When these conscious businesses authentically put purpose on par with profit, the evidence suggests that consumers in the market will respond well to what these businesses are attempting to do in furthering their social mission. Having their own innate desire to do good in the world, these consumers will tend to orient their purchasing decisions towards those firms who do work to further the particular causes that matter the most to them. In terms of the increased market value that accrues to firms which have this conscious orientation, shareholders more than ever are lining up to invest in these firms that produce higher returns for investors than do their non-conscious counterparts. In his book, Firms of Endearment: How World-Class Companies Profit from Passion and Purpose, Raj Sisodia outlines how publically traded companies that ascribe to the notions of conscious business have outperformed the S&P 500 by 14 times over a period of 15 years.
While some of these investors will no doubt just have dollar signs in their eyes, and align their money with the firms that are leading this movement, there are sure to be many others who see these investment opportunities as a way they can leverage the positive impact that they hope to make on society. As individuals, there is only so much that we can do to effect change in the areas that matter to us, but businesses have the advantage of being able to pool human and capital resources and apply them to produce more impactful outcomes for these causes. This is often something that those who are quick to criticise capitalism seem to forget, and even those firms who don’t yet subscribe to a conscious way of operating are able to effect great social change through the application of their collective effort. The difference between the change that these firms are able to create and the future that conscious firms are able to lead us towards concerns evolution, that is, making the world not only more prosperous for its inhabitants but also more harmonious and integrated in its functioning. Being the primary end of conscious capitalism, those firms who genuinely partake in it, don’t seek to use it as a means of becoming more profitable or bolstering their reputation/brand by virtue signalling on the popular political or cultural issues of the day.
Such is the purview of firms engaged in woke capitalism that seek to co-opt the fundamental virtues of the spirit that animates conscious capitalism for their own self-serving purposes. Lacking in the fundamental quality of integrity that gives legitimacy to an animating purpose (and not just a stated cause), these firms become hollow vessels for an ideology that favours the placating of aggrieved members of identity groups, or those who shout loudest on issues such as climate change over social media or during protests in the cities where their operations are located. This they do reactively out of fear of being cancelled and having millions of dollars wiped from their share price for any public backlash to result from their perceived indifference to causes such as Black Lives Matter, gender inequality or LGBTQIA+ rights.
Don’t get me wrong, climate change is happening, black lives do matter, and the fundamental rights of women and members of the LGBTQIA+ community should be respected, but nothing of lasting impact to the members of these groups or society in general, is accomplished by performatively posting a perfunctory message of solidarity on Twitter, throwing a sum of money at opportunistic non-profits like BLM (the organisation – which has some serious questions associated with its operations), or implementing a tokenistic Diversity, Equity and Inclusion program that undermines the dignity of those who are given positions for reasons other than their competence to do the work inherent in their nominated role. The insincerity associated with this pandering to wokeness is smelt a mile off by consumers who are turned off by the hypocritical moralizing that many of the firms engage in. Companies like Disney, Victoria’s Secret and Unilever have attracted attention recently for their incongruous ‘do as I say, not as I do’ mode of operating in this space.
What woke capitalism firms talk about, conscious capitalism firms are about. Because they are genuinely virtuous in their character and crystal clear on their reason for existing in society, they don’t need to virtue signal to the world to prove that they are good. Because they value people at the core of who they are (regardless of race, gender, religious or political persuasion, for example), and treat them with the dignity and fairness they deserve, they don’t have to involve themselves in identity politics or movements that are perverted by ideology and ulterior motives. Realizing the key role that the environment plays in their individual and our collective existence, they go beyond the façade of greenwashing to make their contribution to preserving and even enhancing the biosphere that surrounds them.
While no firm is perfect in its functioning, the virtuous purpose and service that guides the activity of conscious capitalism firms marks them out from woke capitalism firms, and makes them worthy of our emulation and support. As we evolve in consciousness at the spiritual level, we will come to see this more clearly and play our part, not only in procuring from these firms, but by intricately partaking in the rich network of social value that they create for the economic and communal stakeholders of the world.
Dr. L. Christian Duperouzel 