Capitalism is considered the most successful economic model ever conceived. And contrary to popular opinion, capitalism is not about the wealthiest individuals in society — it is about the betterment of society. However, public distrust of capitalism is growing. Consumers, employees, and other stakeholders feel that businesses have neglected their interests while single-mindedly pursuing profits.
Conscious capitalism has emerged in response to these concerns. It represents a shift from business as usual to a new way of doing business. Conscious capitalism is both a philosophy and a business model.
It promotes a more complex, more encompassing form of capitalism that encourages awareness while pursuing profits. This means businesses should consider all the stakeholders involved, including those that cannot speak for themselves, such as the environment. At the forefront of these efforts is Conscious Capitalism, a nonprofit organization that brings together like-minded business owners to do things consciously.
Conscious Capitalism focuses on impact maximization by pursuing a higher purpose, conscious business culture, stakeholder orientation, and conscious leadership. These are the four pillars supporting the organization’s mission. The goal is not to limit capitalist powers but to inspire business leaders to aspire for more.
The principle of higher purpose encourages business leaders to view profit-making as a means to an end — impacting society positively — instead of as an end in itself. Recognizing that humanity has often taken a backseat in the quest for profit maximization, Conscious Capitalism encourages business leaders to positively impact society even as they pursue monetary gain.
Corporations are increasingly viewed as soulless capitalistic machines, solely concerned with the bottom line. Conscious Capitalism, through the principle of stakeholder orientation, encourages business leaders to pursue capitalist goals in a way that best reflects their stakeholders’ conditions and the state of the environment in which they operate.
Stakeholder orientation encourages business owners to create and optimize value with and for their stakeholders, instead of only taking value from them. This calls for optimizing value so that profit, people, and the planet have equal value in the eyes of business leaders.
Conscious capitalism emerged due to growing distrust between corporations and their stakeholders. Customers and employees felt that they were getting the short end of the stick. Meanwhile, environmental activists were lamenting the harm done to the planet by corporations. In response, Conscious Capitalism created the principle of conscious culture.
A conscious culture is entrenched in organizations’ business models, practices, and principles. Conscious Capitalism as an organization encourages a business culture in which business values reflect conscious capitalism, informing all decisions and fostering a culture of trust among all participants.
This is the major difference between conscious capitalism and corporate social responsibility. The latter treats social responsibility as a side project, while the former sees it as an ongoing process that is part and parcel of all corporate decisions.
It’s one thing to build and advocate for conscious business systems. Getting business leaders onboard is another thing altogether. Armed with this knowledge, Conscious Capitalism sees conscious leadership as the glue that holds the other three pillars together.
Without forward-looking leaders who understand that profit-making is a means to an end and that the people, planet, and profit are equal pursuits, it’s extremely hard to implement a conscious culture within a business. Conscious Capitalism strives to cultivate in business leaders a spirit of self-awareness in the hopes that such leaders will inspire other stakeholders to travel along the same path.
The overarching goal of Conscious Capitalism’s credo is to use business to elevate humanity, not diminish it. It’s not about pushing profit-making to the backseat in favor of socialism. Instead, it respects and builds on the foundation of traditional capitalism, promoting competition, free trade, entrepreneurship, and the rule of law — only in a more collaborative and compassionate manner.
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