Book Take: "Conscious Capitalism"

Whole Foods Market takes up a large footprint in the Austin culture, so I've long been familiar with the founder's viewpoint on business as a robust social good rather than merely a necessary evil. John Mackey's new book (co-written by Raj Sisodia) presents business as good "because it creates value," ethical "because it is based on voluntary exchange," noble "because it can elevate our existence," and heroic "because it lifts people out of poverty and creates prosperity."

The authors know that their message is counterintuitive in a culture that has come to view business people as primarily motivated by profit at the expense of everything else. As Eaton Corporation CEO Sandy Cutler put it in an interview with the authors:

In a period of time when so many questions and doubts have emerged about major institutions and society, business has not done a particularly good job of telling its own story – not in the form of puffery, but really trying to help people understand the role of capital formation, how important it is to providing livelihoods for families, what business does for communities and for institutions like our schools and universities, and the role business has been helping solve so many societal problems. That is not the way so many people today think about business; they think of it as the source of societal problems. The great majority of companies are involved in doing pretty exciting work where people are having vital, exciting careers, earning a livelihood for their families and making a difference for their communities. That's a story that is worth telling.

"Conscious Capitalism" is, in part, about telling that story. It is also about guiding company leaders to provide the best social good a business can.

You can find some good summaries of the book online elsewhere. This brief post is simply meant as my personal takeaway from the book.

Most helpful to me was the explanation of how interdependent the various "stakeholders" are in the success of a business. The stakeholders include the customers, team members, investors, suppliers, communities, and environment (and then also the "outer circle" of stakeholders such as government entities). Mackey and Sisodia argue that the best businesses look for a win-win relationship between all stakeholders.

I confess that I grew weary of the "wooly" talk as the page count progressed. After days of reading of society's inevitable "evolution" to "higher levels" of "consciousness" as we each "integrate the masculine and feminine side of our persona," eventually I could no longer resist the singers in my head from belting, "This is the dawning of the age of Aquarius." One could say this is just how capitalism is spoken with an Austin accent. The Christian worldview of a fallen world in need of redemption, however, can provide a healthy caution against the view that society is inexorably moving into...into..."harmony and understanding, sympathy and trust abounding." (Oh "Hair," your songs were so catchy.)

Despite the wooly language, I hope the book is referenced often in the national conversation we're having about the rapidly-expanding role of government. To make a better world, progressives tend to place greater confidence in centralized government solutions and look with suspicion on free enterprise. But Mackey and Sisodia make a strong case for the tremendous energy of well-done capitalism to bring the social good we all want.

 

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