The Symposium

The symposium that I was invited to on Thursday was to hear the Chairmen and former CEO of Pepsico (the parent company of Pepsi, Pizza Hut, Fito-Lay, Aquafina, Taco Bell, etc.). Steve Reinemund is a graduate of the Naval Academy, and has had a stellar carreer in Pepsico. He was promoted from Chief Exec over Pizza Hut to his post as Exec for all of Pepsico. He is approaching retirement now and has been written well of in the business community regarding the succession plan that he put in place to replace himself.

He acknowleged that he didn't speak much out of the company, and that became obvious when he started speaking. He seemed quite uncomfortable, and a bit disjointed in his delivery. But overall he had a very good address referring to his beliefs regarding integrity as the foundation of business, decision making by what he called his "true-north" (faith), and the role of Business in society.

The most reflective moment I had was when I realized sitting amongst a group of 250 business executives what a different worldview was represented just by virtue of their vocational choice and calling. These Christian business people believed that their institution was the leading institution to change the world. In their view neither government nor the church was as powerful an institution for world change and cure for the worlds needs. That was an interesting reflection for me. I oft sit in meeting similar of clergy and affirm that the church is the leading institution to meet the needs of the world. But I'm not sure that's the whole of the answer. While the church obviously holds greatest influence over the spiritual need of the world. There are multiple needs that business is much better suited for. Their machine is setup not only for action, but to generate further action. Business has a better edge at creating healthy water for the population of the earth than the church. They can produce the distilleries, maintenance, clean containers, and systems of distribution that are needed to make water available. Mr. Reinemund's assertion was that in the past Governments and Churches have had to come to business to get these things done. Now the business community is on the threshold of stepping forward to do it on their own.

He said the best and brightest coming out of schools are only looking to work for companies with a global conscience and sense of social responsibility. That's quite an interesting study of the up and coming generation.

It will be interesting to see what comes of the role of business in society in the years to come.

--Ben