4 principles of a conscious business

In this very interesting interview with John Mackey , I learned about 4 principles of the conscious business:

# 1: Purpose. Minute 16 and minute 21

I need to breathe in order to live.  I need to create red blood cells in order to live, but that is not the purpose of my life to eat, to breathe, to create red blood cells.  I have a much more transcendent purpose in my life that gives my life meaning and value to it.  Business is no different.  A business has the potential for a higher and deeper purpose and that is the first principle of a conscious business.

When you work from a higher purpose you unleash greater degrees of commitment, greater degrees of loyalty and greater creativity in the workplace and that gives competitive advantage.

# 2: Stakeholder model. Minute 19 and minute 22

The 2nd principle is that there is a variety of stakeholders that are interdependent, that are connected together, customers, employees, suppliers, investors, communities—both local and larger communities—and then the larger environment that we’re part of. 

When you work from the stakeholder model, you understand that you’re trying to optimize the entire system.  You are able to do that in such a way as when you optimize the entire system you also optimize the value that you’re creating for the investors as well. 

# 3: Servant leadership. Minute 19

The 3rd principle of the conscious business is what we call a conscious leadership, or you might also think of it as servant leadership.

# 4: Culture. Minute 20

The 4th principle is that to realize these first three principles you have to create a culture, a conscious culture that has strategies, structures and processes that create a culture that optimizes the stakeholder model, fulfills the purpose and allows the conscious leadership to do their jobs.

At the end of the great interview, John Mackey talks about businesses that have strong innovation potential. He mentions, for example, healthcare, education, travel, and entertainment.