Whole Foods founder John Mackey: Liberals are forcing companies to back their political agendaBy Carrie Sheffield
August 11, 2022
Whole Foods founder John Mackey is a well-known libertarian who is outspoken in defending free markets and capitalism. He also founded a business management movement called Conscious Capitalism. Now, as he’s set to retire next month, he regrets if Conscious Capitalism inadvertently pushed some companies toward bullying Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) trends.
Conscious Capitalism was created by Mackey and Babson College marketing professor Raj Sisodia. It includes an illuminating book and an annual conference of high-powered CEOs, entrepreneurs and policymakers. The premise behind Conscious Capitalism is that businesses should operate ethically while they pursue profits in a business that makes society better. Their four guiding principles include higher purpose, stakeholder orientation, conscious leadership, and conscious culture.
I recently spoke with Mackey at FreedomFest, an annual libertarian gathering in Las Vegas. By “conscious,” Mackey told me he means creating a positive work environment with a business objective that is good for society.
So in his case, Mackey says he created Whole Foods with the objective to nourish people with healthy food, which makes it an inherently aspirational business model. Mackey sold Whole Foods to Amazon in 2017, and he plans to retire on September 1 from the grocery chain he founded in 1980.
“It’s very hard to sell people on, ‘Hey, your job at Whole Foods is to make as much money for the shareholders as possible,’ ” he said. “That’s not aspirational, and every business has potential for a higher purpose besides maximizing profits. And that comes in because ultimately the purpose of business is to create value for customers — goods and services that other people want to buy. That’s the essence of business. And so the higher purpose of the business will come from that type of value creation.”
Mackey believes businesses should have a purpose beyond simply making money. Proponents of ESG rules would say the same thing. But Mackey says Conscious Capitalism is voluntary management practices, while ESG imposes forcible mandates on businesses that might not be best for the business. For example, ESG would impose green energy or gender or racial diversity mandates on board composition. But — according to Mackey — Conscious Capitalism would not mandate this because it might end up harming customers and the company’s higher purpose.
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Source:
https://nypost.com/2022/08/11/whole-foods-john-mackey-liberals-force-companies-to-back-their-agenda/
