September 26, 2008
Writing in The Times, Zaki Cooper, a consultant to the Cambridge Interfaith Programme, describes how business bosses are creating faith-based networks, activities and office space to cater for the religious beliefs of employees.
While once believers kept faith and work relatively separate, now they are increasingly intertwining. With the growth of mass migration the UK’s population has become more diverse, and its labour market, in consequence, multifaith rather than, as once was the case, predominantly Christian. In London alone, there are 42 nationalities with communities of more than 10,000. It is now common for people to work in environments with at least one person from another religion or ethnic background.This makes the workplace an inadvertent forum for interfaith encounters…
…Alongside the higher profile of a diversity of faiths in the workplace, believers increasingly show signs of wanting to integrate faith and work. Ken Costa, the committed Christian who is one of the City’s best-known investment bankers, has argued that:
“if the Christian faith is not relevant in the workplace, it is not relevant at all”.
…Faith and business do not necessarily have to be reluctant partners, they can reinforce each other. Recent research by the management consultant firm McKinsey Australia shows that companies which embrace “spiritual techniques” benefit from improved productivity and turnover. In any case, as current trends develop, faith looks set to become an issue for the boardroom.
You can read the full article here.
Evening Standard: City Spy
Say a Little Prayer for UBS
It was just over a year ago that UBS began its descent into the credit-crunch abyss with the ousting of chief executive Peter Wuffli, and it doesn’t look to be in any better shape now. So it is perhaps no surprise the bank is calling on one of its respected former employees for divine guidance. That man is Ken Costa, who now works at Lazard and is advising UBS on its strategic options. Costa is the former chairman of UBS’s European investment banking operation and, until last year, a 31-year veteran of the Swiss bank. He is also a lay preacher at Holy Trinity Brompton, the Anglican church in Knightsbridge, London, and author of God at Work, in which he writes about how his faith gave him strength when he lost sleep over a proprietary position that UBS had taken in a client’s stock. While praying is not a formal risk-management tool, it is probably worth a go as the credit crisis shows little signs of abating.
According to the FT, ‘it seems Mr Costa doesn’t have an official role in the strategic review Lazard is conducting for UBS, where there might still be some sensitivities.’
As the World Economic Forum gets underway in Davos, Ken Costa writes in The Times.
The banking crisis, politicial tensions and the threat of terrorism fuel international fear…
The annual gathering of Davos is always a stimulating way to start the new year, offering a chance to discern the critical trends lying ahead for the global economy. Beyond the eclectic seminars and high-visibility plenary sessions that frame the formal agenda for the meetings, it is always fascinating to find out what the underlying, and often unexpressed, key issues are.
Tellingly, the closing session of this year’s forum, to be led by Tony Blair, is on the unsettling, if prevailing, topic of: “Why are we afraid of the future?”
I am particularly looking forward to the debate on two topics that have been given high prominence this year: sovereign wealth funds; and the role of religion in the global economy.
Tony Blair will be spearheading a discussion on the implications for the global economy of religion and faith communities in the world. It will need his skills to steer the discussion on faith and modernisation, something that is never easy when the debates are theological and not economic.
Will faith-based societies be a restriction or an advantage in developing the global economy? As the corporate landscape changes, and companies become more involved in the communities of the developing world, new corporations will emerge in strongly religious societies. So the debate on the relationship between the business community and the faith-based world can only intensify.
Davos is ahead of the curve by giving this debate the prominence it deserves. Many institutions lack the basic tools for undertaking co-operation, dialogue and effective decision-making in the context of intensely held religious views. Davos could help in creating such a model and so helping to diffuse one of the most serious fears for the future.
Following his departure from UBS and on gardening leave until he starts with Lazard, Ken Costa has been in South Africa, where he was interviewed by Business Day.
‘Costa is on gardening leave — not that you’d know it. The first day of the 57-year-old’s trip back to SA is peppered with work. As the man who earlier this month ended his three-decade career with Swiss investment bank UBS sits down in the coffee shop of Sandton’s Michelangelo hotel, a former colleague from UBS comes over and greets him…
On Black Economic Empowerment
“Social transformation is not linear. Economic transformation is not linear either. There are bumps in the road. Models have to be tried and tested and seen how they work and how they fulfil changing objectives. My own view is that, give or take some examples, phase one has been a remarkable success. How it morphs into stable, sustainable, long-term investment is, of course, the question of the day.”
On Subprime Lending
How, then, does a Christian banker view the excesses that are now apparent in the collapse of the US subprime lending market, where greed led bankers to lend money to people who could not afford it and greed led people to borrow money that they had no hope of repaying?
“The markets overreact. It is the nature of markets to do so. And irresponsibility, uncontrolled greed, or irrational exuberance — call it what you wish — take hold of markets and these have to be corrected. At the moment, we’re inundated with knowledge, but we are knowledge-long and wisdom-short. There is a premium on pursuing wisdom, but it doesn’t always work in the capital markets.”
Read more here.
Business big shot: Ken Costa
‘Ken Costa appeared to be heading for a baptism of fire yesterday as his surprise departure from UBS after a career spanning more than 30 years was announced…
Throughout, he tried to square his devotion to Christianity with his career. This year, he recounted this in his book God at Work. His commitment to good works also saw him act as a trustee of the redevelopment appeal for St Paul’s Cathedral.
This time it will be cultural change he will have to reconcile, building a close working relationship with investment bankers who were regularly on the other side of fierce takeover deals.’
More in The Times.
September 6, 2007
Costa leaves UBS for Lazard
An article in the FT today announced the change of roles for Ken Costa.
‘Lazard, the independent investment bank, on Thursday strengthened its senior ranks by hiring Ken Costa from UBS as chairman of its international arm…
The hiring of Mr Costa comes a year after Lazard created a unified management structure for its European operations in a move designed to end the long-running rivalry between the bank’s London and Paris offices.
Mr Costa joined SG Warburg – now part of UBS – in 1976 and has spent his entire career at the bank. He is well known as a senior adviser with close links to a number of large British companies…
A committed Christian, he also recently wrote a book, God at Work, about reconciling religious belief with global capitalism…’
A friend of the family
Ken Costa likes to quote the Bible’s parable of talents, in which two servants who put their master’s money to work are rewarded, while the one who preserved the capital and took no risk is punished.
The 57-year-old investment banker has lived by the maxim, too, during a 30-year career as a rainmaker. After studying law and theology at Queen’s College, Cambridge, the South African-born banker joined SG Warburg in 1976 under its founder, the late Sir Siegmund Warburg…
More.
Lazard Press Release
In a press release Bruce Wasserstein, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Lazard said, ‘Ken Costa embodies the special character of Lazard, I have known him for over 20 years as a banker of unusual talent, integrity and professionalism. With hiring Ken, we reinforce our strategy of servicing clients with the top talent around the world.’
Mr. Costa has been particularly involved in structuring cross-border mergers, acquisitions and divestitures. Mr. Costa also specialises in providing advice to family controlled companies, and has advised a number of Middle Eastern investment companies on acquisitions. He studied law and theology at Queens College, Cambridge.
Banking veteran Costa quits UBS for Lazard
Telegraph article on the move.
September 5, 2007
‘…Whatever happened to moral responsibility among the financial institutions? Do their employees have no conscience at all?
One robust answer to these questions came earlier this year with the publication of God at Work: Living Every Day with Purpose, by Ken Costa, the South Africa-born vice-chairman of UBS Investment Bank, and a 30-year City of London veteran.
It might seem surprising to see a seasoned dealmaker fromone of the world’s toughest professions trying to get a discussion going about God. There is not always a lot of evidence of benign intent in the banking sector…
But Mr Costa is not advocating a softhearted approach to business. He would not have survived at SG Warburg, SBC and now UBS had he ever done so. He reminds us that in the Bible’s parable of the talents (Luke 19: 11-27) it is the two servants who put the master’s money to work who are rewarded, while the one who preserved the capital and took no risk is punished. And he quotes the great Methodist John Wesley, who told his followers: “Gain all you can, without hurting either yourself or your neighbour.”
Mr Costa has written his book because he senses the need for a greater awareness of spirituality even in the heat of commercial battle. The world may be more efficient, but perhaps it is also “more efficiently unfair”. And the - now faltering - recent bull market has made him even more aware of the dangers of excess. “There seemed to be a headlong compassionless pursuit of financial reward without restraint,” he writes…
…at a time when scepticism per-sists about “do-gooding” ap-proa-ches to business, religious faith may offer an alternative values-based code of conduct. The credit crunch of 2007 suggests something other than a market triumphalist free-for-all is needed…
Could Christianity even prove a winning business strategy? The idea might provoke hollow laughter among many in business, even those who consider themselves Christians. Mr Costa, an evangelical Christian, is prepared to be mocked. “If the Christian faith is not relevant in the workplace it is not relevant at all,” he says…’
Read the full article here.
Agu Irukwu, pastor of Jesus House and leader of Mandate Men’s Ministries interviewed Ken Costa for Mandate Magazine - the first Christian lifestyle magazine in the UK aimed at men.
‘Two words sum up Ken Costa ‘high achiever’. Ken is a man at the top of his game, one who oozes a subconcious message that reads ‘I am enjoying life!’
Despite being the Vice Chairman of UBS Investment Bank, one of the largest investment banks in the world, a trustee of the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund, a member of the Advisory Committee of the London Symphony Orchestra, and Chairman of Alpha International, (arguably the most innovative and effective evangelistic tool on the planet), he somehow finds time to write. His new book, called ‘God at Work’, helps to reconcile with our life purpose the much maligned workplace. As if all that wasn’t enough Ken also finds time to serve as a warden at his local church.
As you can imagine it wasn’t easy securing time with such a busy man, who travels extensively and spontaneously. In this in-depth interview Mandate Magazine delved deep to explore the Ken behind the roles and accolades, the man who literally influences every facet of his realm, and found a man at ease with himself and his domain, relaxed, affable, bright eyed and raring to make his impact on the world.’
Read the full interview here.
Order a copy of Mandate here.
God at Work has received a favourable review in the Spring edition of Faith in Business, a quarterly journal that aims to help readers discover a fuller sense of God’s purpose and hope in their working lives.
‘Called God at Work, it is of course about God at work at work! But it’s more than that. It’s really about God at work in the life of the author day by day in the life that he actually leads, whether at home with his family, at work at the bank or preaching in church. It is a plea for Christians to understand that there is no area of life into which God does not wish to come.’
‘It should be compulsory reading for every member of university Christian unions contemplating their future career and inclined to the view that only youth work or school teaching are safe enough and worthwhile enough avenues of secular work for a committed Christian. This book explodes that myth. But nor is it a plea for more Christians to go into The City. It is simply his testimony that wherever you walk: up the steps to a pulpit, into the classroom, into the surgery or the law court, onto the stage or into the biggest business house in the world, you may “walk with the Lord in the light of his Word”.’
Read the full review here which appears in issue 11:1 of Faith in Business Quarterly.
FIBQ.
Comment from the FT’s live financial markets blog.
‘No bank…would survive the promised return of Christ.’ So says Ken Costa, the vice-chairman of investment banking at UBS, reports the FT’s people column…
In the book, he describes a moment of epiphany, struck by the looming facades of the Bank of England and the Swiss Bank Corporation…
“As an investment banker in the City of London, I have read the Financial Times and the Bible almost every day for the last 30 years.”
But which has generated the greater return?
FT Alphaville.
