26 May 2010

First Explorations into Conscious Business: How to integrate Money and Meaning?

As I have hinted at in earlier posts I want to take this blog onto the next level: From social and doing-good business to 'conscious business'. This is a journey as I do not have a fixated definition of conscious business nor capitalism and even the Wikipedia description is more a starting point. You are invited to join and explore this emerging new field... (which I am considering to do my PhD in).

Let's start with excerpts from one of the very few articles that aim to bring together business and spiritual thinking. Brian Whetten writes in The Huffington Post about "What Does it Mean To Practice Conscious Capitalism?:

"When we open to spiritual reality, our experience is one of abundance. In contrast, modern economic theory is based on scarcity. One of the definitions of economics is "the social science of choice under scarcity." With this comes fear, denial, greed and addiction. There's a reason why economics is called the dismal science.

This does not mean that economics is wrong. What it means is that the world changes as we lift in consciousness. At the physical level, the world looks like it's based in scarcity, win/lose, either/or, and survival of the fittest. But as we're able to see things from a higher perspective, we realize that things are based in abundance, win/win, both/and, and love. ...


We all have a challenge integrating money and meaning, and it shows up in our lives and in society. Notice how we have two types of organizations, for-profit companies that focus primarily on money and non-profits that focus primarily on service. Relatively few groups do both at the same time, because conscious business requires learning how to embrace and heal the conflicts inside ourselves.

In other words, conscious business starts by recognizing that it can't be measured just by the mission of the organization. It also requires focusing on the consciousness of the members in the organization. In other words, it's not enough to focus just on what we do, it also requires focusing on how we are as we do it."

Read the full article here or visit Brian's website www.consciousbusinessnow.com

What an interesting start, thanks Brian. What do you think?