Cultic Studies Journal, Vol. 11, No. 1, 1994, Page 22
The first point is that “cosmic” self religiosity is well in evidence:
In management the priority is to know yourself. Only on the basis of self-knowledge
can you interfuse with the cosmic energy system--that is to say, God. God is not an
idea outside of you. He is part of our self-nature, part of our feeling.
The second point is that--at least in this spiritual ideology--the Self-orientation of BCCI
meshes in with a strong emphasis on the expressive ethic. Thus the passage just cited
continues,
When we feel that we can comprehend totality within us, that is the feeling of God.
As soon as you know that feeling, everything becomes simple.
In other words, as the following extract from Lessem (who is citing Abedi) makes explicit,
once managers are in touch with the Source within, good decisions naturally ensue:
Should we as corporate managers confine ourselves to empirical wisdom and its
application? Or should we attempt to reach beyond that through the process of
humility and interfusion of the streams of the energy psyche of individual human
beings with the main stream of the cosmic energy psyche? We may ask ourselves if
wisdom is merely human reason and perception confined within the prison of the
human ego, or is wisdom nature, its laws and its principles. We in BCC have
attempted to give precedence to nature. (Lessem, 1989, p. xvi)
God Running a Bank: New Age Expressivism in Practice
The “formal” corporate culture of BCCI, it is quite clear, was extraordinary. And according to
Lessem (Reader in International Management at the City University Business School), its
metaphysical principles “have turned BCC into a major, multinational bank, over the course of
fifteen years” (1989, p. vxi). Just prior to the collapse of the bank in mid-1991, it can be
observed, the institution was the fifth largest bank in the world, with assets of $20 billion, and
was operating in some 70 countries.
But we all know what has been revealed during the last year or so, prompting Private Eye to
describe the institution as “the Bank of Crooks, Cocaine and Impostors.” And so to an
interesting consideration: Could it be the case that self religiosity, in particular the role played
by the expressive ethic in decision making, has contributed to the demise of BCCI?
On a general note, it is difficult to see how the expressive ethic--placing trust in the wisdom
that lies within rather than in that which is encoded from without--can be relied upon in
private life let alone in business. Even in the ultimate sphere, intuition is by no means a
reliable guide in all eventualities. True, expressive ethic can work if there is a wise Self
dwelling within. But it is surely problematic to ground a personal relationship, let alone a
business empire, on such an act of faith.
Yet BCCI appears to have taken such an act of faith. We do not have many details of how
BCCI was run before its collapse, but observations from Lessem, Thomas Thiss (1986), and
my own informants indicate that those in charge attempted to transcend conventional ways of
running a business empire. At least in measure, traditional authority systems have been
rejected--supposedly to facilitate the revelation of natural wisdom, and allow it to have its
say.
Thus according to Thiss,
Because it [the bank] values spontaneity, trust, initiative, intuition, and feelings, it
minimizes structure to facilitate these qualities. There is very little formal planning,
scheduling, and budgeting in the conventional sense. Plans evolve and schedules
change with the continuous interaction of people. They call it “dynamic planning.”
Sometimes things just seem to happen. (1986, p. 272)
The first point is that “cosmic” self religiosity is well in evidence:
In management the priority is to know yourself. Only on the basis of self-knowledge
can you interfuse with the cosmic energy system--that is to say, God. God is not an
idea outside of you. He is part of our self-nature, part of our feeling.
The second point is that--at least in this spiritual ideology--the Self-orientation of BCCI
meshes in with a strong emphasis on the expressive ethic. Thus the passage just cited
continues,
When we feel that we can comprehend totality within us, that is the feeling of God.
As soon as you know that feeling, everything becomes simple.
In other words, as the following extract from Lessem (who is citing Abedi) makes explicit,
once managers are in touch with the Source within, good decisions naturally ensue:
Should we as corporate managers confine ourselves to empirical wisdom and its
application? Or should we attempt to reach beyond that through the process of
humility and interfusion of the streams of the energy psyche of individual human
beings with the main stream of the cosmic energy psyche? We may ask ourselves if
wisdom is merely human reason and perception confined within the prison of the
human ego, or is wisdom nature, its laws and its principles. We in BCC have
attempted to give precedence to nature. (Lessem, 1989, p. xvi)
God Running a Bank: New Age Expressivism in Practice
The “formal” corporate culture of BCCI, it is quite clear, was extraordinary. And according to
Lessem (Reader in International Management at the City University Business School), its
metaphysical principles “have turned BCC into a major, multinational bank, over the course of
fifteen years” (1989, p. vxi). Just prior to the collapse of the bank in mid-1991, it can be
observed, the institution was the fifth largest bank in the world, with assets of $20 billion, and
was operating in some 70 countries.
But we all know what has been revealed during the last year or so, prompting Private Eye to
describe the institution as “the Bank of Crooks, Cocaine and Impostors.” And so to an
interesting consideration: Could it be the case that self religiosity, in particular the role played
by the expressive ethic in decision making, has contributed to the demise of BCCI?
On a general note, it is difficult to see how the expressive ethic--placing trust in the wisdom
that lies within rather than in that which is encoded from without--can be relied upon in
private life let alone in business. Even in the ultimate sphere, intuition is by no means a
reliable guide in all eventualities. True, expressive ethic can work if there is a wise Self
dwelling within. But it is surely problematic to ground a personal relationship, let alone a
business empire, on such an act of faith.
Yet BCCI appears to have taken such an act of faith. We do not have many details of how
BCCI was run before its collapse, but observations from Lessem, Thomas Thiss (1986), and
my own informants indicate that those in charge attempted to transcend conventional ways of
running a business empire. At least in measure, traditional authority systems have been
rejected--supposedly to facilitate the revelation of natural wisdom, and allow it to have its
say.
Thus according to Thiss,
Because it [the bank] values spontaneity, trust, initiative, intuition, and feelings, it
minimizes structure to facilitate these qualities. There is very little formal planning,
scheduling, and budgeting in the conventional sense. Plans evolve and schedules
change with the continuous interaction of people. They call it “dynamic planning.”
Sometimes things just seem to happen. (1986, p. 272)
