Finding Your Purpose at Work

Report on Ken Costa’s talk in the Roxburghe 25 September 08

Ken Costa, Chairman of Lazard International took time out from his City responsibilities to join about 90 friends from the Edinburgh business community.
It was to a crammed Consort Lounge that he spoke.

To hear Ken’s talk and the Q&A time afterwards (30 minutes duration), use the icon at the foot of the page.

He admitted that at the start of each day he reads both the FT and the Bible, but, as ever, did not reveal in what order!

Ken finds meaning in work by seeing all work, all honourable work at least, as being done in the context of a much bigger picture. The bigger picture as he sees it is: there is a God; he has made himself known to us, most notably in Jesus Christ; there is an unfolding overall plan and God knows its end from the beginning; we have the opportunity consciously to see our work as part of the unfolding story; the purpose of our work is to glorify God and benefit our neighbours. Not what we are used to hearing from leading merchant bankers!

Speaking about the current turmoil in the global financial markets, Ken ventured that we who are operating in it are “long on knowledge and short on wisdom.”  Our Western society has neglected to nurture the moral values that accompanied the rise of the market economy, making for the current climate in which people “believe in” the market economy but without believing in what have been its undergirding principles, the Judaeo-Christian understanding and ethic. Result: the market economy has turned from being “our servant” to becoming “our master” – and what a harsh one it is proving to be.