Rabbi Sacks: As we approach Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the High Holy Days that mark the beginning of the Jewish New Year, I want to find out whether religion really does make a difference. Not just up there in heaven, and not just in here in the human heart, but in shops, offices, the tough, hard, competitive world of business. Does God have a place in the marketplace?
I've decided to begin my journey here in the London Eye, because it's probably the best place to get a view of the landscape of a modern society.
Over there, in Pugin's Victorian masterpiece, are the Houses of Parliament, the home of politics. And if I wanted to explain what politics is, I'd say it's about the production and distribution of power.
Dominating the skyline are the new cathedrals of commerce - Terry Farrell's Embankment Place, home of the world's largest firm of accountants. There, a bit further away, is Lloyd's, the centre of the insurance industry. And in the distance is the Tower of Canary Wharf, one of the largest commercial developments in Europe. Those are some of the arenas of the market, the economy.
And economics is about the production and distribution of wealth. But as you can see, there's a third kind of building different from the others. There, still majestic, is the Great Dome of St Paul's.
And here and there, as if directing our gaze upward, are the other spires and steeples of places of worship. The homes, not of politics or economics, but of faith, our encounter with God. And almost immediately, you notice something interesting.
They're older than the other buildings. There was a time when they dominated the landscape, but not any longer. They're almost crowded out by this luxuriant growth of new office blocks.
Do they still have a place in the 21st century, or have we outgrown them? In a world of politics and economics, is there still a role for religion? What does it produce and distribute?
The prophets of ancient Israel would have had no difficulty in answering that question. They would have said values, ethical principles, moral rules. Because they believed with great passion that you can't build a society on politics and economics alone.
You need something else as well. Rules to tell you how to act. Namely, with justice and integrity, fairness and compassion.
Moses insisted that fair trading, honesty in business, and good relations between employers and employees, were part of God's law. The prophet Amos spoke out against those who cheated the poor through extortionate prices and dishonest practices. Isaiah condemned those who used power to take advantage of the weak and the vulnerable.
They believed that God belonged in the marketplace every bit as much as in our synagogues and churches, our temples and mosques. But is that still true today, in the breathtaking world of computers, the internet, international trading, and globalisation? Amid all the noise of the modern economy, is there still a place for the still, small voice of God?
That's what I want to find out.
My first port of call is Alex Brummer, formerly of The Guardian, now City Editor of The Daily Mail.
Rabbi Sacks: Alex, we hear a lot about the information revolution and globalisation. What new issues is it going to raise?
Alex Brummer: I think that there is a risk that we already have a two-thirds, one-third society, two-thirds who are prosperous, one-third who are excluded from many basic services, don't get the best education, do not get the best health care, and live in rather poorer states. And I think the fact that they don't have access, in the same way as the well-off do, to the new technologies, mean that the gap between them could get even worse.
Rabbi Sacks: There are many young entrepreneurs nowadays who are fabulously successful, very young. Do you think they have the same set of values as previous generations?
Alex: I think many of them have got rich very, very quickly. And I think we all need to start thinking about how we can bring them into the mainstream of business and let them learn more about the ethical way in which they operate. Are they treating their staff well? Are they dealing well with their customers? But on a more broadly, broader basis, they've made this money very quickly. But have they got a mechanism for transferring some of this money back to society? And I think we need to start thinking about old-fashioned values of charity or tzedaka, to think about whether that's the right time for doing that.
Rabbi Sacks: Well, you mentioned there a Jewish word, ‘tzedaka,’ social justice, charity. Do your values come from your Jewish roots?
Alex: Well, they come from my heritage, my Jewish heritage, and my study over the years of the Bible, the Talmud. And that has given me an insight, I think, into what the Jewish perspective should be on business and so on. There is a requirement there for charity and social justice and responsibility.
And all of those are issues which are very important to the modern business and important in the world of globalisation too.
Rabbi Sacks: So the Bible still speaks to a global age?
Alex: I think anybody who thinks that the Bible is a dead text is wrong. It's all there. All of this moral and ethical framework in which we now operate and in which business must now operate in the modern era is there if people are willing to read the message.
Rabbi Sacks: For Alex Brummer, globalisation heralds immense possibilities, but it's also going to pose serious challenges. Without a strong commitment to humanity as a whole, we're going to find that some people lose out and are left behind.
And that, of course, is where Judaism was born more than 3,000 years ago, as a protest against the great empires of Mesopotamia and Egypt, which gave some people immense power but left others as slaves. It was then that some of the great ethical ideas were born.
Mishpat, meaning justice. Tzedaka, financial assistance to people in need. And Chesed, personal service to others. God asked our ancestors then, as he asks us now, to build a society on the basis of human dignity, one that cares for the powerless as well as the powerful, a society that gives everyone equal access to hope.
But can these values really survive in the new global economy?
Stanley, you've been at the heart of this tremendous technological revolution. How is it changing the climate of business?
Sir Stanley Kalms, Chairman, Dixons: Well, of course, what you have today is another revolution. You have the technology revolution and now you have the internet revolution. And the internet revolution is actually driving the globalisation. It's now one world market. And all companies throughout the world are trying to merge, trying to grow bigger. Size is the name of the game. And this has tremendous consequences. Regulation is totally the wrong approach. Regulation is about disciplines of the market. We're talking about disciplines of people, of the soul, of the spirit. And these can't be regulated.
And they could easily just fall off the edge of the table in this globalised world.
Rabbi Sacks: So where do you get your values from?
Stanley: Well, my values started at the beginning, from the family, from the traditions of my faith. And all our values come that way.
But it's very easy to lose them, to be subsumed in a large organisation where regulation and market disciplines take over from human judgments. I suppose my key value is integrity, ethical behaviour. I mean, they're quite sufficient to build up a whole philosophy in a business.
If you actually believe that you have to honour your commitments to all the people with whom you're involved, from your suppliers, your customers, everybody. If you have those values, you've got a very strong foundation.
Rabbi Sacks: Did you find the Jewish tradition that you grew up in was helpful much?
Stanley: Well, coming from you, that's an interesting question. The answer I think you know is yes, absolutely. Fundamentally, basically, that is my foundation. And it's a very, very strong, deep-rooted foundation.
Rabbi Sacks: It was concerns like these that led us, nine years ago, to establish the Jewish Association of Business Ethics. We take it for granted that religion is about worship and prayer, our relationship with God. But that isn't all.
In fact, a vast amount of Jewish law and teaching is about business and work, about integrity and honesty, relations between buyers and sellers, employers and employees. It's about fair trading, honest advertising, and not taking advantage of people through high prices or sharp practices. We believe that God has to be there where it counts. In the high street, the trading floor, the shopping centre, and the boardrooms of our great corporations.
Rabbi (facilitator): A lot of people think that the only way to make money is by stepping on people on the way up. In fact, it doesn't have to work that way.
Rabbi Sacks: So business leaders came together with religious teachers and began an ongoing series of seminars where we could reflect on ethical dilemmas, applying our ancient traditions to today's world.
Man [in roleplay]: Put the watches in the window. Right. So why is it that watch went in your pocket then? What? That watch in your pocket. Is there an earring in there or something?
Woman [in roleplay]: No.
Man: There is. You've been nicking jewellery too, haven't you?
Woman: Just stay out of it, Stephen.
Man: I'll stay out of it when you take that watch out of your pocket and put it back in the window.
Woman: Look, Stephen.
Man: What?
Woman: You just don't get it. My mum's got cancer. She's going into the hospital tomorrow.
Rabbi Sacks: They took the programme to schools, first within our community and then beyond, so that the business people of today could share their values with the leaders of tomorrow.
Rabbi: What will you do if she doesn't put that watch back in the window? Somebody who's willing to stand up and tell us? Yes?
Audience member: It's got nothing to do with whether she's telling the truth or not. Absolutely nothing. When she goes down for it - and she will get caught - he will go down with her for aiding and abetting or whatever it is, because it is theft, at the end of the day. It's got nothing to do with whether her mum's dying or not. I mean, there's help you can get for that.
Rabbi: If you knew she was telling the truth, what would you do?
Another audience member: I'd probably just turn a blind eye, because someone else would find her out and then it could be their decision to do it.
Rabbi: Okay, fair enough, fair enough.
Rabbi Sacks: So that's you fishing in Wyoming. Who's that?
Sir Trevor Chinn: That's my youngest son, Simon.
Rabbi Sacks: Sir Trevor Chinn was with us from the very beginning of the Jewish Association of Business Ethics, and I'm interested to find out what made him so convinced that ethics had a key part to play in the hard-edged world of markets and competition.
Where did you get your values from?
Trevor: Well, I got them from my father, a very fine man. I got them from my sense of behaving as a Jew in business. I got them from seeing what the impact was of behaving ethically and people behaving the other way. And so I like to think that when I act as a manager, I act as a Jew.
Rabbi Sacks: Do you find our traditions helpful to you?
Trevor: Extremely helpful. It's quite amazing that the number of laws in the Torah about business ethics and all the complicated situations they address, as on every other issue. It's always good to have a set of guidelines. And I think it's just very important to behave as a Jew, not only in synagogue, but when you're out in the world and dealing in the marketplace.
Rabbi Sacks: What advice would you give to a young person starting out in business today?
Trevor: The advice I give is you don't have to cut corners. You don't have to be ruthless. You don't have to get the better of other people. That in reality, good businesses depend on good products and services, not on cutting corners. And that in exactly the same way as in school, you wouldn't cheat in an exam, and you wouldn't steal from a friend, so you don't cheat an employee or steal from a customer.
Rabbi Sacks: I have no doubt that the 21st century is going to confront us with problems and opportunities on a scale mankind has never had to face before.
Never before have markets, technologies, and businesses had the kind of power that they do today. Among the world's 100 biggest economies today, only 49 of them are nations. 51 of them are international corporations.
Already, there are leading businesses with more power than entire countries, and their decisions will affect us all. You, me, our children, and most of all, our grandchildren not yet born.
Their decisions will affect what we buy, what we wear, what we see, what we read, and much more than that.
Already we can say with some certainty that jobs will become less secure, markets will move ever faster, and inequalities will grow, not only between rich and poor in one country, but between the wealthier and the poorer nations. Between west and east, north and south, the first world and the third. The information age has unleashed a force of immense power, and the question is who's going to control it, so that it brings benefits to everyone, and not just to a privileged elite?
Who's going to care for the less well-off, and for the regions of the world still suffering from poverty, disease, and hunger? Who's going to care for the environment, which we're damaging more and more with every passing year? Who's going to ride the leviathan of global markets, and steer it in the direction of decency and human dignity? Will markets regulate themselves? Don't count on it. Will governments be able to control international corporations? Don't count on that either.
The answer lies with us, every one of us, individually and collectively, as producers or consumers, employers or employees. It won't be power or wealth, politics or economics, that decide the future of our planet, but what we do with them. As always, the future depends on the human heart.
Which is why our places of worship, our faith, our moral and spiritual vision, still matter. Matter, in fact, more than almost anything else. Almost 2,000 years ago, the rabbis said that when we get to heaven, the first question we'll be asked is, ’Did we deal honestly in business?’ And here in the synagogue over the next few days, that's what we'll be asking ourselves.
Have we been fair in our dealings with employers or employees? Did we act with integrity towards our customers or clients? Did we act decently to other people? Have we been responsible guardians of God's world?
In the 21st century, the big questions are going to be the ethical questions. Technology tells us how to do things, but only our ultimate values tell us what things to do.
My quest has taught me this: that in the long run, morality pays.
People reward trust with trust, loyalty with loyalty. The good, the decent and the honest win in the end.
But the real question is, what's going to remind us of the long run in the short run? What's going to make us responsible guardians of the future in a world whose speed increases and whose attention span declines with every passing year?
That's why we need the perspective of faith to teach us to think not just about now, but about the past and the future. And not just about me, but about the impact I have on other people's lives. Technology tells us how to get there, but faith reminds us where we want to go.
In the coming months, may God be with us in all we do, and may we, by serving Him, serve mankind - caring for others, sharing our blessings, and making this a more human world.
