 | John Mackey Co-Founder of Whole Foods - Conscious Capitalism Liberating the Heroic Spirit of Business |
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Want to increase the value of your company? Then elevate the values it conveys in the way it does business. That's the advice of John Mackey of Whole Foods Market fame. The health food store he and his girlfriend opened in 1978 has mushroomed into a world-beating, 343-outlet chain with annual revenue approaching $12 billion. Yet Mackey takes a salary of only $1. In this book, Whole Foods Market co-founder John Mackey and professor and Conscious Capitalism, Inc. co-founder Raj Sisodia argue for the inherent good of both business and capitalism. Featuring some of today’s best-known companies, they illustrate how these two forces can—and do—work most powerfully to create value for all stakeholders: including customers, employees, suppliers, investors, society, and the environment. These “Conscious Capitalism” companies include Whole Foods Market, Southwest Airlines, Costco, Google, Patagonia, The Container Store, UPS, and dozens of others. We know them; we buy their products or use their services. Now it’s time to better understand how these organizations use four specific tenets—higher purpose, stakeholder integration, conscious leadership, and conscious culture and management—to build strong businesses and help advance capitalism further toward realizing its highest potential. As leaders of the Conscious Capitalism movement, Mackey and Sisodia argue that aspiring leaders and business builders need to continue on this path of transformation—for the good of both business and society as a whole. At once a bold defense and reimagining of capitalism and a blueprint for a new system for doing business grounded in a more evolved ethical consciousness, this book provides a new lens for individuals and companies looking to build a more cooperative, humane, and positive future. Mackey, co-author of "Conscious Capitalism" with Rajendra Sisodia, has become an evangelist for transforming the quest for profit from a zero-sum game into a system in which everybody wins. The outspoken entrepreneur discusses the essentials of his vision for business: higher purpose, stakeholder integration, conscious culture and management, and conscious leadership. Companies must expand the scope of their loyalties beyond investors and customers, Mackey believes. That means all whom they touch -- employees, suppliers, society at large. The philosophy seems to work for Google and Starbucks as well as Whole Foods. "I have long believed that companies have a responsibility to balance profitability with a social conscience," writes Starbucks Chairman Howard Schultz, "yet few leaders have an inherent understanding of just how to do it. In 'Conscious Capitalism,' John Mackey and Raj Sisodia provide a timely, realistic framework so companies can better serve a variety of stakeholders. I highly recommend listening to what they have to say." John Mackey has led Whole Foods Market as it has grown from a single store in Austin, Texas, to a Fortune 300 company. While helping shoppers satisfy their food and lifestyle needs, Mackey has also created a more conscious way of doing business, founding programs to fight poverty in developing nations, help food producers expand, and encourage humane farm animal treatment. He has been named Ernst & Young's United States Entrepreneur of the Year, Institutional Investor magazine's Best CEO in America, and Barron's World's Best CEO, among other honors. For 15 years, Fortune has included Whole Foods Market on its list of the 100 Best Companies to Work For. A strong believer in free-market principles, Mackey co-founded the Conscious Capitalism movement to challenge business leaders to rethink their organizations' purposes and acknowledge their roles in the interdependent global marketplace. http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/blog/john-mackeys-blog http://www.amazon.com/Conscious-Capitalism-Liberating-Heroic-Business/dp/1422144208/gcaseorg http://consciouscapitalism.org/resources/538 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Mackey_%28businessman%29 SOURCE: Milken Institute, Amazon.com |
