The Bible And Corporate Finance
The Bible and Corporate Finance
People rarely associate religion with the business world or the finance industry, nor do they think religion can guide the practice. From a logical standpoint religion and a firm's operations do not correlate. From a societal view people see good religious peoples businesses fail while godless industries thrive. The question usually asked is how does the Bible apply to business world? The real question should be how could the Bible and God guide me in my profession or my business?
Accounting, Finance, and Performance
Making a profit is not bad; in fact it is very good. Being a profitable business owner or just an upstanding employee are also good things. In order to do that though, we need knowledge of finance and business operations. We also should strive to be able to care for ourselves, our families and our future.
In the business world we need to be able to evaluate our business health as well as other businesses in which we or our company are a stakeholder. We want our business and/ or our employer to be profitable. We also want to make sure that we make good decisions for our business or employer. It is important to understand the finance and accounting parts of our business, but it is more important to apply Biblical principles, ethics, and the law of the land to our practice. God wants us to be successful, but He also wants us to be an example for Him. We do that by having a strong moral compass and good ethics. In an article discussing ethics in the accounting and finance industry the author writes, “The challenge to the profession, therefore, is to make fiduciary responsibility consonant with its roots in ethical and moral behavior, and thus with the tradition of the competent and caring professional.” (Alhabeeb, 1997) What that is saying is there is sometimes a challenge with parties of a business arrangement maintaining good ethical character and competence. Sometimes there are opportunities
People rarely associate religion with the business world or the finance industry, nor do they think religion can guide the practice. From a logical standpoint religion and a firm's operations do not correlate. From a societal view people see good religious peoples businesses fail while godless industries thrive. The question usually asked is how does the Bible apply to business world? The real question should be how could the Bible and God guide me in my profession or my business?
Accounting, Finance, and Performance
Making a profit is not bad; in fact it is very good. Being a profitable business owner or just an upstanding employee are also good things. In order to do that though, we need knowledge of finance and business operations. We also should strive to be able to care for ourselves, our families and our future.
In the business world we need to be able to evaluate our business health as well as other businesses in which we or our company are a stakeholder. We want our business and/ or our employer to be profitable. We also want to make sure that we make good decisions for our business or employer. It is important to understand the finance and accounting parts of our business, but it is more important to apply Biblical principles, ethics, and the law of the land to our practice. God wants us to be successful, but He also wants us to be an example for Him. We do that by having a strong moral compass and good ethics. In an article discussing ethics in the accounting and finance industry the author writes, “The challenge to the profession, therefore, is to make fiduciary responsibility consonant with its roots in ethical and moral behavior, and thus with the tradition of the competent and caring professional.” (Alhabeeb, 1997) What that is saying is there is sometimes a challenge with parties of a business arrangement maintaining good ethical character and competence. Sometimes there are opportunities
References: Alhabeeb, M. J. (1997). The ethics of accounting and finance: Trust, responsibility, and control. Best Practices: Developing Budgets. (2000). Retrieved from http://www.inc.com/ articles/2000/01/16379.html Brealey, R., Myers, S., Marcus, A. (2012). Fundamentals of corporate finance. 7th ed. pgs. 494, 504 Dwyer, T.J. (1993, 12). Structural planning. ABA Journal, 79, 87. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/194347370?accountid=12085. Lawrence, A. T., & Weber, J. (2014). Business and society: Stakeholders, Ethics, Public Policy (14th ed.) Lebowitz, S. M. (2004). When seeking venture capital, information is money. The CPA Journal, 74(3), 17 Rappaport, A. (2006, September). Ten ways to create shareholder value. Retrieved October 1, 2014, from Harvard Business Review: http://hbr.org/2006/09/ten-ways-to-create-shareholder-value/ar/1