Jeff Benedict - The Mormon Way of Doing Business: How Nine Western Boys Reached the Top of Corporate America

In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher constitute unlawful piracy and theft of the authors intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at permissions@hbgusa.com. Thank you for your support of the authors rights.

Copyright 2007 by Jeff Benedict Enterprises LLC

Chapter 16, From Success to Significance Copyright 2008 by Jeff Benedict Enterprises LLC

All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher constitute unlawful piracy and theft of the authors intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at permissions@hbgusa.com. Thank you for your support of the authors rights.

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ISBN 978-0-7595-1669-4

Benedicts point is clearly and entertainingly explicated.

Publishers Weekly

Rich with strategies for working, living, and loving better than we do You dont have to be a Mormon, or even in business, to appreciate the lessons in these pages.

Robert Lipsyte, author of Raiders Night
and contributor, USA Today

This book draws back the curtain on one of the worlds most misunderstood religions to reveal, through the eyes of a stunning collection of CEOs, a bedrock set of principles as applicable in life as they are in business. THE MORMON WAY OF DOING BUSINESS is destined for the MBA Hall of Fame.

Armen Keteyian, chief investigative
correspondent, CBS News

To Mother

On my eighteenth birthday you wrote me a letter. In it you recalled my birth and the pain and heartache accompanying it. You were only nineteen then, a mere child yourself. I was born with a failing lung and given a fifty-fifty chance of survival. I made a promise, a deal with God, you told me in your letter. If he would let you live, I promised that I would be the best mother I could be and raise you up to God and his purposes.

Three days later my breathing stabilized. By my first birthday you were a single mother. For the next seven years you worked long hours, found cheap rents, and got by on very little sleep. I never knew we were poor. I never knew I was missing a father, because you were such a good mother.

When I was four you made a choice that forever changed my life. A friend invited you to move with him from Connecticut to San Francisco to join a communal living arrangement at the height of the hippie movement. Naturally, I would have followed you. At the last minute you changed your mind after a co-worker introduced you to two Mormon missionaries. Six weeks later you converted to Mormonism. I followed you there instead. I often think how different my life would have been had you taken me to grow up on the streets of San Francisco. God only knows. I can just imagine.

Thank you for choosing to put me first. In many ways we grew up together. Today you are happily married with five more sons and daughters. Im happily married with four children and doing what I lovewriting books. Ive always wanted to dedicate one to you, Mom. But none of my previous six seemed appropriate. This one, however, I owe to you. But for two crucial choices you madeone when I was born and one when I was fourI could never have written this one. Thank you for being true to your word.

I am a Mormon. Thats something Ive never said in print. Nor has it ever been necessary or appropriate, since I have not previously written about religion. This book is not a religious one either. It is a business book about success and how to succeed well. But every CEO in the book is Mormon. The book examines how their religious beliefs and personal habits influence the way they do business. The fact that I am also a Mormon requires disclosure and has a lot to do with why I was asked to write the book.

Over Thanksgiving in 2004 I received a call from an old friend at Warner Books, executive editor and vice president Rick Wolff. He invited me to be on his Sunday radio talk show to promote my previous book. I try not to let business crowd into my Sundays, the one day I like to reserve for my family. This led to a conversation about Mormons and business practices. I shared that the dean of the Harvard Business School and several of its faculty members are Mormons. Wolff was surprised. Then I mentioned that the CEOs and senior executives at more than a dozen of Americas top companies were also Mormons. Wolff knew about Bill Marriott and Mitt Romney. He asked what other major companies had Mormon CEOs or top executives.

I rattled off some: JetBlue Airways Corp., Dell Inc., Deloitte & Touche USA, American Express, Madison Square Garden Corp., Black & Decker Corp., Continental Grain Co., Times Mirror Co., and Harvard Business School.

Are you kidding me? asked Wolff. The notion that Mormons presided over corporations and institutions that are industry leaders in airlines, computers, accounting and auditing, financial services, credit cards, entertainment, tools, media, food and grain production, and business education had him intrigued.

He asked if all these CEOs are devout in their religion.

I told him I wasnt sure about that. A devout Mormon is someone who, among other things, pays tithing (10 percent on all earnings) to the Church; keeps the Sabbath day holy (doesnt work on Sundays); abstains from coffee, alcohol, and tobacco products; and maintains the strictest standards of marital fidelity. Also, a devout Mormon is expected to give something that many of us covettimeby serving in an ecclesiastical position in the Church without compensation. Since the Mormon Church has no paid clergy, all Church positionsbishops, Sunday school teachers, elders, and priestsare filled by Church members who respond to calls to serve by committing between five and twenty-five hours per week to the Church on top of their professional and family obligations.

With a few exceptions, most of these executives were strangers to me. Besides their corporate titles, about the only other thing I knew about them was that they had served as bishops or in some other leadership capacity in the Mormon Church. A bishop presides over a congregation of up to 500 members and has responsibility for those members temporal and spiritual welfare, as well as oversight of the Churchs finances, assets, and properties within a congregations geographical boundaries.