Management according to St. Benedict

Here again a column I once wrote for my school-journal:


Who never peeled potatoes in his life? At least I did, and I recognised very well the situation he told about: peeling potatoes. He, that is Wil Derkse, who held a guest presentation about management and hospitality according to the rules of St. Benedict. What has a saint to do with management? You get your answer later, let me first finish my potato story. Mr. Derkse told us about potato peeling as a professor in Science, Society, and Contemplation. last Thursday 10 February in the auditorium of CHN. He said: one can peel potatoes in two ways: watching and focused on what you are doing, or with your mind busy with something else. In both cases you can finish your job, but with different amounts of energy and different results. I didn’t need further explanation. Thinking of something else, your potatoes will not be peeled, but rather carved and cut into. The joy of preparing food will be totally absent, and several times you are annoyed that a potato is cut into too deeply, or you cut your thumb. Watching what you do, enjoying the feeling of peeling, gives far better results and costs less energy.

Prof. Derkse made it clear how the core of management is hospitality, and how the core of hospitality is “listening and responding”. He did so not by giving an analysis, not by presenting a new model or revolutionary idea, but by relying on tradition. He showed that innovation is nothing else than “after progress, finding the old way forward”. It always comes down to the traditional core; methods, models and means can be new, but the core remains the same. It is the spirit of your goal. It is not something intangible or invisible, or something you can only attain by hovering above the earth. No, the potatoes peeling and so many other activities show that it is very down-to-earth. It has to do with respect for what you are doing, for what you want to achieve. Prof. Derkse calls it: “Feet in the mud, eyes towards the stars”. About the manager he says: the top executive manager must be the most obedient among his employees. He explained, far better than can be done in this short article, how managers and other workers must consider themselves modestly as beginners, no matter how experienced they are. Like the Benedict abbots (there are still 1,400 monasteries with 35,000 monks in this Order around the world) they have to consider three vows: 1. don’t run away from your responsibility, keep in mind that “this the place where you are needed and where you’ll flourish”; 2. always practice “conversatio morum”, which is: constantly improve your habits and ethics (example: when you want to relax, you can better listen to good music instead of zapping through the TV – Derkse calls this “from trash to treasure”); and 3. always be obedient and never grumble. By the way, our Retail Management School has as their motto: “Primus Omnium Servus”, which is the same as this third vow. It means: “The first one is everybody’s servant”.
These vows fit extremely well into the concept of hospitality. Hospitality is at the basis of the Order of St. Benedict. Every monastery is obliged to have guest facilities, and to host constantly a number of guests. Prof. Derkse explained that these monasteries are open for those who want to share a couple of days with the monks. The monks stress “receiving” the guest, not simply “tolerating” them, and they have a number of brethren especially charged with taking care of the guests. A special chapter in their rules prescribe how hospitality should be performed.

A case of how Prof. Derkse’s words can be put into practice by the hospitality industry, was given by Mrs. Yvonne Nieuwenhuijzen of the Italian hospitality chain “Bianconi Ospitalità”. The Bianconi family own a property in the town where St. Benedict was born, Norcia, and try to do their business in St. Benedict’s spirit as much as possible. Their management philosophy is simple, but effective: Observe, Inspire, Create and Move. Any further explanation would spoil the powerful meaning of these concepts. They try to use a holistic approach, which means a balance and connectedness between life and work, practice and spirit, everything in a harmonious rhythm.
This entrepreneurial vision is transferred to their guest services. Mrs. Nieuwenhuijzen emphasised meetings and training courses that can be held in Norcia, in which of course getting in touch with the Benedict philosophy is an important element. This Benedict philosophy can also be identified in the region’s culture (Umbria), which is for a great deal formed by the environment’s nature. Their aim is getting from a haze to a clear view, and grow like nature grows, not by overhaul but gradually and adjusting.