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Why Conscious Capitalism Will Be The Future.
Why Conscious Capitalism Will Be The Future.
The profit motive, not government or charity, will create the kind of socially responsible world we want our kids and grand-kids to grow up in
Adapted from "Conscious Capitalism: Not Just Capitalist Pigs", originally published in BusinessWeek by G. Michael Maddock and Raphael Louis Viton.
Maybe if members of the social responsibility, green, or sustainable movements were to spend less time hectoring companies about climate change, worker exploitation, and the like, and more time pointing out the greater profits these businesses could produce by implementing socially responsible ideas, they would be more effective. If they recast the issue in terms of "and," as in "You can do X, which will increase earnings and by the way, contribute to the greater good," instead of "or," as in "You can do well or make money, but you can't do both," they would have to beat followers away with a stick. At its heart, social responsibility is an innovation challenge. These are the thoughts we came back with after attending the recent Catalyzing Conscious Capitalism conference in Austin, Tex. (see highlights here). Conscious capitalism is a new way of thinking about "social responsibility, being green, and/or sustainability," the idea that an organization (government, nonprofit, business) has an obligation to act not only in its own best interests but also in those of all its stakeholders (customers, employees, suppliers, investors, society, and the environment).