Business As A Social Calling ... Part 3

Evening all, I've been working my way down from 30,000 feet ASL and approaching the ground with this particular thread. I think that it makes some sense to see if we can touch ground today. I think that the conversation began from a guiding principal I hold near the center of my personal philosophy, which guides a significant portion of my professional activity ...

We (i.e.: humans) are first and foremost social beings.

What this means to me largely centers around the idea that every action must be considered as a social action ... and also in relation to its social impact. This leads me to my second proposition ...

One of the greatest social institutions to have emerged in the entire history of humanity has been the institution of business.

And as a species we seem to be exquisite at formulating ways and means to conduct business in every quarter of the globe. These ways and means seem not to be able to be unwound from the political systems that contain them ... they seem inextricable from the larger systems within which they operate. The one system I've focused on -- and the one that most folks I interact with on both a local level in the community where I reside as well as on a non-local level internationally where I practice professionally -- has been capitalism. The single most defining characteristic of capitalism that jumps out from the background for most people who look into it would be the idea of private property ... ownership of property, including real propery, intellectual property, resources, capital ... many, many types of private property. One of capitalism's leading proponents, Nobel Prize winning economist Dr. Milton Friedman, states the the leading benefit of capitalism revolves around its ability to allow people to be Free To Choose. Essentially his position states that the less regulation and/or interference imposed on the market the better ... more growth, more progress, more success ... more freedom to choose. Of course this works equally well with my postings on Dr. Clare Graves starting with Thinking Through The Numbers and continuing with my Why Is Any Of This Important series on *zaadz. Dr. Graves position was simple ... Let People Be! ... sometime prefaced as follows ... "Dammit ... Let People Be!. So when we think about capitalism it might be fair to start with the idea that what capitalism strives for begins with creating a context of opportunity for people to pursue their interests and profit from them by creating value for—and with—others. The more successful capitalism becomes at some level the more value must be being created. When this value includes the aim to benefit the entire community that contains the business there will be a gain to the entire social system.

This represents the path beyond Conscious Capitalism ... acting with a sensitivity to the impact on the larger system while pursuing authentic fulfillment in providing value to the community beyond the business ... to a position I'll refer to as Social Capitalism ... where the action of the business organizes around delivering the greatest social good through the institution and practice of business.

The great advantage to this type of proposition ... i.e.: Social Capitalism includes the fact that it relies for its success on highly refined and proven methodology. Capitalism work wonderfully for what it does, and I propose the essential model can extend beyond the production of profit in purely economic/financial measures. The model can be used to produce any outcomes where people have a sense of a vested interest in the outcome ... personal ownership of an outcome vs. property. I'll venture to say that the new breed of entrepreneur ... a kind of social entrepreneur ... those who are demanding authentic fulfillment in their work, usually with an eye on the contribution they are making or wish to make ... are taping into a version of Social Capitalism, an emergent form of capitalism growing from the roots of the earlier forms of Conscious Capitalism that others began planting long ago. Well I wanted to touch ground ... and maybe I have, but just ... I promise we'll drop it down a level again next time and I'll spend some of my time typing out how I think one can become a full-fledge Social Capitalist ... building and using social influence, to build social capital ... to create positive social impact ... the essence of social ontology (my primary focus behind and before everything else). Until next time then ... Joseph Riggio, Social Ontologist Princeton, NJ