🌏 💸🥇 Your dollar, your endorsement, your vote! So it makes sense to vote for companies that give back and align with what you stand for…
Remember that every dollar you spend with a company is an endorsement & a vote towards what they stand for!
To some extent every individual person has the power to influence change around them, collectively making a difference. It’s called democracy, yes every vote towards electing leaders counts. However, it may not always turn out how you wanted it to, but people often forget that each dollar also has the power to influence.
We all have a choice, and when we choose to spend our money, we are giving power to whatever or whoever that money is flowing into. We are voting for more of that thing to exist in the world.
Vote, consciously and deliberately, every single time you open your wallet.
So, reconsider your spending habits weather it’s on a personal, business, charity or government level, and make sure you or your organisation are voting to reflect what you or your organisation believes in.
How are you spending your money? How are you helping spend your company’s money?
Did you know.. the term ‘company shareholder’ changed when Milton Friedman redefined it to be a shareholder who invests their money into an organisation with an expectation of returns… when in fact a shareholder are any party helping that organisation exist, its employees, it’s customer, supplier, essentially the environment that surrounds that organisation.
Conscious Capitalism: A global movement elevating humanity through a business philosophy, and emerging economic system based around conscious business enterprises and people that choose to follow a business strategy, in which they seek to benefit both human beings and the environment.
The 4 key principles of conscious capitalism:
- Conscious leadership: Authentic leaders who are open, inspire loyalty and high performance. The kind of person people want to follow.
- Stakeholder Orientation: Conscious leaders know the value in bringing the entire ecosystem into account.
- Conscious Culture: A value based culture that also enforces how people act and perform aligned to the organisation’s values.
- Higher Purpose: Attracting talent with a higher purpose needs the company to have an inspiring purpose.
Businesses should exist for reasons beyond just making a profit. Conscious businesses value and care for EVERYONE in their ecosystem, motivating their stakeholders by creating “win-win-win” outcomes for all who are impacted by their business.
Conscious Leaders
The key to a successful conscious business are attributed to having Conscious Leaders focused on the company’s higher purpose, they support their people, bringing out the best in them to create value across the organisation’s stakeholders. They focus on “we,” rather than “me” and inspire positive transformation.
Conscious Leaders recognise the integral role of culture and purposefully cultivate a Conscious Culture of trust and care. Incorporating accountability, transparency, integrity, loyalty, egalitarianism, fairness, and personal growth, acting as an energising and unifying force that truly brings a conscious business to life.
The 4th Industrial Revolution(4IR) has a disruptive effect on leadership, a true shift is needed towards a “humane leadership” model, guided by an ethical moral compass. According to WEF, article on Humane leadership, this comprehensive approach based on trust & respect, ensures the successful transformation towards highly engaged & efficient operations. This emergent leadership model draws on social neuroscience & complexity theory, empirical research on employee engagement & organisational behaviour. Each level (1–5) is characterised by distinct mindsets & behaviour. Organisations can transform themselves from under-performing to high-performing, by reducing the old “command & control”-style leadership with a more participative ‘humane’ style.
CSR vs Conscious Business
It’s also easy to mistake Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) with Conscious Business. There is a difference as illustrated in the table below.
Organisational consciousness can be characterised into 7 levels according to the Barret Model. This model can be applied to all types of organisations, governments, corporations, NGOs, NFT etc..
When you choose to spend your money with these companies, you can trust that your purchase is going to an organisation committed to doing some good for the world. Here are some familiar brands to look out for..
- Whole Foods Market, John Mackey
- TATA. Nearly 74% of TCS is owned by Tata Sons, the holding company of all tata group companies. 67% of Tata Sons is owned by charitable funds.
- Bosch. 92% of Bosch is owned by a charitable foundation aimed to support social humanitarian causes.
- Patagonia
- Costco
- StarBucks
- AirBnb
- SingularityNET
- Unilever
- Amazon
- The Motley Fool
- Nordstrom
- Ben & Jerry’s
- Chobani, Hamdi Ulukaya
Further reading:
- Humane Leadership: WEF
- Conscious Capitalism: Liberating the Heroic Spirit of Business. Authors: John Mackey, Raj Sisodia, Bill George