Advancing the Common Good Through Purpose-led Business: Catholic Social Teaching and a Blueprint for Better Business

Abstract

In 2012, a group of UK business leaders approached the Catholic Archbishop of Westminster about what they perceived as a breakdown of trust between business—especially big business—and society. This led to an initiative called A Blueprint for Better Business, which became an independent UK-based charitable trust in 2014—separate from the Church, and also independent of business, funded by charitable foundations and individuals and latterly by corporate donations. Blueprint works with leadership teams in large companies to support and challenge them, fostering a movement of businesses and investors who want to change behavior and expectations of the role of business in society. This paper recounts how the initiative developed, drawing attention in the process to Catholic social teaching including Pope Francis’ encyclicals Laudato Si and Fratelli Tutti, both written after Blueprint was founded.

Keywords:

• Purpose-led Business
• Catholic Social Teaching
• Common Good
• Business Ethics

Notes

1 In 2009 and 2010, the Archbishop had convened private seminars of financial sector leaders on the future of the financial sector, drawing on the insights of CST and in particular Caritas in Veritate, published in 2009.

2 A related short animate film was produced by the RSA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc.

3 In drafting these formulations, we drew (with permission) from Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace (2014).

4 The group included experts from Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism, and the Church of England.

5 Remarks made in a private conversation.

6 The 10 toxic ills were: 1. Anything illegal; 2. Mis-selling; 3. Selling harmful products; 4. Employing people in unsafe or harmful conditions or child labor; 5. Aggressively avoiding tax, even if strictly legal; 6. Taking risks with the environment, even if strictly not illegal; 7. Shutting factories without regard to the impact on communities; 8. A pay and bonus culture divorced from performance or proportionality; 9. Cheating for corporate or individual advantage; 10. Taking advantage of weak regulation and weak consumer pressure to maximize profits at the expense of consumers.

7 This is just one of a number of interesting parallels between Blueprint’s approach to business purpose and the theory of business developed in Donaldson and Walsh (2015).

8 In fact, the word “fraternity” was used in the initial draft of the Blueprint framework, and then in the final version the twin ideas of “reciprocity” and “plurality” were used instead as titles of the relevant sections describing the behavior elicited when a true sense of “fraternity” animates thinking and shapes action. The gendered sense of the word “fraternity” in English was felt to be potentially problematic in the business context Blueprint was working in.

9 Our recent investor report is an example (Blueprint for Better Business 2018a, b).

10 Companies Act 2006, Part 10, Chapter 2, The general duties, Section 172.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Charles Wookey

Charles Wookey was until recently CEO of A Blueprint for Better Business, an independent charity that acts as a catalyst to help businesses be inspired and guided by a purpose that serves society.

Helen Alford

Helen Mary Josephine Alford, a Dominican sister, is an Economist and Dean of social sciences at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas in Rome, Italy.

Loughlin Hickey

Loughlin Hickey is a Chartered Accountant. He worked for many years with KPMG. Since retiring, he has been involved in charitable work which has included working with the Prince of Wales’s Charities and the Blueprint for Better Business initiative.