in the 1980s he joined the faculty of Har- ness relations there from the owner of the hotel, to schools? vard Business School, where he helped develop and employees, to guests, in an Islamic context. A few. For instance, David Miller runs a program at teach classes on ethics and spirituality. Shusaku Endo’s Deep River is about Japanese Princeton on business and spirituality. The conclusion of the Rev. McLennan’s sermon business people on a trip together to India. That on Ivan Ilych offers a hint of what students may hear book helped us not only understand Japanese busi- Are business leaders today any more or less in his class: “Ivan had lived his whole life without ness orientation, but also a good bit about India. concerned with ethics than in the past? ever truly learning how to love. Finally, at the end he I’ve taught Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha, which It’s always been a growth industry. But it also comes was taught how to do so by his servant Gerasim and helps people understand Hinduism and India. Jas- in waves. Harvard Business School did quite a good by his schoolboy son, Vasya.” mine by the Indian American Bharati Mukherjee has job of it in the ’40s and ’50s, then slowed down a As an undergraduate at Yale in the 1960s, the Rev. a woman immigrating from India to the US. bit until it developed its newest incarnation of eth- McLennan had in mind a less-privileged flock, and Mohsin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamental- ics classes in the 1980s. There were a lot of business the underprivileged remain a focus of his ministry. ist, which helps people understand the religion of scandals, and people going up to federal penitentiary His roommate at Yale, Garry Trudeau, creator of the in the 1980s. comic strip “Doonesbury,” has said he used the Rev. Actually my MBA students these days are more McLennan as a model for a Doonesbury character sensitive than ever to ethical issues and the kinds of named the Rev. Scot Sloane, a streetwise priest. cultural issues that I’m describing. In an interview with Brunswick Review Edi- tor Kevin Helliker, the Rev. McLennan talks about As an ethics lecturer in the heart of Silicon Valley, how and why he teaches business classes on ethics BIZ SCHOOL THEOLOGIAN do you think the tech industry is any more or less and spirituality. concerned with ethics than any other industry? somebody who worked in an American Wall Street open about that. In many cases, I’m able to bring scotty The short answer is, no. All industries have concerns How did you, as a lawyer and theologian, come to business context, then ended up back in Pakistan. them into the classroom. The founder of Noah’s Ba- mclennan about ethics, but don’t necessarily do well as they be a lecturer at Harvard Business School? gels, Noah Alper, comes in and talks about Judaism believes great struggle with those issues. The issues do tend to be For 10 years out of law school and divinity school I Why fiction? and business. He can describe how he got to where works of somewhat industry unique, for example, with the ran a legal ministry in a low-income neighborhood I’ve really come to believe that great novels, plays and he’s gotten in his business life, and how it relates to literature offer privacy issues that have arisen in Silicon Valley. in Boston. Then I served as the university chaplain at short stories give you insights that are much deeper his spiritual life. deeper insight But it is sort of episodic. A company that looks Tufts from 1984 to 2000. and much longer lasting than a business case study Jeff Weiner, CEO of LinkedIn, comes in and talks than do business like it’s doing very well, with ethically related mottos In the late 1980s, Harvard Business School started would, or a biography of a great business leader. about how he grew up Jewish, but really is agnostic about not doing any evil, can be blindsided by issues case studies or or rejuvenated its business ethics program. I was in- in terms of his understanding of whether there’s a they hadn’t thought about. Or maybe it hasn’t spent vited to help. What classes do you teach at Stanford Business God or not, but has been very influenced by the Da- biographies of enough time really developing an approach that will In 1988, I began working at the Harvard Business School? lai Lama and Buddhism, and tries to run his com- business leaders. work ethically. School as a lecturer in a required new module de- Since the late ’80s, either at Harvard or Stanford, pany on principles of compassionate management. All industries have their ups and downs, as do in- veloped for first-year MBAs. That course, which has I’ve been teaching “The Business World: Moral and An evangelical Christian named Ken Eldred dividuals. At one moment in time, they can look like been renamed over the years, was called “Decision Spiritual Inquiry Through Literature.” comes in and describes how to live as an evangeli- great ethical leaders, and at another they get bitten Making and Ethical Values.” Then I taught an elec- Another course I teach is called, “Finding Spiri- cal Protestant Christian in your work context, and by human failings. u tive course called “The Business World: Moral and tual Meaning at Work: Business Exemplars.” There actually goes to the point of saying that it’s possible By kevin helliker, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Spiritual Inquiry Through Literature.” we study various business leaders who’ve been very and proper to proselytize within your business con- and Editor in Chief of the Brunswick Review. 80 brunswick review · issue 18 · 2019 brunswick review · issue 18 · 2019 81.

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