Last week I attended a forum on conscious capitalism sponsored by the local chapter of Flow Idealism. Conscious capitalism is a business management model that promises to provide value for a broader set of stakeholders. In doing so the model delivers greater return for investors.
Over the last few years the concept has been widely publicized by Whole Foods CEO John Mackey. I attended the founding Catalyzing Conscious Capitalism workshop held late last year in Austin. Mackey and other like-minded CEOs and entrepreneurs were part of the small collective numbering around 100. I certainly believe in the concept and its potential to solve many of our issues and current crisis through a better form of business. However, I have noticed that these events are predominantly attended by well off people. While they all seem to have good hearts and of course podiums to preach, the events lack they type of people who can deliver impact at the grass roots level. Where are the people living further down Maslow’s hierarchy? It would be nice to see a plan to engage these foot soldiers.
I sincerely hope we don’t see a new conscious business alliance. I fear this will become another list to join with little or no standards and therefore no meaning or impact. What’s mentioned at last week’s event? …Yep, a conscious business alliance. This will go the way of the “Designer’s Accord”… a marketing tool that delivers zero impact.
Back to last week’s event. I was particularly drawn to the dialogue of Bijoy Gaswami and Gary Hoover. They seemed to banter back and forth well with Bijoy providing a philosophical perspective founded in logic and Hoover in practice and experience. I hope to see both of them together on future panels. They helped me further understand the conscious model and how I might deploy it in my own small business.
If you have not heard of conscious capitalism or simply want to know more I strongly suggest reading John Mackey’s white paper on the subject:
http://www.flowidealism.org/2007/Downloads/Conscious-Capitalism_JM.pdf