A new film based on the book Spiritual Enterprise by Yale Divinity School Senior Research Scholar Theodore Malloch will make its New Haven debut at a showing on Oct. 20, 5:30 pm, in YDS's Niebuhr Hall. Following the screening will be a brief panel discussion and reception. The film premiers at the Heartland Film Festival in Indianapolis, Oct. 14-23.
The film, Doing Virtuous Business, is a one-hour documentary produced by public television station WFYI in Indianapolis, IN, that explores the concept of “values-based” management strategies that can both improve the bottom line and strengthen the company’s relationships with customers, employees, vendors, the environment, and the world at large. The film was made with grant support from the John Templeton Foundation, Lilly Endowment, Inc., the Ecophilos Foundation, and the Ford Foundation. Malloch is executive producer of the film.
“This one-hour program takes a modern look at ancient virtues once studied by Aristotle and many of the great minds in spiritual history and then examines how these deeply respected concepts and beliefs are practiced within a modern business environment,” a WFYI press release says. “Doing Virtuous Business explores virtues such as Respect, Courage, Patience, Discipline, Compassion, Forgiveness, Gratitude, Humility, and others, and how these virtues, when put into practice, can reshape priorities, elevate organizational vision and mission, and strengthen economic and social parameters. This new business paradigm creates greater long-term value through a type of Capitalism 2.0, or "Virtuous Capitalism," which redefines the very meaning of corporate success in America and abroad.”
Appearing in the film are several YDS faculty in addition to Malloch, including Harold Attridge, the Rev. Henry L. Slack Dean; Miroslav Volf, director of the Yale Center for Faith and Culture; and John Hare, the Noah Porter Professor of Philosophical Theology. Other Yale faculty in the film are Ian Shapiro, the Henry R. Luce Director of the MacMillan Center for International Affairs and Area Studies; and Jonathan Macey, the Sam Harris Professor of Corporate Law.
Doing Virtuous Business also includes in-depth conversations with a number of influential business leaders from around the world, including, among others, Muhammad Yunus, president & CEO of Grameen Bank in Bangladesh and winner of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize; as well as Franck Riboud, president & CEO of Dannon; William Pollard, former CEO of ServiceMaster, Inc., Isadore Sharp, president & CEO of Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, Don Soderquist, former CEO of Wal-Mart, John Tyson, chairman of the Board of Tyson Foods, Inc., Brain Walker, president & CEO of Herman Miller, Inc., Greg Page, president & CEO of Cargill, Inc., Jonathan Reckford, president & CEO of Habitat for Humanity International, Tim Solso, president & CEO of Cummins Engine, Inc., Thomas Hill, chairman of the Board for Kimray, Inc., and Truett Cathy, founder and chairman of Chick-fil-A Restaurants, Inc.
Malloch, senior research scholar at the Yale Center for Faith and Culture, is chairman and chief executive officer of the Roosevelt Group, a leading strategy and thought leadership company, and was president of the 1992 World Economic Development Congress sponsored by CNN. He has served on the executive board of the World Economic Forum, which hosts the Davos meeting in Switzerland. He has served on the boards of both Berkeley and Yale Divinity schools and has held positions with the U.N., the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, and the U.S. State Department. His books, in addition to Spiritual Enterprise, include Issues in International Trade and Development Policy; Beyond Reductionism; Unleashing the Power of Perpetual Learning; The Global Century, written with Scott Massey; Renewing American Culture: The Pursuit of Happiness; Being Generous; and Thrift: Rebirth of a Forgotten Virtue.