Conscious Capitalism

Keynote speaker John Mackey of Whole Foods Market discusses the higher purpose of business before a full house at the NACS Show.

October 14, 2015

LAS VEGAS – John Mackey, co-founder and co-CEO of Whole Foods Market, declared his bias immediately after taking the stage as the keynote speaker of Tuesday’s general session at the NACS Show: “I’m a fanatical capitalist,” he said, sharing that economic freedom and entrepreneurship is what make the United States a great country.

In the last 200 years, capitalism has enabled the world to achieve reductions in poverty—“We have been lifting humanity out of poverty,” he said—decreasing the rate of illiteracy globally and increasing the human lifespan. And business itself is fundamentally good because it creates value; far more value than all governments and nonprofits combined, Mackey said. Unlike government, business is ethical, attracts consumers and is based on a voluntary “trade” (exchange) of goods and services. Business is also noble, because it instills discipline in people to show up, be prudent and contribute to society. And lastly, it’s heroic as it lifts people out of poverty.

So if business is so great, why don’t people like it? Only Congress has a lower public opinion rating, Mackey shared, and polls by Gallup, Harris and Roper find that people generally mistrust businesses, saying that they are greedy, selfish, untrustworthy, don’t care about the environment and have too much influence on government. “The motives of business are very much misunderstood,” said Mackey.

But business has helped usher in many positive changes. Looking back, 150 years ago there was still slavery; 100 years ago women didn’t have the right to vote; 75 years ago most of the world was still in colonial empires; 55 years ago racism/segregation was strong, and there was no environmental consciousness; 35 years ago communism and socialism were the organizing political philosophies in over half of the world; 20 years ago there was no iPhone, Google, Facebook or Twitter. Today, Mackey stressed, people are smarter, more connected, informed and more educated than ever before in history, largely due to the rise of capitalism.

People today are also more conscious, stressed Mackey, claiming that we’re more awake, aware of our actions and have a sense of right from wrong.  We reject violence, have greater environmental awareness and also exhibit a greater commitment to the truth.

So with everything moving in a positive direction, and such great attributes going for people, what will it take for business to flourish? “To be successful in the future, companies will have to exemplify a more conscious way of being,” said Mackey, all of which leads to conscious capitalism. 

The four tenets of conscious capitalism, he explained, are: higher purpose, stakeholder integration, conscious leadership and conscious culture. “All professions have a higher purpose that relates to the public good,” said Mackey. “So why shouldn’t business?”

Great companies have great purposes, he said, citing companies such as Southwest, Google and Whole Foods, which create value and talk about it. But you cannot have a conscious business without conscious leadership, which is a top-down revolution beginning with the CEO. Mackey shared the qualities and virtues of an ideal leader, which include integrity, as well as being purpose-driven, emotionally intelligent (self-aware and empathetic), spiritually evolved (strong sense of purpose in life) and loving and caring. 

A conscious culture is the living, breathing heartbeat of an organization, Mackey stressed, “It’s the most valuable asset a company has.” Out of the seven characteristics of a conscious culture—trust, accountability, caring, transparency, integrity, loyalty and egalitarianism, caring is the one that America has shoved into the corporate closet. In workplaces where sports, war and Darwinism metaphors run rampant, there’s not a lot of room for love, said Mackey. He suggested that businesses spend a few minutes appreciating each other at the end of a meeting, which not only lends to a happier workplace but also shifts your own consciousness into a space of empathy and love.

“It matters how you make the money,” said Mackey.  But business is not a game, a machine, math equation or war. “It’s natural to us, we’re traders and have been since the beginning of time, he said. “Business is the about the real lives of real people. It’s one of the most human things we can do.”

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