Honoring God in a Publicly Traded Corporation: Inspiration from Service Master and the Writings of C. William Pollard

Abstract

C. William Pollard served as the CEO of ServiceMaster from 1983-1993 and again from 1999-2001. During Pollard’s tenure, ServiceMaster was honored by Fortune magazine as the number-one service company in the United States in 1985. ServiceMaster experienced growth in revenues and profits every year during Pollard’s first term as CEO. In the summer of 2024, this author studied the writings of C. William Pollard and the ServiceMaster story as a Pollard Faith and Business Research Fellow at the Center for Faithful Business at Seattle Pacific University. In this paper, the author seeks to provide an example of, and insights from, a successful publicly traded company that sought to honor God as its primary objective.