The True Value of Business.

[Guest guest]

The True Value of Business Francisco Roberto Canada is Director of and Partner in Errepar S.A. in Buenos Aires, the major Argentinean publisher of books and other materials for accountants. In addition, he has in more recent years also been a director and partner in three other publishing and manufacturing companies, all of which are co-owned with his two partners in Errepar S.A. ”All of my life, I have rejected the material world,

and still have become a big businessman. I have been guided to do my work, so that I am able to live in the material world and combine work and doing business with spiritual growth.” - Francisco Roberto Canada, Director of and Partner in Errepar S.A., Argentina His entire career seems to have been an expression of his love and his search for true happiness, which he equates with spirituality. As he told us, “My spiritual principles and values can be summed up in one word: Love.” He has continually attempted to unite the spiritual and the material dimensions of life. As an expression of that love, and in spite of his having to deal with periods of severe illness, he has considered it to be his leadership

responsibility to help others find their own true fulfilment. He told us, “The concept for business we work with, our goal, is to make people aware of their inner potentials, to help bring out these potentials, and to always strive for excellence. Excellence is the way that God made the world. I also think this should be the purpose of business in general.” Since his childhood Francisco Roberto Canada has been strongly influenced by the prevailing Catholicism in South America. While still practicing his Catholic faith, he now also finds spiritual upliftment, both in his private life and in his work life, in the teachings about religious tolerance and the underlying unity of all religions of Bhagavan Baba, whom he visits in India. He cited Swami: “There is only one religion, the religion of Love. If you are a Christian, go home and be a better Christian; if you are a Hindu, go home and be a better Hindu; if you are a Muslim, go home and be a

better Muslim; if you are a Buddhist, go home and be a better Buddhist.” "For me, being a businessman has not always been easy, as I am a man of silence. All of my life, I have rejected the material world, and still I have become a big entrepreneur. It is not easy for me to be the head of four companies as a member of their boards. It’s difficult, it’s a problem; it’s not my nature. But I have been guided to do my work, so that I am able to live in the material world and combine work and business with spiritual growth. On some occasions I want to make myself little. I used to think that expansion was a sin, both as to business activity and status. But then I remember that Sathya Sai Baba says that expansion is not a sin; expansion is God. ” Three themes kept reappearing in our interview with Francisco Roberto Canada: “Hard work”, “Doing your duty with love and care”, and “Loving God.” For example, he said, “I pray that all people can do

their duty with love and care. Therefore, as a leader, I make an effort that all our companies do good business, do good work, and make good products in the way of God, without breaking His law.” “In the beginning, work was a burden for my spirituality. But in the last ten years I have come to realize that happiness in life is to do all the work for God, to take part in God’s creation, and to leave the fruits of my actions, my products, to God. In doing this, I hope that my products in some way or another send people to Him.” Francisco Canada speaks about the influence that Sathya Sai Baba has had with his partners and their business, “All the three owners, who are also the three board members, have the same spiritual teacher. In fact, I took Sathya Sai Baba as my spiritual teacher when the partner who is the major owner of our companies introduced me to his teachings. At that time this partner went to visit him in India, and in a

letter from the three of us, symbolically turned over the company to him. After that, we realised which direction to take. Learning to shine with spiritual values in the workplace “Like all difficult things, leading a business becomes easier as time goes by. Seven years

ago we developed some principles of action in our company. We began to hold weekly meetings where we discussed leadership according to the principles of Sai Baba, as we read about them in a book on management, Sai Baba’s Mahavakya on Leadership, by retired Lieut. General in the Indian army, Dr. M.L. Chibber. In these meetings we discussed how to grow the company using spiritual principles. “When the company went through hard times for a period of roughly three years, the weekly meetings stopped. The difficult times arose when the company was being split from just one firm into four companies, each with its own newly hired general manager and with the three partners as the board for each of these companies. Recently we have taken up the weekly meetings again, but have changed them. Now the meetings are being run by trainers in each company and on different levels - with the managers, with the middle management, and with the

employees. These trainers have been trained in working with human values, and the first results of the meetings are beautiful. “We talk about how to apply the teachings and principles of spiritual leadership, both at work and in our daily life. In these weekly meetings we focus on principles based on the human values of truth, right action, love, peace and non-violence - not on religion. We use examples from all religions, but each person has his own spiritual way. The employees accept this in a wonderful way. “But not everyone finds working with us to be so beautiful. Sometimes it happens that an employee doesn’t get on well with the company. They find that with the family spirit and the spiritual orientation which permeate our way of doing business, it has a different vibration than they are used to, and so they leave. “We are working to include the principles of the human values that are so

central on our spiritual paths in the books we are publishing for primary and secondary schools. Our evaluation committee is working on this, contacting our authors and trying to integrate the human values into our books - not only into books about societal affairs, but also in books about mathematics, biology or history. And in all our publications we want to produce products recognized for their high quality. We aim at excellence in everything we do. “On some occasions we have had to refuse publishing a book if it did not align with our principles, even if the book would obviously sell many copies and give financial success to the company. The managers are very focused on earning money, and in many cases they have proposed publications which were not dharmic - meaning in these cases that they would not inspire people to act in a proper way. Such books we have turned down. “In the beginning, this attitude

sometimes created confusion, but slowly the employees understood that their work was to lead them, and those affected by their work, in the direction of spiritual growth. When we select a book for publication, we focus on quality, in the broad, spiritual sense of the word. One of our activities is publishing spiritual, cultural, and educational books. These kinds of books are a reflection of the view of life, shared by all three of us partners. We look upon this activity as a possibility of helping to make a better world.” Amber Chand, whom you will now meet, shares Francisco Canada’s ideal of work being a spiritual practice that can make the world a better place. However, her story of the ups and downs of Eziba reminds us that while spiritual-based leadership provides no guarantee of business success, it can be the

source of peace of mind and courage, even amidst cataclysmic events that would otherwise shatter most business leaders. (Sharing With Sai Love) Ram.Chugani.Ram ChuganiKobe, Japanrgcjp

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