For decades, people have been calling for businesses to be more ethical. All of a sudden, it seems, there’s a mad rush by companies to be ethical: but with “ethical” defined as paying homage to whatever the politically correct idea of the moment is—and with zero tolerance, sometimes even outright hostility, for any other view, particularly a religious one. This is called “woke” capitalism.

From Monday, October 12 through Wednesday, October 14, 2020, the Busch School and the Napa Institute convened business, ecclesiastical, and academic leaders in New York and virtually to explore the phenomenon of woke capitalism and its implications for ethical management, particularly for people of faith. We sought to answer two important sets of questions about it. The first set of questions were around what is woke capitalism exactly: where did it come from, is it really a problem, and if so, how serious is it? The second set of questions were around what we—as managers, investors, scholars, citizens—should do about it.

The ebook Ethical Management and Faith in an Era of Woke Capitalism provides a summary of each of the conference presentations and draws some overall conclusions on this contentious topic.