Economists have long-debated the purpose of a business: to maximize owner or shareholder value, to win a customer, or to harness human potential. Sadly, these definitions rarely move beyond a financial or transactional understanding of work. But what if God offers a richer, broader vision for business – a vision motivated by his love and committed to serving our neighbors? In this session, we’ll consider the critical role business can play in healing our world and promoting the common good of our communities.
Effective leadership flows from the heart, but what if that heart has been strained by the challenges of the past year? This session focuses on the inner life of the leader in order to build the emotional health and spiritual resilience needed in this season. We’ll explore biblical principles for managing leadership anxiety, learn from an entrepreneur who reinvented his business model during the pandemic, and gain practical tools for leading teams through change.
Conversations about integrating faith and work often center on white-collar jobs and exclude a sizable and important segment of the workforce. But work can be a place where every employee finds purpose, fulfillment, and opportunities for personal and professional growth, from the CEO to frontline staff. In this session, we’ll talk with business leaders who have built organizations that help manufacturing, retail, and service employees thrive. We’ll learn how leaders identified employees’ unique needs and what changes they made to offer quality jobs for their staff.
Businesses exist to serve people, but they also exist to serve a place. This session will focus on local issues as we consider the unique needs of our communities and the critical role business leaders play in shaping the moral fabric, job opportunities, and cultural health of their place.
Our tradition at Business for the Common Good is to close the day in conversation with an accomplished executive leader. This year, Michael Arrieta, founder and CEO of Garden City, will share how God led him from a working-class upbringing in Puerto Rico to found a holding company committed to building the most caring and innovative service companies in the world. In his work at Garden City, Michael’s faith drives his commitment to build quality jobs that empower employees’ talents and provide financial stability and opportunity for their families.
