God and Mammon at Harvard

Founded in 1816, the divinity school was the first nonsectarian theological school in the country. It now has 480 students, representing more than 25 religious traditions, and faculty positions in everything from Buddhism to Islam. Like most divinity schools, its focus is on interpretation of scripture, theology, ethics, and world religions. But HDS also allows its students great latitude in designing their own courses of study, with the opportunity to take classes throughout the university. "You don't study religion in its social context, as you have to do here, without coming away with an awareness of how important it is to translate those concepts into societal values," says the genial Graham. "I think the historical training students get here, and the opportunity to think about issues of communal and societal importance, instill a different kind of approach to what is responsible activity on the part of a business leader."

In Chappell's case, the experience was transformative. He had come to the divinity school at age 43, after an aggressive growth period in his company that had left him emotionally and spiritually drained. The business was thriving, but he was finding more emptiness than fulfillment in success, he says. Many entrepreneurs would argue that when you reach that point, it's time to flip the business, buy a sailboat, and travel the world. But Chappell was haunted by a comment from his pastor's wife: "What makes you think Tom's of Maine isn't your ministry?" she asked.

So Chappell struck a deal with his board. He'd spend half a week in Cambridge, Massachusetts, as a student, and half a week in Kennebunk, Maine, as CEO. "I got down there, and the business did very well," he says, "so everyone suggested I stay and do a little more praying." Four years later, degree in hand, he invited his HDS mentor, Richard Niebuhr, to meet with his board and executive team to begin mapping out the company's new direction. That included drafting a new mission statement that drew from 18th-century New England theologian Jonathan Edwards's belief that the nature of being is relational rather than individual. So Tom's of Maine pledged to honor its moral obligations to all its stakeholders -- employees, owners, suppliers, consumers, community, and the environment.

And Chappell adopted Buber's ideas on integration to launch a series of three "Common Good" partnerships a year on topics such as saving America's rivers and dental health for the poor. In league with like-minded retailers such as Whole Foods and CVS, which donate premier retail space for Tom's products and a display of information about the issue, the company runs a sale, and a percentage of profits is donated to the cause. "When our products are on display for two weeks, we get a 400% increase in sales," Chappell says. "Goodness works."

Sanford Keziah took a different path to the divinity school but was equally transformed. Keziah enrolled at the school as a cocky 23-year-old, having already built a successful hotel- and restaurant-management firm. But having tasted success so young, he could already see that a life dedicated to the pursuit of money and power alone was likely to be pretty hollow. A quote from Walker Percy nagged at him: "To become aware of the possibility of the search is to be onto something. Not to be onto something is to be in despair." Says Keziah: "I walked into divinity school thinking, I'm on the search."

After Harvard, Keziah launched a career in an unlikely field for a theology student: advertising. Seven years later, having worked his way up the ranks on Madison Avenue, he decamped to Colorado and founded his own firm, Kindred Keziah, with his soon-to-be wife, Victoria Kindred. "I started Kindred Keziah because I felt there was a strong need for the business world to have a much deeper understanding of humanity," he says. Too often, he says, market research defaults to stereotypes. "I wanted to help companies understand their consumers in a highly nuanced and sophisticated way so they could serve them better. It would be a win-win."

Keziah's hallmark was research driven by what he calls "creative rigor" -- a more robust investigation into behavior than what typically passes for market research in the industry. The approach, he says, grew directly out of his HDS experience. Its curriculum "was open to that element of human knowing that is not quantifiable. That's incredibly important, and I don't think you find that anywhere in the academy except in religion."

Kindred Keziah thrived, attracting blue-chip clients such as Coca-Cola, Diageo, and Kellogg's. In March, though, Keziah sold the agency to two senior managers. He plans to launch a new venture that marries his branding expertise with his desire to make a bigger difference. "I've done the best I could to express my values through a commercial venture," he says. "Now I want to ante up again and do it in a more altruistic way."