Finance Goes Feng Shui

September 14, 2003 — As volatile economic times mess up corporate balance sheets, some companies have taken to using the ancient Chinese practice of feng shui to at least rebalance their energy and workplaces.

Increasingly popular as a way to order personal living space, the 5,000-year-old system of feng shui (pronounced fung schway) has long been used in business settings.

According to its tenets, an unobstructed “chi,” or energy, pathway allows money to flow in freely.

The New York outpost of London-based Standard Chartered Bank is no stranger to feng shui.

“The principles are firmly embraced by our global counterparts,” said Nancy Wisniewski, its business planning manager for global markets.

When Standard Chartered acquired its one-floor, raw space at Madison Avenue and 23rd Street - it had previously operated from 7 World Trade Center - the company hired R.D. Chin, a Manhattan-based, feng shui practitioner, as well as a licensed architect.

The author of “Feng Shui Revealed,” Chin worked off architects’ blue prints, guided by feng shui’s “bagua” - an eight-sided configuration containing nine specific life areas, among them fame, creativity and knowledge. And, of course, wealth.

“Traders by heart are superstitious, so we wanted to apply feng shui principles to bring maximum prosperity and harmony into the trading room,” Wisniewski said.

After Chin chose, from a feng shui perspective, the most appropriate spot for that room, he positioned the other departments housing Standard Chartered’s other employees.

Most of Chin’s recommendations for the trading room involved infusing a substantial dose of feminine elements, represented by water, to balance that arena’s data screens and sometimes aggressive and volatile trading activity.

The most stunning enhancement was a massive, 500-gallon, salt-water aquarium. According to feng shui, both water and fish - in multiples of nine - are money magnets.

The fish tank, built into and extending across a third of one of the trading room walls - it also extends into the main area for other employees to enjoy - is “definitely the cornerstone,” said Wisniewski. “It is probably the most beautiful fish tank you’ll ever see.”

Chin also has periodically stopped by for some fine tuning. Most recently, he effected a calming, feminine, three-foot-diameter, solid-blue circle onto a pair of double doors behind which sits the electrical closet.

Chin insisted it’s simple: “If people feel great in their space, it in turn will enhance business.”

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