Conscious Capitalism. John Mackey
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Название: Conscious Capitalism
Автор: John Mackey
Издательство: Ingram
Жанр: Экономика
isbn: 9781422144220
isbn:
Higher Purpose
What are the two most important days of your life? Author Richard Leider asks this question of every audience he addresses. The first one is obvious: the day you were born. But the second is not so obvious. It is not the day you die; that is the end of the story, not a high point. It is not the day you graduate, get married, or have your first child—all significant milestones, of course, but not life defining for most. Richard’s answer: it is the day you realize why you were born.
Not everyone experiences that day; many of us don’t even know to ask the question. But for those who do, that day becomes a major fulcrum in their lives. Nothing is ever the same once you discover your true purpose, your calling. The complexion of daily life and of work changes. You are able to draw on reservoirs of energy and inspiration that you did not even know existed within you. Work becomes truly fulfilling, a source of satisfaction and joy.
One of the most successful books ever published is The Purpose Driven Life, by Arizona pastor Rick Warren. Since its publication in 2002, the book has sold tens of millions of copies. It has caught on in such a big way because it touched something very profound in people, a spiritual yearning and hunger for meaning and purpose in their lives. Meaning and purpose have always mattered to people, but they have taken on more urgent resonance with a growing proportion of us in the present times and will continue to grow in importance as society ages and we collectively become more conscious.
For companies, purpose matters because it energizes them and allows them to transcend the parochial concerns of individual stakeholders. When all stakeholders are aligned around a common higher purpose, they are less likely to care only about their immediate, narrowly defined self-interest. Having a higher purpose is the starting point of what it means to be a conscious business: being self-aware, recognizing what makes the company truly unique, and discovering how the company can best serve. Having a compelling purpose can also galvanize a company to strive for greatness. As Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com, says, “Choose a mission that is bigger than the company. The founder of Sony sets the mission for the company that they were going to make Japan known for quality.”1
Walter Robb, co-CEO of Whole Foods Market, speaks eloquently of our company’s purpose: “We are not so much retailers with a mission as missionaries who retail. The stores are our canvas upon which we can paint our deeper purpose of bringing whole foods and greater health to the world.”
Core values constitute the guiding principles the business uses to realize its purpose. Whole Foods Market’s core values succinctly express the purposes of the business—purposes that include making profits but also creating value for all of the major constituencies. Our business talks and walks our values; we share them with our constituency groups and invite feedback in the form of dialogs. The core values are these: selling the highest-quality natural and organic products available, satisfying and delighting our customers, supporting team member happiness and excellence, creating wealth through profits and growth, caring about our communities and the environment, creating ongoing win-win partnerships with our suppliers, and promoting the health of our stakeholders through healthy eating education.
CHAPTER 3
Purpose: The Corporation’s Search for Meaning
Voluntary exchange for mutual benefit creates the ethical foundation of business, and that is why business is ultimately justified to rightfully exist within a society. But what is its purpose? The cofounder of the medical devices company Medtronic, Earl Bakken, has long been a tireless evangelist for the company’s reason for existing: “The story of Medtronic is one of men and women who have dedicated their lives and careers to helping real people overcome pain and disability to lead more normal, happy lives. It’s a story I never tire of hearing or telling.” Bill George was CEO of Medtronic for ten years, during which time the medical technology company’s market capitalization grew from $1.1 billion to $60 billion. One of George’s first actions was to bring the inspirational cofounder back to the company. In a conversation with us, George recalled the power of rediscovering the company’s purpose:
Earl used to do these mission events for employees that were just wonderful. He talked for an hour and then gave the employees a bronze medallion with the symbol of the company—a person rising off the operating table and walking away to a full life. Medtronic’s philosophy under Earl had always been that we were not putting a pacemaker into someone’s body; we were restoring them to full life and health. After giving someone the medallion, he would say, “Your job here is not just to make money for the company; your job is to restore people to full life and health.” At every holiday party, we would hear from six patients about how a Medtronic defibrillator or a stent or a spinal surgery with a stimulator had changed their life. That’s what we all lived for. It was the backbone and the heart of the company.1
What Is Purpose?
Every conscious business has a higher purpose, which addresses fundamental questions such as: Why do we exist? Why do we need to exist? What is the contribution we want to make? Why is the world better because we are here? Would we be missed if we disappeared? A firm’s purpose is the glue that holds the organization together, the amniotic fluid that nourishes the life force of the organization. You can also think of it as a magnet that attracts the right people—the right team members, customers, suppliers, and investors—to the business and aligns them. No matter its specific intent (see the sidebar “Examples of Higher Purpose”), a compelling purpose reduces friction within the organization and its ecosystem because it gets everybody pointed in the same direction and moving together in harmony.
EXAMPLES OF HIGHER PURPOSE
Disney: To use our imaginations to bring happiness to millions.
Johnson & Johnson: To alleviate pain and suffering.
Southwest Airlines: To give people the freedom to fly.
Pivot Leadership: Better Leaders = Better World.
Charles Schwab: A relentless ally for the individual investor.
BMW: To enable people to experience the joy of driving.
Humane Society US: Celebrating animals, confronting cruelty.
American Red Cross: Enabling Americans to perform extraordinary acts in the face of emergencies.
An excellent guide for discovering or rediscovering your higher purpose is It’s Not What You Sell, It’s What You Stand For, by Roy Spence and Haley Rushing, cofounders of the Purpose Institute. As they put it, “What is a purpose? Simply put, it’s a definitive statement about the difference that you are trying to make. If you have a purpose and can articulate it with clarity and passion, everything makes sense, everything flows. You feel good about what you’re doing and clear about how to get there. The more constituents that you have the more important it is to have a simple and clearly defined purpose that everyone and everything can report up to and a set of Core Values that animates the way people interact with one another.”2
Purpose is most powerful when it taps into a “universal human truth.” In other words, it is fully aligned with the higher aspects of what it means to be human (or as Abraham Lincoln elegantly put it, with “the better angels of our nature”). Such a purpose has an uplifting moral quality, appealing to people’s highest ideals and motives and transcending СКАЧАТЬ