Business and the Buddha: Doing Well by Doing Good

By Lloyd M. Field and Dalai Lama XIV

Book Overview

When it comes to business, everyone wants to do well. But can we do good at the same time? Lloyd Field (and, indeed the Dalai Lama, who provides the foreword here) says, unequivocally, Yes. Field's Business and the Buddha lays out the guidelines for putting ideas about individual and corporate social responsibility into practice without sacrificing the bottom line. No longer can business - big or small - afford to focus solely on profit. Real assessment of a business's worth must take into account its consideration of our shared human values, and the realities of our shared planet. That doesn't mean a business can't or shouldn't compete; it means that investing in efforts to build a better society can be, on many levels, an asset. Drawing in a substantial and sophisticated way on traditional Buddhist teachings, Lloyd Field shows how decision-makers and entrepreneurs can achieve new levels of happiness and security both inside and outside the company, and take a power-position as a force for positive global change.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0861715446
• ISBN13: 9780861715442
• Release Date: November 2007
• Publisher: Wisdom Publications
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.3" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

If Only It were So

This is a brave and insightful book. Field looks at what few do: how Buddhist thoughts can apply to business. He looks at the power of intention( a mission statement should include an intention to refrain from harm); how karma applies to the practice of business( unduly harm your competitor today and reap your own harm down the line); unions are a business themselves and a mirror image of corporations( they must reform themselves before lashing out at Corporate America). Change is very hard but as Gandhi told us, be the change you want to see. A worthwhile book, deserving of a wide audience.