Have you heard of Conscious Capitalism? If so, how have you incorporated it into your organization?
To help business owners adopt principles from Conscious Capitalism, we asked consultants and business leaders this question for their best advice. From utilizing it to filter decisions to bringing compassion to work, there are several ways to start introducing Conscious Capitalism’s tenets to your company to help reach its highest potential.
Here are 10 ways to integrate Conscious Capitalism into your company:
- Utilize It to Filter Decisions
- Build Your Culture Around it
- Create a Conscious Business
- Support Conscious Capitalism Initiatives
- Get Your Team Involved
- Be an Advocate
- Find Common Threads With Your Ideals
- Help People Connect in Challenging Times
- Validate Your Values Against the Four Pillars
- Bring Compassion to Work
Utilize It to Filter Decisions
Conscious Capitalism is an important and timely business framework that revolves around four key tenets: (1) purpose beyond profit maximization only, (2) serving the needs of all stakeholders, not just shareholders, investors, and owners, (3) leaders who are committed to expanding their impact through deliberate horizontal and vertical development, and (4) organizational cultures that are inspired by their leaders and constantly working to create value and impact for those they serve.
At my company, our core purpose is to “bring people closer together,” and our guiding core value is, “we always choose the harder right over the easier wrong.” As an early-stage company, we know our path will not be linear, and that bright shiny objects will appear around every corner. We use our purpose and guiding core values to keep us focused on what matters, and we are constantly making decisions using them as our ultimate filter. We believe profit is the reward for creating value for our stakeholders.
Brian Mohr, anthym
Build Your Culture Around it
Our company is a commercial real estate brokerage that has fully embraced the Conscious Capitalism methodology. We believe that doing business the right way leads to success. As a company that has built its culture around some of the Conscious Capitalist ideals, we’ve demonstrated that you don’t have to be ruthless to win, even in a highly competitive industry.
Jonathan Keyser, Keyser
Create a Conscious Business
I heard about Conscious Capitalism a couple of weeks after starting my business. We provide conscious marketing for conscious businesses. I created my company on the basis of consciousness, so it was already aligned with Conscious Capitalism. Since then, I have been working to incorporate it further as my company continues to grow, have signed my company up as a catalyst organization, and have joined the volunteer team.
Curran Walia, Conscio Marketing
Support Conscious Capitalism Initiatives
I have been learning about the concept and incorporating it into my daily life by spending my money at organizations that support the effort. The foundation of my business is Conscious Capitalism — I give others the tools necessary to further themselves and their passions. I support nonprofits (and my competition) in doing the same.
Hillary Kuenn, HiConsulting Services
Get Your Team Involved
We’ve started incorporating it into our company culture via company-wide meetings where both myself and an outside expert (and investor) cover the basics through our presentations to, first and foremost, get a core understanding. The team loves the concept and wants more!
Eric Keosky-Smith, Hownd, Inc.
Be an Advocate
I have been practicing Conscious Capitalism in my coaching and consulting for over 30 years. When I came across the framework and organization about 4-5 years ago, I felt I found a soulmate, tribe, and community with which I could identify and belong. I am an advocate of its core pillars of practice and its holistic approach in working with enterprise leaders and their organizations.
Bob Ruotolo, Quantum Performance Institute
Find Common Threads With Your Ideals
I started hearing about Conscious Capitalism around the time I was learning more about benefit corporations around five years ago. The principles around stakeholders and fostering conscious culture matched up with ideas I employed in my business. The conscious capitalism community has helped me solidify my business framework and goals.
Becky Papp, Colman Group
Help People Connect in Challenging Times
Being successful in business is no longer just about making money. It’s about enacting changes that benefit society. Our snack delivery service was born in 2020 as a direct result of the global pandemic. As nobody was in their offices but instead quarantined at home, we knew the joy of giving (and getting) a stash of snacks would help people feel connected during the pandemic lockdown by bringing joy to one another in one of the simplest ways: food. And we made sure sharing that joy with family and friends is easy to do with just a few clicks. I love being an entrepreneur because it allows me to make a difference in my community and the world.
Shaunak Amin, SnackMagic
Validate Your Values Against the Four Pillars
Conscious Capitalism has four pillars that help guide a business: purpose, stakeholders, culture, and leadership. To truly incorporate Conscious Capitalism into a company, all four pillars need to come together to make things work. For us, validating our core values against all four pillars helps with the incorporation. For example, we offer full-time employees and leaders at our company a quarterly “values” bonus that assesses how well individual practices and live up to our core values. We’ve found that incorporating incentives not only validates the core values but helps us build the company we want to create.
Brett Farmiloe, Markitors
Bring Compassion to Work
Many entrepreneurs and startup founders are finding ways to incorporate Conscious Capitalism into their businesses. One way that I’ve chosen to embrace this attention to humanity through my company is by dealing with team members and customers alike with compassion and conviction. After the changes in our worldwide environment in 2020, it’s important to see the “human” side of things in business and to extend a little more empathy during this time. And, how great would it be if continued on as a regular practice?
Lindsay McCormick, Bite
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