Positive Power of Principled Profit
Volume 2, Number 7 - March, 2005

Positive Power Spotlight: Matrix Resources

It's so nice to visit an unfamiliar company website and be greeted by a clear commitment to ethics.

Matrix Resources http://www.matrixresources.com is a high-performing IT staffing company with offices in five cities. Go to the company's About page and you'll find language that will make fans of business ethics very happy:

"Our Values:
Integrity...Excellence...Respect... - these foundational values define Matrix, and are captured in The Matrix Charter."

And

"Community Outreach: An important part of the fabric of Matrix Resources is giving our time, talents, energy and resources to worthwhile causes in our communities and society."

The charter referred to is a brilliant document that has informed the company since its founding in 1983:

[charter begins here]Declaration of Identity

We connect great people with great people. These relationships result in the finest professional staffing and technology solutions, enhanced careers, fulfilled aspirations and a rich Matrix heritage.

Foundational Values

Integrity
We pledge to do the right thing in all circumstances.

Excellence
We exceed expectations by providing superior service and unsurpassed quality and value.

Respect
We show care and compassion for all individuals because of our inherent trust and belief in people.

Innovation
We promote creativity and possess the courage to embrace change.

Fun
We strive to make Matrix an irresistible place to work, where fun and professionalism coexist.

Results-Driven
We believe that our success is ultimately measured by the results we deliver to our customers.

Vision

Our vision is to be the preferred staffing and technology solutions providerin each of the markets we serve. In all that we do, we will uphold the highest ethics and values that define the Matrix legacy,and we will challenge ourselves to continually enhance the quality of our services.[charter ends]

The About page also offers a ten-minute video, in which employees say things like "We have energized the entire company to look at what is wildly important and how does that affect the bottom line performance." (Sean Hagarty); "The word respect flows through our behavior in dealing with people. Matrix is very much a people-oriented company." (Gary Wood); "We value each other's contribution at Matrix. No one is more important than anyone else. We're all part of the team." (Pat Turner)

The video also discusses Matrix's annual audit--posted on the wall of every office--of how well it's meeting the statements on the charter.

Opening the video, CEO Jim Huling notes that the company was founded based on "principles of fairness, integrity, compassion, and excellence."

According to a blurb sent to my by Matrix's PR agent, Mitch Leff, "Jim is a passionate advocate of corporate values and ethics. Under his leadership, Matrix is a case study for how values-based companies regularly outperform those that are purely financially driven."

And that, my friends, is why I've chosen this company to highlight--because I keep telling you that companies that do good also do well, and matrix is one of many proving that truth.

Another Recommended Book: Spiritual Capitalism: What the FDNY Taught Wall Street About Money, by Peter Ressler and Monica Mitchell Ressler.

Since I'm profiling a personnel firm in the main article, this is an especially nice pairing. Wall Street headhunters who had close personal friends in the firefighter community, the Resslers had a unique perspective on the 9/11 catastrophe that united their two disparate worlds. Perhaps the most remarkable thing about this slim but important book is how much the authors themselves transformed. While they'd always put a strong value on ethics, even walking away from large, lucrative deals that didn't pass the sniff test, they had been, pre-9/11, shallow workaholics obsessed by money, too busy chasing the next big deal to notice and appreciate the things that really matter.

Grieving over the loss of friends from both worlds, and struggling to rebuild their business after the triple whammy of the 2001 stock market downturn, 9/11, and the epidemic of corporate ethics scandals, the Resslers found spiritual guidance in the commitment of firefighters to help others, even at great personal risk, at yearly salaries that many of their Wall Street friends made every week. "Everything firefighters did was for love: the love of their colleagues, their families, their friends, their communities, their country...after witnessing the work of the firefighters, we also understood that wealth gained without thought to others was no gain at all...we could only proceed in business as *spiritual* capitalists by consciously combining the pursuit of profit with caring for the world around us."

One of the most interesting lessons was the idea that all work can be spiritual, and has a component of helping the world--even professions thought of as "lowly."

The book is peppered with examples of people who reap what they sow; each chapter offers a brief story of a grasping, conniving, back-stabber who is left destitute and friendless, followed by another vignette involving people who always saw their work as part of a higher good, who did very well financially while boosting the lives of others.

And the authors even found an amazing quote by Federal Reserve Chair Alan Greenspan--perhaps America's foremost booster of capitalism--on the problems that arise when greed replaces trust.

They've isolated seven principles that businesses can take away not only from the heroism of firefighters and police officers on that fateful day, but also from the creation of a much deeper community as New York gathered itself together to heal, and accepted the love of the outside world (these are direct quotes): 1] pursuit of money without love is meaningless; 2] use your pursuit of money as a tool for spiritual growth; 3] profit cannot be earned form the suffering of others; 4] give to others what you wish to receive for yourself; 5] you have a sacred obligation to serve others through the divine nature of work; 6] employers and employees create a spiritual partnership based on mutual trust; 7] the spiritual purpose of business is to serve the community that supports it.

If you'd like to buy this book, please follow this link to buy from a BookSense independent bookseller:
http://www.booksense.com/index.jsp?affiliateId=FrugalFun