There is no question that we are changing how we do business -- just watch for proof.
And for anyone who would look skeptically askance at the viability of conscious capitalism, let's remember the sundry environmental indicators that the way we have been running the planet is simply not sustainable and a better way is no longer a luxury but necessity. So let's explore what that means.
In this video, John Mackey shares his two key principles for Conscious Capitalism, and I'd like to add my comments to them here:
Purpose Beyond ProfitWhile every business must profit in order to survive, purpose is what elevates it to thrive. Mackey draws an effective, no-nonsense analogy where he equivocates profit to sustenance, and which I'd like to emphasize by adding in the comparison to Maslow's hierarchy.
Just because we need food, safety, and shelter does not mean that we have realized our full potential as human beings (self-actualization). Those basic needs are at the foundation of the hierarchy, and so too with business. But it would seem that many businesses today remain fixated on the basic profit need. Yet in order to self-actualize, the organization (like the individual) must aspire to a greater purpose -- reaching its full potential as an organization that serves shareholders, employees, customers, and community.
Which brings us to his next point...
Business is Not a Machine, it is an Ecosystem
The steam engine and assembly line helped make some very wealthy Industrial Age pioneers, but in today's environment we need a new conceptual model. One that reflects our evolution into the Information Age. One that benefits all stakeholders.
Naturally, it is the ecosystem. Curiously, you needn't look any further than our physical world to see how we've disrupted the environmental ecosystem, yet it is also in a socio-cultural respect where the "humans as a resource" models of the Industrial Age turned people into metaphorical cogs in the Big Business Wheel.
And thus, by necessity and in the name of hope, we must move consciously to a model where everyone involved is taken into consideration: from the shareholders to the foreign trade partners to the community.
And lastly...I'd like to point out that Mackey closes by quoting Joseph Campbell's famous imperative that you "Follow your bliss." Imagine for just a moment how out of place the concept of each employee working according to their best and most joyful aptitudes would have seemed in the business environment a century ago.
But times very clearly have changed.
The new model is at hand, and the idea of everyone connecting with their natural aptitudes and passions has a positive ripple effect on colleagues, family, friends, and family.
For my part, observing how business visionaries are helping popularize conscious capitalism brings its own bliss.
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