What is Conscious Capitalism?

What is the purpose of your business?  Before you answer, consider what your business is doing to make a difference.

This season, YES will be focused on Conscious Capitalism. In Conscious Capitalism, the purpose of business is to advance the common good and to make decisions that benefit not just the owners or shareholders, but all the stakeholders of the business: employees, customers, shareholders/owners, suppliers & vendors, society and any other constituents that are affected by the business.  

If you think that talk about heart and soul of business is mushy, feel-good pablum, get this: Conscious businesses outperform the overall stock market by a ratio of more than 10:1 (Mackey, J. & Sosodia, R., 2014, p. 36). That means that Conscious Capitalism is a serious competitive advantage.  It is a tough, business-minded, holistic approach to business that results in better financial performance.

Here are the four tenets of Conscious Capitalism:

• Conscious Leadership: Conscious Capitalism starts with leaders.  Remember that leaders cast a long shadow, meaning that all eyes are on the leader to set the behavioral example for the rest of the group. 

• Higher Purpose: Conscious businesses have a purpose that is bigger than just making money, and they make sure that everyone involved with the business knows what that is.  Whole Foods’ purpose is “helping to support the health, well-being, and healing of both people — customers, Team Members, and business organizations in general — and the planet.”  The leaders in this company embed their purpose and their core values in everything they do – from the hiring and people practices they follow  to strategic decisions they make.  If you don’t have a punchy purpose, listen to your founder or leaders to see what they repeatedly say.

• Conscious Culture: Culture is the soul of a company.  It manifests in the way people (insiders and external suppliers) are treated, the way decisions are made and the emotional norms that may be unspoken but expected.  Culture is the result of how an organization lives its values

• Stakeholder Integration: When a company practices stakeholder integration, no single stakeholder group is more important than another.  In traditional capitalism, decisions are made to benefit the shareholders or owners, while all other constituents take a back seat.  In Conscious Capitalism, leaders build a synergistic relationship among the stakeholders, and seek win-win-win-win solutions to any problem. 

Join YES this fall as we hear from successful businesses that are rooted in Conscious Capitalism.  This series begins with Interstate Batteries on August 21.

For more information on Conscious Capitalism, here are several resources:

• Two podcasts are available from McCuistion TV called “Conscious Capitalism: Liberating the Heroic Spirit of Business.”  You can find these informative videos at http://www.frtv.org/2013/11/conscious-capitalism-liberating-the-heroic-spirit-of-business-part-one/ and http://www.frtv.org/2013/11/conscious-capitalism-liberating-the-heroic-spirit-of-business-part-two/ Whitney Johns Martin of Texas Women Ventures, is featured in this segment.

• Visit the Conscious Capitalism, Inc. website for many resources: http://www.consciouscapitalism.org/

• Buy the book: Conscious Capitalism: Liberating the Heroic Spirit of Business by John Mackey, co-CEO, Whole Foods Market, and Raj Sisodia, professor of Global Business at Babson College.  http://www.amazon.com/Conscious-Capitalism-New-Preface-Authors/dp/1625271751/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1390342291&sr=1-1&keywords=conscious+capitalism

References:

Mackey, J., & Sisodia, R. (2013). Conscious capitalism: Liberating the heroic spirit of business. Boston, Mass: Harvard Business Review Press

The content of this blog was repurposed from Kristin Robertson’s original blog:  http://www.brioleadership.com/blog/conscious-capitalism-does-your-business-practice-it


Kristin Robertson
Board Member, YES