Whole Foods’ John Mackey on Conscious Capitalism

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Whole Foods’ John Mackey on Conscious Capitalism
Businesses are good for society. This prevailing notion is founded upon the foundation that businesses help economies flourish by providing jobs, increasing tax dollars, creating growth in the form of more people and business. The economic impact businesses have on a society can be illustrated by the collapse of Detroit. Detroit filed for bankruptcy protection July 18, 2013 (Bomey, Snavely & Priddle, 2013). Detroit’s issues started with the automotive financial crisis in 2007. This coupled with globalization and outsourcing of work contributed to less employment opportunities causing people to look elsewhere for work. This cascaded into lost population, less tax dollars for social services and ultimately an insolvent situation forcing Detroit to file for bankruptcy protection.
Detroit’s downfall illustrates how important businesses are to the social well-being of communities. It also supports, successful stakeholder outcomes are tied to the interdependencies of the greater network (i.e. employees, business, shareholders, communities, investors and suppliers). The ebbs and flows of these relationships contribute to the overall conscious capitalism that exists through responsible business. These interdependencies are all related and constantly changing.
Yin and yang represents the philosophical concept of balance. The premise is the opposites (Yin and Yang) are dependent on the other, and they continuously transform from one into the other (Gui Su). This concept of balance holds true with business, people and economy. The tripod can only exist when the 3 are in balance. As change occurs within one element the other two elements will be influx. This is the constant ...

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...': Q&a with whole foods ceo john mackey. Forbes, Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/ashoka/2013/03/01/qa-with-whole-foods-ceo-john-mackey-about-conscious-capitalism/
Bomey, N., Snavely, B., & Priddle, A. (2013, December 3). Detroit becomes largest u.s. city to enter bankruptcy. USA Today. Retrieved from http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/12/03/detroit-bankruptcy-eligibility/3849833/
Gui Su, Q. (n.d.). The mandarin meaning of yin yang. Retrieved from http://mandarin.about.com/od/chineseculture/a/yin_yang.htm
Peng, M. (2014). Global strategy. (3rd ed.). Mason, OH: Cengage Learning.
Whole foods market reports first quarter results. (2013, February). Retrieved from http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/sites/default/files/media/Global/Company Info/PDFs/Q113financial.pdf
Yahoo finance. (2014, February 4). Retrieved from http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=WFM

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