The Cost of noble Business Ethics

When he was objective starting out, his unwillingness to compromise his beliefs cost him his job. But rather than demolish his career, that incident was only the beginning of something far greater than he had ever dreamed….

Hal Takes a Stand

In the mid-1980s, cellular phone service was unprejudiced taking off, and Hal’s career appeared poised to wing along with it. Having been recruited by Southwestern Bell shortly after college, Hal was being groomed to play an active role in the founding of this novel technology. But when something went unfriendly with one of their accounts, Hal was asked to randomly finish five of his employees as a disciplinary measure. After mulling it over, Hal delivered his answer: “I told them that not only could I not do the task they had asked me to do, but if that’s the type of organization they were, that I could not associate with them at all.”

abet, God! What Next?

Suddenly jobless, Hal and his wife Julie moved help from LA to Dallas, where he spent the next six weeks trying to figure out what to do next. The best understanding he could approach up with was to become a telecommunications consultant. This proved to be a expedient choice, and he eventually linked up with several other people who were in the same boat. Eventually, Hal decided to join up with two of these people and originate their occupy company, COM2000+. At the time, the cell phone industry was expanding hastily, and there was a lot of pressure to broaden the coverage situation as fleet as possible. COM2000+ specialized in finding and assessing sites for recent cell phone towers. The company expanded expeditiously over the next three years, with revenues in the millions of dollars. “This was very attractive for us, to peruse the success God had brought our method through our commitment to grow the business by trying to honor him.”

An Offering to God

Shortly afterwards, Hal and his partner David Kaltenbach had a falling out with the other principle of the company, who was not willing to submit the business to God. COM 2000+ soon dissolved. But Hal and David decided to reform the company and stare if they couldn’t invent a go of it again. Within ten months, not only had they reacquired their extinct customers, employees, and earnings, all of these things began to multiply exponentially. After earning over $1 million in revenue during their first year, COM2000+ rapid acquired ten other companies, with no signs of slowing down.

Thinking it was time to rename this hasty growing entity, Hal sat down with a Bible dictionary one Sunday looking for ideas. When he hit upon the word, “Corban,” he knew he had it. The word meant “an offering to God,” which is exactly what Hal and David wanted the company to become.

Today, Corban Communications operates 68 offices across the United States with a staff of 375 people. Their revenues are now in the range of $10 million per month and growing. Not terrible for a company that didn’t even exist three years ago!
Secret to Success?
What’s their secret? “We owe all success to God’s grace,” says Hal. “The Bible tells us that God’s eyes are looking to and fro throughout the earth for those whose hearts are wholly committed to him. Every day, I pray that God would give us wisdom and that he would fetch us usable so that we can continue our mission to befriend others and to exhibit God how considerable we esteem him.”