Can one be both an ethical person and an effective businessperson? Stephen Green, an ordained priest and the chairman of HSBC, thinks so. In Good Value, Green retraces the history of the global economy and its financial systems, and shows that while the marketplace has delivered huge advantages to humanity, it has also abandoned over a billion people to extreme poverty, encouraged overconsumption and debt, and ravaged the environment.
How do we reconcile the demands of capitalism with both the common good and our own spiritual and psychological needs as individuals? To answer that, and some of the most vexing questions of our age, Green takes us on a lively and erudite journey through history, looking for lessons in the work of economists and philosophers, businessmen and poets, theologians and novelists, playwrights and political scientists. An essential business book by a man who is uniquely qualified to write it, Good Value is a timely and persuasive analysis of the most pressing financial and moral questions we face.
Stephen Green is currently Chairman of HSBC, following his time as CEO from 2003 - 2006. He has worked with HSBC since 1982 and has been an ordained priest in the Church of England since 1988. Chairman of the British Banker's Association, he is also Chair of the Prime Minister's Business Council for Britain and a Trustee of the British Museum. A well known and prominent figure in international business and media, he has spoken widely on integrity and sustainability in business and on the value of values.