What Is Conscious Business?

In realizing that we have created an unsustainable system, stakeholder capitalism has made a come-back from the 1950’s and is making its rounds again amongst leadership circles. Stakeholder capitalism is a form of capitalism in which companies do not only optimize short-term profits for shareholders, but seek long term value creation, by taking into account the needs of all their stakeholders, including the society at large. It is the hope that concepts like stakeholder capitalism can create more conscious leaders and conscious businesses, that take a holistic systems-thinking approach to how they build their businesses and assess who and what their businesses impact – either directly, or inadvertently – and attempt to optimize for environmental and economic sustainability and positive social impact.