A successful business person

John Mackey

1. Biography
John Mackey is the Bill Gates of organic foods. John Mackey is co-founder and CEO
ofWhole Foods Market and co-founderof the Conscious Capitalism Movement. Whole
Foods is one of the top 12 supermarket companies in America and the world's largest
natural foods retail chain.He was born on August 15, 1953 in Houston, USA. He studied
philosophy and religion. When John realized that there he would not get the answers that
he was looking for, he left college. Mackey lived in a commune,with vegans, and worked
in a health food store. That was some kind of hippie life. In 1978, at the age of 25, John
borrowed $45,000 from his friends and familyto start his original health-food store called
Safer Way, in a garage in Austin, with hisgirlfriend Renee Lawson. At the time, Austin
had several small health food stores, but natural and organic foods had not
manyfollowers.He soon realized he would have to change something if he wanted to
reach prosperity.Two years later, in 1980, he and Renee teamed up with two other young
entrepreneurs to create Whole Foods Market, a 10,000 square foot store on Lamar
Boulevard in Austin. As one of the very first supermarket-style natural foods stores in the
country, the store progressed from its opening day. Mackey has also focused on
building a more conscious way of doing business. He was the visionary for the Whole
Planet Foundation to help end poverty in developing nations, the Local Producer Loan
Program to help local food producers expand their businesses, The Global Animal
Partnerships rating scale for humane farm animal treatment, and the Health Starts Here
initiative to promote health and wellness.

2. Personal characteristics of John Mackey that helped him build a successful career
Mackey says his business philosophy is to act with care and responsibility toward all of
the various stakeholder groups of the company and to operate Whole Foods Market with
social and environmental responsibility.He calls it conscious capitalism, a mode of
doing business that attempts to create value for all, including employees, customers,
community, shareholders. He always had the good will to make radical changes against
the conservative understanding of business and did not worry about doing the right
thing but about figuring out what that right thing was, thats what his friends had said
about him. Obviously he is the man who understands what the right thing to dois and to
take care of it. His understanding of the higher purpose of living, working and importance
of the conscious business got him to the top. He treats employees likefamily and the
outcome of suchattitude is a greater degree of commitment, greater degree of loyalty and
greater creativity in the workplace, whichprovides competitive advantage.He is a brave,
smart and open-minded man.The Whole Foods Market workplace is based on the ideals
of respect for the individual and self-empowerment. The fact is that almost 90% of his
employees have health insurance benefitsand thats not usual for health insurance inthe
USA.
The idea of Conscious Capitalism ruling the world gives us the best reflection of his
visionary, altruistic and philosophical spirit. As Mr. Mackey once said for Fast Company
magazine: "You see, Conscious Capitalism is a fairly new idea, but it's going to have a
huge impact. I do believe it will become the dominant paradigm of business in the 21st
century." I hope he is right.

3. Turning points in Mackeys career

In the early days of business developmentin 1978, John Mackeys first store Safer Way,
sold only organic vegan foods.Because of that,Mackey lost half of the money thathe had
raised.Thatcritical lessonmade him realize that,if he wanted to hit the big time,hehadto
shifthis focus from being Whole Foods Market, to a market that sellshealthy, organic,
no additives andno artificial colorsfoods for the general population,not only for vegans.
That was the most important turning point in Mackeyscareer that gave him a
tailwind.With a staff of only 19 people, 1980 was a time when SaferWay integrated
with Clarksville Natural Grocery, moved to a larger location, and changed its name to
Whole Foods Market.In 1984, a second Whole Foods Marketwas opened.It was the
first store in another city, in Houston and,in 1988, in New Orleans Whole Foods
Market became Whole Foods Company with six stores. Till today, John Mackey, cofounder and co-CEO of Whole Foods Market, has led the natural and organic grocer to a
$14 billion Fortune 500 company with more than 410 stores and 88,000 team members in
three countries.

The company has been included on Fortune magazines100 Best

Companies to Work For list for 18 consecutive years and ranked first in the food and
drug store industry as part of the magazines Most Admired Companies list in 2014.

4. Why I chose this particular business person

To me, John Mackay is a person who had the courage and energy to follow his dream of
doing something great and important for the wider community, not only for profit and
personal interests.I am fascinated by his commitment to life and his great spiritual
capacity. He seems to me likea hardworking man who hasa high degree of emotional
intelligence and a high degree of wisdom and honesty. These qualities are the jewels of
the human virtues, unfortunatelysomewhat outdatedat this time, especially in the business
world. Being aware of the higher purpose, public interest and the common good is
something that represents my ideal of existence and my motivation to work. I hope that
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the idea of Conscious Capitalism as a holistic view of businesswill conquer the world and
bring better living and working conditions for humanity all over the planet. As Mr.
Mackay said that the enterprise is an "adaptive and self-organizing system creating value
for its stakeholders. Leaders should be a servant to the enterprise, focusing on synergies,
not tradeoffs." Huge, bright, energetic ideas led that man from the first days of his career
till now.
5. Other
Mackay was one of the authors of the book Conscious Capitalism, Liberating the Heroic
Spirit of Business and also co-founder of the Conscious Capitalism Movement .The
Conscious Capitalism is based on four principles that is higher purpose, conscious
leadership, stakeholder orientation and conscious culture. Conscious businesses have to
be focused on their purpose beyond profit. As Mr. Mackay said Just as people cannot
live without eating, so a business cannot live without profits. But most people dont live
to eat, and neither must businesses live just to make profits. To have meaning and
purpose in life is a basic need of humanity. That activates and motivates us to get up
every morning, sustains us when times get hard.Conscious Leaders are focused rather on
we, than me. This kind of people can inspire and bring out the best in people around
them. Conscious Businessescreate and optimize value for all of their stakeholders,
including employees, customers, suppliers, sponsors, supportive communities and a lifesustaining ecosystem.Conscious Culture is an energizing and unifying force, which truly
brings Conscious Business to life.

6. Literature and websites

John Mackey & Raj Sisodia, Conscious Capitalism, Liberating the Heroic Spirit of
Business, Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation, 2014.

http://www.consciouscapitalism.org/

http://www.success.com/mobile/article/from-the-corner-office-johnmackey#sthash.hgz9CKzb.dpuf

http://media.wholefoodsmarket.com/history/