Conscious Capitalism is based on 4 tenets:

HIGHER PURPOSE

Businesses should exist for reasons beyond just making profit.
“We need red blood cells to live (the same way a business needs profits to live), but the purpose of life is more than to make red blood cells (the same way the purpose of business is more than simply to generate profits).” – R. Edward Freeman, Professor at University of Virginia, Darden School of Business.

Knowing WHY your business exists, provides you with a compass to find and stay focused on achieving your true north (Higher Purpose). For conscious businesses profit is a means to an end to fulfill their Higher Purpose.

STAKEHOLDER ORIENTATION

“When you tug at a single thing in nature, you find it attached to the rest of the world.” – John Muir, Pioneering naturalist.

Such is the case with business, which operates from an ecosystem of your employees, customers, suppliers, investors, society, and environment… sometimes this even includes your competition.

Conscious businesses value and care for everyone in their ecosystem, motivating their stakeholders by creating “win-win-win” outcomes for all, who are impacted by their business.

CONSCIOUS LEADERSHIP

Conscious businesses cannot exist without Conscious Leaders. Conscious Leaders focus on “we”, rather than “me”. Conscious Leaders have stopped trying to be the best in the world and have started to be the best for the world.

They inspire positive transformation and bring out the best in those around them. They keep the business focused on its Higher Purpose and support the people within the organization to create value for all of the organization’s stakeholders. They recognize the integral role of culture and purposefully cultivate a Conscious Culture of trust and care.

CONSCIOUS CULTURE

Culture is the embodied values, principles and practices underlying the social fabric of a business, signalling “how” business is done.

The culture of your business is its heartbeat. Without a healthy one, the business will ultimately fail. A Conscious Culture fosters love and care and builds trust between a company’s team members and its other stakeholders.

Conscious Culture also includes accountability, transparency, integrity, loyalty, egalitarianism, fairness, and personal growth, acting as an energizing and unifying force that truly brings a conscious business to life.

From the Conscious Capitalism Credo

We believe that business is good, because it creates value. It is ethical, because it is based on voluntary exchange. It is noble, because it can elevate our existence. And it is heroic, because it lifts people out of poverty and creates prosperity. Free enterprise capitalism is the most powerful system for social cooperation and human progress ever conceived. It is one of the most compelling ideas we humans have ever had. But we can aspire to even more when we practice Conscious Capitalism.

Find the full Credo here.