Perhaps the various world-views across Asia, Africa and South America have unique contributions to make in reframing the contribution of business to society. We might also take insights from the values of various woman activists in those regions, such as Arundhati, Claudia, Lesbia and Dita. This is because, for over the past 400 years, Western patriarchal societies—through their businesses, governments, families and other groupings—have attempted to separate the individual self from wider communities (both human and ecological) within which it is embedded. They have placed primary value on the individual part in the system, a system that is perceived as dead and mechanical. In contrast, many societies in Asia and Africa in particular have retained a way of understanding the world that is based on the primary value of relationship and the radically interconnected and organically alive nature of reality. As Nicholas Florio, country chairman, Caltex Philippines, Inc., indicates in the following statement, an understanding of the contribution of business within society in a more holistic way requires a different way of conceptualising and speaking about the world:

How does one separate the heart from the soul? How does one differentiate the body from the spirit? How can a business thrive if it cannot acknowledge that there are certain social voids and inequities that have to be filled?

As well as reminding us that the vastly generalised reference to countries of the South as still ‘developing' or 'emerging' needs to be dropped, the statement also registers the growing interest in the place of spirituality in business. In January the International Business and Consciousness Conference was held in Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA. 25 In April, the Dalai Lama was scheduled to speak at a conference on 'Spirit in Business: Ethics, Mindfulness and the Bottom Line'. 26 The conference's medium-term goal was to launch a series of dialogues on 'Business as an Agent of World Benefit' and the long-term objective of launching the Spirit in Business World Institute. The conference will take place in New York, where last year the place of religion and spirituality in the world was brought into sharp focus.

Some will have major concerns with attempts to unite spirituality and for-profit business. They could cite the track record of corporations successfully tapping into previously free expressions of community, love and creativity and selling them back to society for a profit. One worry is that spirituality will be similarly repackaged and sold back to us in neat, easily consumed packages. Another critical story is that, if spirituality becomes another management principle—a fourth bottom line—its contribution will be evaluated in terms of the common denominators of financial performance and economic growth, and CSR professionals will seek to calculate the 'spiritual capital' in an organisation. Spiritual awareness can (should) lead to a non-competitive outlook and a disinterest in material possessions—something that would not be 'productive' in a capitalist and consumerist context. Most spiritual traditions suggest that spirituality cannot be measured, cannot be divided, and should never be used for self-centred ends, such as the generation of profit. That would be a perversion of spirituality. Is it not time to recognise those ways of knowing and feeling that cannot not be reduced to a mathematical output and to respect their non-quantifiable contribution to the health of humanity? Perhaps the new accountancy will be embarking on an impossibly intangible task.

Another story may be told about spirituality and business: that it is impossible to separate spirituality and other human values from entrepreneurial activity; and our attempts to do otherwise have failed. By pretending that we can leave our values in the business reception room we have merely been concealing a reality that human values are always at play in all decisions. The more disturbing conclusion from this is that, by espousing a value-free system of decision-making, business people have been hiding the way in which structures that serve their purposes are reinforced. Isn't it about time we were more mindful of our economic lives? Then we might just find that the fourth bottom line is the only bottom line we need.