When companies start to struggle, some people hope that the idea of corporate social responsibility (CSR) can help CEOs understand themselves and learn to adapt, but too often that is engulfed by traditional ways of running a company. Better to look at how we can create an organisation which runs along entirely different lines.
There exists a model which can help. John Mackey, the founder of organic food retailer Whole Foods Market has promoted the idea of “Conscious Capitalism”. On one level it represents an ideal of benevolence and goodness, and has been the starting point for those wanting to build the idea of a conscious business, where values (and CSR guidelines) define business interactions and act as an antidote to greed, corruption and social irresponsibility.
The Conscious Business Institute defines Conscious Business here:
[It] is about people who are aware of the impact their habits and actions have on their organisation and their environment … Conscious Businesses require authentic leaders that do not exercise dominance and control to reach a goal, but who are of service to the business, its people, its customers and the community.
Beyond CSR
However, Mackey’s original book went deeper and further than just CSR. Conscious Capitalism was about being awake to the consequences of business action. It was about heightening awareness of how a company operates itself, as well as how it senses and responds to the external environment. Problems like those we have seen in the banking sector, and perhaps at the troubled retail giant Tesco, might be addressed with an approach that took this into account.
