Conscious Capitalism Book Analysis

Dan McCartan

9/5/17

Marketing and Sustainability

Conscious Capitalism Book Analysis

        In this book, John Mackey and Raj Sisodia are making an argument for a way that business should be conducted. These two believe that business and the idea of capitalism are naturally good entities, and they can be used to better the world around us in the search for profit. The authors discuss some of the world’s most renowned companies and what they are doing specifically to create value for every shareholder. This not being just limited to customers and employees, but the society and environment as well. The CEO’s and upper management teams who take on the responsibilities of their company’s impact on both people and planet will see long-term success more often than their competitors. The book contains four main tenets that break this practice down into specific categories to be better understood; and they are higher purpose and core values, stakeholder integration, conscious leadership, and conscious culture and management. Each of these is equally important in becoming a truly conscious organization, and every stakeholder is going to need to accept this vision for it to work. This movement will begin to develop a sense of compassion and a desire to give back within the employees and management team, which leads to a company being successful in not only profits, but within their community as well.

        There are a few issues present when looking at this practice from a marketing perspective. The first problems come with the creation of this purpose or idea within the company. Getting everyone in the organization to make this social change is a difficult task, and there will be some that feel the focus should be elsewhere, on things such as profits or product development. Another problem that can arise during the initial process is that the framework for this style of business has been somewhat oversimplified, and it doesn’t consider real world complexities, making a truly conscious company a hard thing to produce.

        Now let’s say that this idea makes it past the creation stage and the company has begun to adopt it publically. There could be an issue with how the consumer receives this change, and they may assume that the true reason for your conscious changes is in search of monetary profit, and not to realize your organization’s impacts on the environment or your strides for change. There is also the concept that every business is different from the next, and it could be possible that not every company is fully able to adapt to this practice and are not be able to succeed as well as Apple, Google, Whole Foods, etc.

        I believe that this book and the ideas in it have a strong correlation to what we are discussing in class. Our main topic is sustainability, and its effects on marketing and business as a whole. The concept of being a “conscious company” embodies the very core concerns of sustainability within its framework. Mackey talks about how business is fundamentally a good and ethical concept, and that it should be used to help people instead of hurting them. That is a very small stepping stone on the path to sustainability. He also created a new rating system for how organic some foods may be, called “Responsibly Grown”, which instead of just labeling it as organic, it measures factors of energy conservation, waste reduction, and farmworker welfare. These concepts carry the primary values for what sustainability is all about, and what we can do to better the environment we are living in. Whole Foods, Mackey’s company, has also done things that relate to what we have been talking about in class as well. They once stopped selling a specific chocolate brand when they found concerns of child labor within their supply chain. They later partnered with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers to address problems of exploitation within the tomato pickers in Florida. Sustainability does not only concern energy conservation and the betterment of our planet, but the people living here as well. And though we hope that one day this is a universal practice, the conscious organizations of the world will handle the movement for now.

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