Doing Virtuous Business by T.R. Malloch

Just as the concept of human capital entered and irrevocably altered the theory of business management, the concept of spiritual capital has recently surfaced and begun to shift how people think. Malloch argues that profit is neither inherently evil nor divorced from moral business practices and that corporations led by people of faith are uniquely poised to be successful on all levels.

Despite agreeing that a person's faith should impact the way they work and that such impact is almost always strongly positive, I cannot recommend this book. The writing itself was questionable, tending towards ungainly sentences chopped up by a distractingly abused commas. The anecdotes used to juxtapose faith-based companies and their profit-motivated counterparts were, in most cases, too short and isolated to be of real impact and occasionally even laughable or counterproductive.

I feel that the author's attempt to equally include and respect all religions and the vague “spirituality” of those who do not subscribe to a definable religion crippled this book's potential. The jumble of business theory, apologetics, politically correct inclusiveness and nods to New Age warm fuzzies left the primary message lost and weak.

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