Sunday 16th March 2008
Colin Mackay chats to Ken Costa, one-time anti-apartheid activist turned City investment banker and devout Christian, about whether there is space for God in the workplace.
BBC Scotland’s ‘A Life in Question’ invites individuals from all walks of life to reflect on their experiences and to reflect on two pieces of music.
Ken Costa was interviewed live on Metro FM (96.4) by chat show host Criselda Kananda in Johannesburg on 28th February at 7pm.
The show focusses on healthy body, mind and spirit on every Wednesday and Thursday evening 19:00 to 21:00 targeting 5.2 million listeners.
He was asked questions about his book God at Work, recently published in South Africa, and how he reconciles life as an investment banker, completing billion dollar deals with his life as a Christian. He then received questions from listeners.
Criselda Kananda has been actively involved in the fight for the rights of both the HIV infected and HIV negative people. She served as a Member of the Board of Trustees at the National AIDS Counsel (SANEC) 2005-2006 and in 2006 represented South Africa in New York during the United Nations General Assembly Special Meeting on communicable diseases, commissioned by Mr Koffie Annan. Criselda has also received an award from the First Lady Mrs Zanele Mbeki for her contribution towards the up-liftment of young women in South Africa as an ambassador for the Young South African Women in Dialogue.
Some extracts from Lunch with the FT.
Ken Costa and I take in the pink marbled splendour of The Ritz Restaurant in London. The winter sun streams through the window behind us. In the distance, a pianist tinkles away at “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road”. “So you bought this place?” I say. “My very good friends and clients did,” he says – his very good friends and investment banking clients being the Barclay twins, Sir David and Sir Frederick, who bought The Ritz in 1995. “I rather like supporting clients. I think it’s always useful, you know.”
…The restaurant is filling up now. Our starters are excellent. Costa keeps an eye on the new arrivals. Let us talk about your years as a student leader in South Africa, I say. “Ah, you jog me with nostalgia for those days,” he says. Costa was president of the students’ council at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, a hotbed of white student radicalism. “Being a young 20-year-old, I had a burning passion for justice, and the injustices of the apartheid system were horrible in every way, mostly because of the dehumanising effect – curiously, not only on the recipients but also on those who were meting it out. We, the students, became the vanguard of agitation against the government.”
They were exciting times, but frightening ones, too. “You’d hear knocks on the door from strange policemen.” Did that happen to him? “Yes.” Friends were locked up. One, Ahmed Timol, died after falling from a 10th floor window while under interrogation in Johannesburg’s notorious John Vorster Square. “There were some very brave and courageous people,” he says. His associates included Steve Biko, the black student leader, who also later died while in police detention. “He was the outstanding leader of our generation,” Costa says.
…Costa’s family, farmers of Lebanese origin, were not political. What turned him against apartheid? He boarded at an all-white Christian Brothers school in Pretoria. One day the students heard that a Chinese boy would be joining them, but he never turned up because the law did not allow it. “I was deeply offended by that,” he says. With this came the “realisation that we were an entirely privileged group of people and that we never had normal contact with black people”.
…Costa is, today, not just a Christian. He is chairman of Alpha International, an interdenominational programme that has spread around the world. More than 10 million people have attended Alpha’s relaxed meals and introductions to Christianity. What convinced him of Christianity’s rightness? He pauses to turn down a waiter’s offer of another drink. “Well, it was a case of being persuaded. Claims that were made by Jesus were, in fact, true.”
It is unusual in Britain to find people talking openly about religion. Alastair Campbell, Tony Blair’s press spokesman, said: “We don’t do God.” Blair himself, who recently became a Catholic, said he never discussed his faith while in office because people would have considered him a “nutter”. Costa insists this is changing. “There is a greater openness than ever before for people to discuss the issues of religion. We do do God. We talk about it.”
Costa last year wrote a book called God at Work, examining workplace issues such as ambition, disappointment and money from a Christian point of view. As he talks, he draws on business terms. The Bible is “the prospectus”, as in, “That’s what the prospectus sets out, from Genesis to Apocalypse.” City work puts family life under stress, particularly when you are in the middle of a bid, but “it’s the trend that matters” – in other words, you can give your family more time when the deal is done.
…Is it true that he has read the Financial Times and the Bible every morning for over 30 years? It is true, he says, adding: “The only question is: which comes first?” And which does come first? The FT? “I know.” He gives a naughty giggle. “Awful.”
Nicky Gumbel, the vicar of HTB and pioneer of the Alpha course has interviewed Ken Costa, the author of God at Work for a series of Podcasts based on the subjects from the book.
The series includes topics such as stress, tough choices, ambition and why work matters.
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.
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.’
My Way: Ken Costa, of UBS Investment Bank, on how to succeed
‘Show you have the potential for leadership’
Some extracts:
What did you want to be as a child?
I grew up in South Africa and felt very strongly that I wanted to do something that would correct the injustice of apartheid, so I thought I’d be a lawyer.
What did you realistically think you would end up being?
Probably a commercial lawyer. I knew I would have to earn my keep.
You studied law and philosophy at Witwatersrand University and law and theology at Cambridge. Was it worth it?
Absolutely. Philosophy and theology give a structure for understanding more of life than the material. You have to have a structure to answer the big questions such as, what is the purpose of work?
What motivates you?
Trying to apply my Christian faith to the workplace.
Learning to love one’s neighbour in a highly competitive environment is a challenge, to say the least.
More in the Education section of the Independent.
THE BAPTIST TIMES
‘God is in every workplace’
24 May 2007
Ruth Dickinson meets Ken Costa to find out how God and work can fit together.
It’s probably fair to say that Ken Costa’s working life is not, on the face of it, going to be that representative of anyone else’s. While you might wonder what this high flyer has got to say to the ordinary nine-to-fiver, it’s worth taking a look at his book…
Right from the beginning, Ken rejects the lazy but pervasive assumption that the only real Christian work happens in Christian organisations.
‘It is a very sad state that we’re in, that we divided up creation into those things which God is really keen on, and those things that God doesn’t really mind if they happen or not,’ he says. ‘That is a reductionist view of God. He created the entire world order for us. To separate them out would be for us to look at the creation and to actively pick and choose from within it. So you either have the view that he is lord of all - including commerce and [secular] work - or he is not Lord at all.’
What actually matters according to Ken, is working out what God has called us to do and how he has gifted us to perform our calling…
Work, according to Ken, is something which the church has overlooked at great cost to itself. ‘The principal cause of the decline of the church in this country is that it is irrelevant to 95 per cent of people 95 per cent of the time.’ Addressing issues of work, he says, is one major way in which new life could be breathed into the church…
The whole point of the book is to help people seek to glorify God in the work that they do…
More here.
The Baptist Times.
IDEA
‘Bringing God into the Workplace’
May/June 2007
Extract on Tough Decisions, from God at Work in the in the May/June edition of Idea, the Evangelical Alliance’s bi-monthly magazine.
Ken Costa was interviewed on Inspirit, BBC LONDON’s multi faith magazine programme, about religion in the office and whether God belongs at work.
The weekly Sunday morning show takes an ethical look at the week’s top news stories and tackles a wide range of religious subjects.
Discussing his book and personal experiences, Ken was joined by Christian GP Dr Mark Pickering and Muslim lawyer Aina Khan.
Ken Costa appeared on Jeff Randall’s Weekend Business show to chat about religion and the workplace. The weekly slot discusses the latest news and features from the world of business and finance.
Jeff Randall:
Now how do you reconcile the pursuit of great personal wealth with strong religious beliefs, well, that’s the subject of a book by Ken Costa, a senior director at the giant investment bank, UBS. Ken welcome to Five Live.
Now Ken, you are a devout Christian but as a city banker you earn more money in a week than some people earn in a year. Can you live comfortably with that?
Ken Costa:
Well Jeff, I think it depends on the attitude, it depends on how you view that prosperity and I love the remarks of John Wesley, you know, ‘Make all you can, save all you can and give all you can.’ And that’s been a pretty good guide for many people.
Jeff Randall:
So you’re saying it’s no sin to earn lots of money, but it’s what you do with it once you’ve got it.
Ken Costa:
Well it’s both that. I think it’s to do what you – you’ve got to be sure that what you’re working in is the right place, that you’re providing a service to the community and then what you do with it matters.
Jeff Randall:
So do you agree with Peter Hain, the government minister who said that he wanted people in the city to give their bonuses away…
Listen to show here.
Read a transcript of the interview here.
God at Work is developing a course, which will look at some of the issues discussed in the book, for use in small groups. Please contact us if you're interested in receiving more information about this.
Podcast episodes are available here or at iTunes.
If you would like to receive occasional updates from God at Work please subscribe here.
God at Work has been featured in The Times, Radio 5 Live, the FT and Business Day.
