BUSINESS JIHAD - A VALUE BASED BUSINESS ALTERNATIVE TO EXTREME CAPITALIST PRACTICES
Posted On March 10, 2010
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So much has been said about the damage that business and corporations have inflicted on society, as seen in the root-causes of the 2008 global economic crisis and its aftermath. The diminishing public trust of big business, particularly public anger over top corporate executive behavior, and suspicion of corporate capitalism generally, has led to a pressing global search for new ways of doing business. The recent World Economic Forum had also highlighted this global concern, focusing debate on the need for a value-based approach to business.
One such attempt at an alternative, value-based model is attracting some interest. It is initiated by a leading Malaysian corporation with almost four decades of remarkable corporate and CSR track record. Johor Corporation’s (JCorp’s) “Business Jihad” has indeed aroused interest, as well as debate and a little controversy. Controversy notwithstanding, JCorp’s business achievements are indisputable, involving more than 280 member companies, a sizeable pool of entrepreneurial talent, career opportunities for more than 60,000 workers, and market capitalization of its PLC shares of US $3 billion (at end 2009, including that of a listed entity on the London Stock Exchange controlled through a subsidiary.)
“Let us not be frightened by words and labels”, said Tan Sri Muhammad Ali Hashim, CEO of JCorp, when interviewed in Malaysia, recently. In spite of what some may regard as the controversial use of the Islamic concept of “Jihad”, there is no doubt about the fact that the Islamic business ways espoused by JCorp merit recognition, not least for their impact on the Corporation’s business performance. Among others, the JCorp Group operates more than 800 KFC and Pizza Hut restaurants in Malaysia and the region. The Group are also market leaders in private healthcare delivery in Malaysia.
Muhammad Ali stressed that the fundamentals of Islamic belief simply stand for all good values that are universal. In particular, it also prohibits activities involving ‘excessive risks and uncertainty’ (such as those associated with derivatives and toxic assets), excessive exploitation and manipulation (hence the ruling against ‘interest’ in Islamic banking and finance); not to mention ‘excessive greed’ and self-interest pursued at the expense of public good.
Could it really be that the fundamental difference between the Islamic model and the Western model really lies in how we define the word “excess”? However, when one considers what happened during the 2008 economic crisis, then one should wonder if this could be true, as the crisis almost always was attributed to unnecessary risk, blatantly greedy, selfish, uncaring attitudes and corporate executives who even had the audacity to pay themselves lavish bonuses while shamelessly taking hefty stock options, whilst simultaneously reaching out for Government bailouts.
According to Muhammad Ali, due to globalization, the Western model not only has extremely far-reaching consequences and implications on populations and communities around the world. Of greater concern is that there might indeed be something fundamentally flawed and ugly about corporate capitalism, especially in the ways practiced that are being emulated by everyone.
JCorp’s experience indicates that Business Jihad, being business-focused, when successfully embedded into the social system, has the capacity to drive the economic and social reform required to take any country to a higher level in economic and social development. It is a model that has the capacity to bridge divides and correct imbalances unlike the capitalist economic system which seems to create them.
Of course, the goal must be to create wealth, enrich and help societies prosper, but Business Jihad offers more than this as it is capable of injecting the economic dynamism and empowerment while still keeping its distance from greed, excesses, selfishness and all forms of self-centered behavior, whether in mindset or in worldview. According to Tan Sri Muhammad Ali, it is in this context that ‘Business Jihad’, through means of peace and prosperity, could share with the rest of the world the best that Islam has to offer in terms of civilization, values and ethics.
Muhammad Ali Hashim
10 March 2010
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