Principles Over Profits

When one of Bob Shank’s clients calls with news of a promotion, congratulations are not always in order.

Though Shank has a firsthand appreciation of how hard it is to win power and privilege in the business world, he’s more concerned about the condition of the soul.

“There are dozens of people I’ve encouraged in their decisions to say ‘no’ to the next promotion, a promotion that was going to take them beyond their ability to keep their lives in order,� said Shank, 44, former senior pastor at South Coast Community Church. “We’re preoccupied with making a living instead of making a life.�

Shank, a North Tustin resident, spent 14 years in the air-conditioning and mechanical contracting business in Santa Ana, practicing what he now preaches: putting principles ahead of profits.

He sold his business in 1984 to start Priority Living, a Newport Beach Christian organization that advocates morality in the marketplace.

Shank sends his “Fax of Encouragement� to about 1,000 business subscribers each Monday, and his “Straight Talk� breakfast meetings attract about 100 business professionals to the El Torito Grill in Irvine early Wednesday mornings.

He also gives one-on-one spiritual counsel to business leaders on “what it means to be a Christian in a demanding professional environment.�

Shank tells of a prominent attorney who recently called him for advice. The attorney was troubled by a business that was “clearly outside his ethical boundaries� that his longtime client was starting.

“For him, it ultimately meant setting a boundary with his client and saying, ‘I can’t do your work for that new field and I don’t want to encourage you to go into that new field. If that means I can no longer be your attorney, I’m willing to pay that price.’ He’d already come to that conclusion, but I was his reality check.�

Shank sees himself as a kind of chaplain to business leaders who often are under enormous pressure to increase the bottom line any way they can.

“There are a lot of people who will do what’s ethically right until it costs them, and then the ethic gets set aside in favor of the bottom line.

“The challenge is: Will you do what’s right even when you could get away with not doing it? For me, that’s where the rubber meets the road. Yes, there is a cost. If it didn’t cost anything to have integrity, then everybody would have it.�

Shank joined Kinney Air Conditioning in Anaheim after graduation from high school, where he had been an outspoken Christian leader on campus. After rising to sales manager, he met former Santa Ana Mayor Lorin Griset, who had championed moral issues and battled adult bookstores and topless bars in the city during the late 1960s and early 1970s.

“Lorin took me under his wing and helped me to understand the role that my business position afforded me in caring about people--to get beyond the dollars and cents.

“We were overtly Christian--but not offensively so--to the people who worked for us, who were suppliers to us, who were customers for us, and it affected the way we did business. We had 300 people on our payroll, and we treated them fairly. We made our word our bond.�

Shank is critical of companies that make it impossible for employees to maintain a well-adjusted family life.

“The advent of communications technology in the last 10 years has moved people from working 60 hours a week and then going home exhausted, to still spending 60 hours a week and then going home with a beeper, a cell phone and a notebook computer. They are expected to check their e-mail until they go to sleep, and when they first wake up in the morning. We have gone from 60 hours a week to 168 hours a week on call.�

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But he also recognizes that ambitious employees often willingly sacrifice family life in hopes of advancing their careers, only to be used for the ambitions of others. “We can become our own worst enemies. We sometimes find our worth in being beeped at 11:30 at night. But if we don’t know how to manage our own lives, we can very easily come under the influence of other people who will use us as traction.

“It’s one thing if we’re resistant; it’s another thing if we volunteer. Often you’ll find that the people who are grousing about the demands their position holds over them are the very same people who will fight any attempt to lighten the demand. They’re looking for more, not less.�

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Profile: Bob Shank

Age: 44

Hometown: Santa Ana

Residence: North Tustin

Family: Wife, Cheri; two grown daughters

Education: Graduated from Santa Ana High School; studied at Santa Ana College; ordained at Calvary Church of Santa Ana

Background: Purchasing and sales positions, Kinney Air Conditioning, 1970-76; executive vice president and general manager at Kinney, 1976-81; president and owner, The Robert Shank Co. (mechanical contracting business), 1981-84; founder and president, Priority Living Inc., since 1984; senior pastor, South Coast Community Church (Irvine), 1991-95; currently works with Franklin Graham Crusades; board of directors for the Harvest Crusades, Samaritan’s Purse, Chosen Women, Delmapacifica Corp., Biola University and Center for Christian Leadership at the Dallas Theological Seminary

On profit and loss: “During my years in business, I watched us set the bottom line aside frequently to do what was right. There is a cost in the short term, but there is also a return in the long run. That’s a different way to view one’s role in the marketplace.�

Source: Bob Shank; Researched by RUSS LOAR / For The Times