Social Entrepreneurship : How Conscious Capitalism Is Changing Business

John Mackey, Cofounder and Co-CEO of Whole Market, Believes in "Conscious Capitalism" (pp. 29 & 30)

“Those of us alive today can choose to lead the most meaningful lives humans have ever led” is a famous quote from Lynne Twist. Today, our world and economy is thriving like never before. We live in a society that has incredible opportunities to change the world for the better. With the advancement in technology, knowledge, and resources, our economy in a place it has never seen before. According to Doug Levy’s presentation on Conscious Capitalism, Capitalism has been the major factor in ending poverty in our world. If current trends continue at the rate they do today, extreme poverty will be nearly eliminated over the next few decades. In the texts Conscious Capitalism by John Mackey and Raj Sisodia, The Art of Servant Leadership by Tony

According to John Mackey, Co Founder and Co-CEO of Whole Foods Market, “Conscious Capitalism”, refers to a business that serve the interest of all major stakeholders-customers, employees, investors, suppliers, the larger community and the environment (Mackey, 2011). Mackey acknowledges and shares the complex and comprehensive perspective of Conscious Capitalism (Mackey, 2011) Mackey terms this way of thinking “Conscious Business,” which he summarizes into four key principles: High Purpose, Stakeholder Interdependence, Conscious Leadership and Conscious Culture. According to Fox (2011), a conscious culture is needed within an organization to fulfill the higher purpose of the organization.

The following is an analysis of information gathered from an interview with John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods Market and coauthor of “Conscious Capitalism”. The objective of this analysis is to discuss the higher purpose of business. During the interview, Mackey offers his ideas on creating value for all stakeholders of an organization, not just the investors. Next, he explains how being more conscious in business will ultimately create a “win, win, win” scenario. Additionally, the differences between corporate social responsibility and conscious capitalism are clarified. This analysis will also describe the benefit of a balance between government regulations and the ideals of laissez faire business. Lastly, the following analysis will elaborate on the author’s suggestion that conscious businesses will outperform others in the 21st century.

Helm, B. (2013, April 12). WFM' John Mackey calls for a new kind of conscious capitalism . Retrieved January 17, 2016, from http://www.inc.com/burt-helm/john-mackey.html

By engaging with social causes in a variety of ways, a corporation can learn about new territories, product applications, cultures, and markets. Many companies seek to empower the poorest sector of the population, both at home and

According to Anderson (2015), organizations with no consciousness are outperformed by those companies who want to do business with some thought toward what is right and altruistic. Anderson (2015) identifies four key principles of Conscious Capitalism, which include:

Corporate social responsibility(CSR) is an obligation to make choices and take actions that will contribute to the welfare and interests of society, not just the organization. Many businesses are started to create a better world by helping to have more focus on the effect of environment on society than generating money. The idea includes Conscious Capitalism, Sustainability, and Benefit Corporation. Conscious capitalism is the organizational policies and practices which help in enhancing the success of a company and improve the economic and social conditions of the communities in which the company operates. The concept is developing strategies to embrace the philosophy. It gives higher preference to communities, employees,customers,and suppliers

The social venture to be created aims to help reduce recidivism rates within the Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) through the implementation of sports along with education and job readiness programs. The venture is based on the idea that if institutionalized juvenile delinquents were challenged and supported to enhance athletic abilities while developing job readiness skills and increasing educational attainment, more opportunities for success would be created for the young delinquents after incarceration and recidivism rates would decrease. This is that the social venture is unique by providing these individuals a backup plan if athletic careers do not surpass high school. It will help connect the juveniles with athletic programs and workplaces willing to accept their criminal

I’ve learned from this Book “Social Enterprise (An Introduction)” by Ken Stratford that sharing to your own community will help the community grow and by that means it will create humanity because helping people who are in need is caring because “sharing is caring” It will create a special bond to our brothers and sisters of the community and by that means we are getting more closer to God. And I learned that Social Enterprise is a way of giving back and sharing our blessing to others as I’ve said earlier. ‘Doing well by doing good’ makes us to have a fulfillment in life and at the same time having a purpose in life. Social Enterprise means that helping others to achieved their goals and as I read this book I learned that Social Enterprise has connection of “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a

Capitalism is the concept of which private corporations strive upon and expand their profits. This is the belief, which most Americans live by in the United States of America. The opportunity to make as much money as possible before their time runs out and gain enough pay to meet their goals and carry out their long term dreams. This philosophy is what makes company’s thrive everyday and sell their products and services to consumers in a competitive market. This is why capitalism is often referred

Is the deception of consumers worth making a profit? The Ford Pinto, popular car of the 1970s, made a profit off of a vehicle that endangered the lives of hundreds of people. In his essay “Pinto Madness” Mark Dowie, author and Pulitzer Prize nominee, exposed the unethical decisions made by Ford Motor Company. When it came to their customer’s safety and profit for the company, Ford made a decision that led to consequences their customers had to pay the price for. Should the business be held accountable for these actions? In his essay “The Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Its Profit” Milton Friedman, powerful economist, discusses what a business should prioritize in the economic system. Friedman declares what a business is responsible for and the guidelines they must follow. Due to Friedman’s view, he would not have condoned the actions and decisions that the executives at Ford Motor Company took.

Social entrepreneurship is gaining such strong interest in nonprofit world because of the economic challenges that have plagued this sector with cuts in philanthropic and government funding. According to Nash (2010) not only are there cuts, there are many organizations vying for the limited funding. Studies support, the attitudes in capitalistic America, and the ease of nonprofits to embrace this concept; evidenced by their ability to sell their once free services, to meet the demands of the consumer. According to the IRS (2010) nonprofits have increased their selling power on unrelated business income, to the tune of 184% increase, in a sixteen-year time frame. This writer, believes these numbers are evidence which support this trend is

Sustainable development is defined as “Development that meets the needs of the present generations without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (IISD, par. 1 ).

Social Entrepreneurship has been in our economy since historic times. They may not have been recognized properly with that term, social entrepreneurship, but what some other people from historical times had done can be considered as an action that pursue to solve social problems. Social Entrepreneurship had already been defined in several books, however, in the book, Social Entrepreneurship: What Everyone Needs to Know, social entrepreneurship had not only been defined but had also discussed the very origin of not just the term itself but as well as the actions that some people from historical times had done that can now be seen as a model or example of social entrepreneurship.