At the Inter.Mx Expansión Summit 2022 , the Futurologist, author of Beyond Knowledge, William E. Halal, presented the new business model that is currently being implemented in several companies around the world.
He referred to two central concepts, the first of them about the democratic company also known as “stakeholder capitalism” or conscious capitalism, this concept aims to involve all stakeholders in the activity of a company focusing on sustainability from a shared value creation perspective.
“I think this is a powerful, historic development. It is the first time that companies, at least in the United States, are going further. Beyond profit, beginning to include the interests of its employees, customers, suppliers, distributors and the public that each business focuses on. For me this could be a blessing. Good thing for business and can be a better way to earn more money. In fact, it could be a competitive advantage. So I don’t see it as giving up profit as such.” explained the professor emeritus of George Washington University, Washington DC
the age of consciousness
The second of them is the era of consciousness, a simple business change and historical development, which involves a change of consciousness to face the huge crises in which the world is caught. We cannot continue to run the world as we do to date. We are being ushered into a new age, the age of consciousness. We are living “beyond knowledge”, asserted the headline of the Halal book.
Living beyond knowledge means making important decisions, which are not being made on the basis of knowledge, but on emotions, values, beliefs and other types of subjective values. As we are living beyond knowledge, we need to develop a global consciousness to overcome these crises. And companies could deal with that mess by developing a kind of corporate democracy that would be a shift in economic consciousness and a part of the world’s consciousness.
50 years ago the social responsibility model was included, but it was not very successful. A lot of companies have done pretty well, but they failed to take over because they focused on responsibility, and no one wants more responsibility unless it brings some benefit. It was seen as a philanthropic act and companies have to compete in a market economy. So they have to do more than do good. They have to create value and be competitive, this leads us to the new model called “collaborative company” or “democratic company”.
This solves the inconveniences with the “problem center and social responsibility” model, because it includes all the interested parties as partners of the company. That’s why the arrows point in two directions, so that corporate management is in a position to integrate resources, knowledge, and stakeholder support into a more productive whole.
In this way , a social value is created as well as a kind of economic value , and thus everyone will benefit, including the administration of the company and the company itself, it becomes more competitive because they use the resources of investors to solve with strategies problems and help create values.
“Businessmen are treated as if they are greedy selfish, it is a terrible reputation inherited from 100 years ago focused only on money as a terrible deal. If we could really do this business people could become heroes, the leaders who bring all the stakeholders together and help them work together to generate greater productivity in the company making everyone benefit including the investors”, added Halal.
Employees, clients and government are part of the same system, they collaborate with each other to prevent unexpected crises and thus generate more money without risking so much.
“Citizen participation is essential today. Conflict is unavoidable. The only option is to dodge it or take advantage of it. There are different interests in a company as a socio-economic system. Today the responsibility of the bosses is to integrate those interests into something more productive and all of this is a great challenge, it is quite difficult but I think that this leads us to a new era in business”, assured William during his participation in Inter .Mx Expansion Summit 2022 .
Which companies have implemented this model?
Some companies that have implemented this system are: Skip Le Fauve Former President GM Saturn, Johnson & Johnson, Unilever, Best Buy, Starbucks, IKEA Netherlands, Black Rock, etc.
In conclusion, social institutions have to change and they are doing so but slowly, their need to become a collaborative or democratic company encourages them to be less bureaucratic and more entrepreneurial.
Mexicans have a great opportunity because in Mexico there are many resources for renewable energy and labor. According to William E. Halal we already have some experience in this scenario. So if Mexican businessmen and the country find the resources and leadership to move in that direction, “it would be fantastic.”
