Aim Higher: Elevating Your Business Through Stakeholder Capitalism

0:00 The topics and opinions expressed in the following show are solely those of the hosts and their guests and not those of W Forcy Radio. It's employees are affiliates. We make no recommendations or endorsements for radio show programs, services, or products mentioned on air or on our web. No liability explicit or implies shall be extended to W Forcy Radio or its employees are affiliates. Any questions or comments should be directed to those show hosts. Thank you for choosing W Forcy Radio. What's working on Purpose? Anyway? Each week we ponder the answer to this question. People ache for meaning and purpose at work, to contribute their talents passionately and know their lives really matter. They crave being part of an organization that inspires them and helps them grow into realizing their highest potential.

0:45 Business can be such a force for good in the world, elevating humanity. In our program, we provide guidance and inspiration to help usher in this world we all want working on Purpose. Now here's your host, Doctor Release Cortez. Welcome back to the Working and Purpose program, which I've been proudly able to bring you since February of twenty fifteen. Thanks for tuning in this week. Great to have you. I'm your host, Doctor at Last Cortez, joining your life from Dallas home base for me. If we have not met yet, you don't know me. I'm a management consultant specializing in meaning and purpose, organizational logo, therapist, speaker and author. My team and I at Last Cortez and Associates help companies to enliven and fortify their operations by articulating their purpose and building inspirational leaders and cultures activated by meeting and purpose to turn those companies from a flatline EKG to a vibrant destination workplace. There, people are intrinsically motivated to perform with their best, grown to their full potential, and are committed to stay and dynamically deliver on the company's mission. You can learn more about us and how we can work together at elist Cortez dot com.

1:48 Now getting in today's program we have with us Kent Bourgoi. He's the co founder of Stakeholder Business, where he's on a mission to help entrepreneurs transform their companies from maximum impact to all stakeholders. In consultancy work is known as the CEO to CEOs who focuses on a win win approach that delivers exponential value to all stakeholders. Today we're talking about stakeholder capitalism and the work he's doing to steward it. He joins it today from Corintha, Vermont, Kent. Welcome to working on Purpose. Great, it's nice to be here at least thinking it's wonderfully. Have you you know my fan of your work. We were just talking before we got on air that I was commenting on your LinkedIn post and I really appreciate about what you do. I am a fellow conscious capitalist. I know you're one of the first certified Conscious Capitalist consultants. So we've already got immediate alignment. But for our listeners and viewers who haven't had a chance to cross pass with you as I have, I want to start with your tagline on LinkedIn, which says unleashing the entrepreneurial spirit for good.

2:45 I love that. I'm an entrepreneur. I love that, and there is so much goodness in that. So can you share an example or even just kick us off with the story of how an entrepreneur spirit can be harnessed for such positive impact? Or have you seen it? You witnessed it. Yeah, we've definitely seen witness student. A couple of stories that I come to mind, though I think it might be really at go on one with ryand Orson, who as an ass younger and CEO of Interface for those of you who don't know, Interface are the tile carpet company out of Atlanta. And one of the things is he had this epiphany and from this epiphany he then started on a highst Jake's journey to become one hundred percent sustainable enterprise. He was well ahead of his time because he started as nineteen eighty nine and his leadership has become a model for companies around the globe. You might say Interface is leading its way in the area of sustainability on a global basis and has made a really great, what I would say, contribution to all carpet manufacturers and others who are using nylon in similar products. So that's a great example.

3:52 And there's one other that came to mind, and it's Big Bie Coffee. One of the things with Big Bi, Mike McFall and Bob Fish, they kind of found themselves in a difficult situation. They thought they had this really beautiful culture and they were really proud to talk about it and come to find out that isn't at all what their culture was. This was discovered about seven years ago and they stood in front of their employees and they actually read the feedback very very, very painful, but they read it exactly as it was presented, and they set out to reset their purpose to help employees create, to build this life in which they love. And from that point on Bigbie Coffee, they're about to celebrate their five hundred franchise. I think they're getting close. So they've seen tremendous growth. As a result, their employees are also thriving in their lives. Engagement is really high. Things continue to look up. Word for Thank you for sharing both the stories. I know, the first one which I want to get more into it just a little bit later in the conversation, but the first, the second conversation or story that you shared to me that really speaks to the power of what I call courageous communication. The ability to ask really tough question, serve it up in a way that you make it safe for these people to actually respond and listen to what they have to say. What a concept. Really applaud that story.

5:14 Thank you for sharing that that's a great way to kick off this conversation and anchor us in the spirit of what you're out to do. Now. Where we have to go next is to really peel back the layer to help understand why in the world, how did you find your way into conscious capitalism stakeholder business. You've been a consultant for as far as I can see, over thirty five years. Yeah, and I've been an entrepreneur in a CEO, leaping many many companies. So my relationship to business early on, literally from right out of the university. Which wasn't my first company, well, first one was a man factory and company at fourteen, at eight fourteen, Yeah, I certainly was learning a lot back then. It was successful, a story in and of itself, but still fairly young. One of my are just companies. I was still in it very much around you know, let's build this thing fast, let's scale it, let's do an exit.

6:06 In fact, I did all those things in record breaking time in four years, and I thought that was the game of business. While I had that company, though my father took me aside one day. He wasn't involved in the company, but he was witnessing me and he didn't like how I was showing up. I wasn't showing up as this caring and trusting kind of kind person that he knew I was spending money. There was no meaning behind it all, and he really felt that I lost my way, and that became sort of, what I would say, an impetus to start examining where did I go wrong? What should I be doing differently? You see, my father was ahead of his time. He himself was an extraordinary entrepreneur, and I started leaning in more to the things that he was sharing with me and engaging stakeholders more fully. Still at that point, I wouldn't call it a stakeholder driven model, that I was definitely heading down that path and trying not to make those really tough calls which would result in a trade off. So kind of fast forward. As I went through I worked with a lot of companies as well as leading my own companies. I said, there's got to be a better way to do this. I land in the audience at John Mackey at what would essentially be the Ethics Institute at Emory, and that began my introduction to conscious capitalism. A couple months later, I was the first conscious capitalism CEO Summit, and that began my journey. That was my tribe.

7:33 And as I went through this, my evolution to stakeholder business really evolved. Because what I loved about the conscious capitalism is all the theory and understanding the really strong tenants. I was looking for more about what are the methodologies, what are the frameworks to help bring this about, especially from a stakeholder perspective. So I studied that really deep. And so when I joined up with my co founders to watch stickhold their business, Okay, really quick, I just have to know what was the business that you started at age fourteen? It was called Velvet Manufacturing VLV hyphen it. I didn't actually develop the product. It was my uncles, my great uncles, and he had put it on the shelf. He had made his living with it. Never sold it, managed to get a royalty back to him three cents for every jar, and it was. It excelled at cleaning things from fine jewelry to glass.

8:33 You know. One of the interesting things about glass, people were using it on airplanes, boats and cars and bathroom mirrors. If glass is dirty, it's usually why it's a part of why it fogs up. It's not the only reason, but it holds that fog. When you would use velvet, you would never get the fog because it actually cleaned all residue off from it. So you could use it on yaw to use it on boats, you could use it on countertops, and in that company to have full manufacturing operations labeling. I was one of the first companies to actually have a UPC code, like crazy, like that's how long ago it was when I was thirteen. I was pretty young, and that was a long time ago. But one of the other things that was kind of neat about it is my father kind of put me out front. I had asked him, I said, okay, we got to sell this product. He brought me to his commercial bank or Marcy Harding. I knew her very well later in life.

9:24 And I went to Marcy and I had two cases of this and she agreed to put it on her desk and sell it on consignment. Well, sure enough she did. She introduced me to some other people. Company took off. In my weekends. I would demonstrated at Hill's Heart where it was just a fun story. Great way to know thirteen years old actually have a bona fide company that has all the makings, and while I couldn't own it because I was a miner, my parents had to. They were very much in a supportive role. They weren't leaving the company at all. That was my gig and made mistakes and learned along the way. Wow. Oh that's so wonderful. I love that. Okay, now there's going to be a lot of people listening or watching this particular episode. Kent, I don't know about conscious capitalism. I'm amazed to how many people. It's such a quite you know, great secret for so many people. So what I want to do next if we can. You talked about how your father pulled you aside and said, I'm not quite sure if I like how things are, how you're going in life, and who you're being. So I think it would be good to distinguish what you consider to be key qualities of a conscious capitalist leader or a stakeholder business leader. What what would be those that would distinguish them from someone else? Yeah, I'm going to tell you what mine were.

10:35 So it's kind of very personal for me, you know, digging in and really being that student, being authentic, always to be learning, and I have a growth mindset and I have to keep that very top of mind more right now. Like one of the things I am feverishly learning like most of us, is AI, but I'm taking it at a really deep level. So my learning can be also very on broad at times, or it can be very specific. Doing a lot on AI. Listening intently. I used to just say listen. I have My spouse does the Burkman and burkemn method, and in there, one of the things it says is you know how important it is for me to listen intently and to also honor other people to listen to them intently. So I've had that with me for a long time.

11:24 Being curious. I still practice with that all the time. One of the things that helped me with being curious, I went to retreat a couple different times in the past eighteen or some months, and we get to do things like, you know, play like childlike games again, and the childlike games in a way help me actually start thinking about curiosity in a new way. And then the last one is and I'm pretty well known for it, and it's amazing how often it comes up completely unsolicited. Care one of the words, and it is definitely I could call it a superpower for me is care, And I would say, you know, care and you've got to be, of course, a person who is trusting. You have to come across in all ways that people are going to trust you, because if they don't trust you, all of those things are out the door. So trust is a really big piece. But for me, those are the things I had to work on and do more of to really show up. Is that conscious leader? Well, you have already a countenance about you. There's that I would describe as your approachable there is it. There's an authenticity, sincerity about you that this probably all contributes to this thing of care that you're talking about. It's palpable, Kent. I know that you've probably been told this a million times, but it's very, very very palpable and evident with you.

12:48 Thank you, You're welcome. Okay, So now you've you've sort of served this up here, but I do want to hear what you're doing with conscious exue me with stakeholder business. I want to hear you know what's the business model. I know you're working with entrepreneurs I think maybe CEOs, but tell us about this work. Yeah, So the work that we're currently doing are always knows or with chief executives, and our notion is around business can and should benefit all of their stakeholders versus prioritizing or a single stakeholder. Right, So we're looking at optimizing and our core principles around this approach. One of the things is that the CEOs with who we were working with, we're really looking for greater connection with others who are doing this real, deep, meaningful work. So we created a society called the Stakeholder of Business Society, and in there, not only are we telling stories of people who are not in society, we also tell the stories of people who are in society.

13:45 There's amazing things that are going on. Back during a recent launch meeting of a cohort of CEOs coming in hearing their own stories, I knew all of the people. I didn't have a deeper relationship with them all. I knew a lot of the business stories, but to actually hear them talk about their purpose, talk about how they're using it not just within the business itself but outside the communities, one of their initiatives they're working on with great success, how they're using a stakeholder approach to do that. Frankly was one of the most rewarding moments in my life. I know that sounds unusual that it might have just happened to me as this moment, but it was just so rich and so amazing. So they want, you know, these stories to inspire they're already inspiring people, and to help them lead from perspective. We offer programs and training. We have masterclasses with people like Pete Stavros, who's managing partner at KKR. He's doing a really interesting one on ownership works and one of our Society numbers is one of the Ownership Works clients and it's a really large company, multi billion dollar company. We're beyond that session, so giving them that opportunity to really dig in and be very personal. It's not like a webinar. These are very personal experiences. They can dig in and receive the support. And then we do retreats and we do other formats, so the Society is kind of like the glue currently within stakeholder business. And then

15:20 we have opportunities to screen the film, share the fifteen lessons of Interface which are forthcoming, we have them. That's a really really big piece because they'll also have film clips with them. A lot of learning and all of that can take place with small enterprise mid as well as the largest public companies in the world in which we're engaged with. What a fantastic introduction, and I do want to hear more about You've mentioned Interface and some of that. I'm going to delve more into that after our breaking, but let's grab our first break. I am doctor Lee's Cortez. We've been on the air with Kent Gregoire. He's the co founder of Stakeholder Business, where he's on a mission to help entrepreneurs transform their companies for maximum impact to all stakeholders. We've been talking a bit about how he got into business himself, Founders Way to Conscious Capitalists and Stakeholder Business. After the break, we're going to douve more into the Beyond Zero film that showcases the Interface company, and he was talking about.

16:15 Stay with us. We'll be right back. Doctor Elise Cortez as a management consultant specializing and meaning and purpose. An inspirational speaker and author. She helps companies visioneer for a greater purpose among stakeholders and develop purpose inspired leadership and meaning infused cultures that elevate fulfillment, performance, and commitment within the workforce. To learn more or to invite a Lease to speak to your organization, please visit her at Elise Cortez dot com. Let's talk about how to get your employees working on purpose. This is working on Purpose with doctor Elise Cortez.

17:07 To reach our program today or to open a conversation with Elise, send an email to Elease Ali se at Elise Cortez dot com. Now back to working on Purpose. Thank you danying with us, and welcome back to working on Purpose. I'm your host, doctor Elise Cortez, as I too, am dedicated to helping create a world where people realize their potential at work and are led by inspirational leaders that help them find and contribute their greatness, and we do business at better as the world. I continue to write my own books and so one of my latest books came out in March of twenty twenty three. It's called The Great Revitalization, How activating meaning and Purpose can radically enlignent your business, and it's designed to help leaders understand today's workforce and what they actually want and give them about twenty one best practices to equip them provide that through their leadership and their culture, and you can learn more about my books at least Cortes dot com and find them on Amazon. Now, if you're just joining us the program joining overgram now we have with us Kent Greg war He is the co founder of Stakeholder Business, and we've been talking about a bit about that business. I want to delve more into that. So you mentioned just before the break that and one of the things that you're doing in your work at Stakeholder Business is teaching. Would you say fifteen principles that Interface uses is out what you said, Yeah, there are fifteen key lessons that have been identified with Interface, and that's in collaboration with executives in Interface.

18:29 So it's not just the film, but it's a much larger body of work, and they're not the things that we traditionally here in business school or we're hearing you at meetings where CEO's attend. These are lessons that frankly are quite surprising, but they did lead to the great success that Interface has had in our environmental sustainability. Can you just name one for example to start, just to give us some keys. Are one of the ones that all seems to get a kind of a surprise it's actually one of the first ones. It's easier to explain. And that is one of the things that was really important Ray when sort of this mad sustainability came out, is that he absolutely for made marketing to ever talk about what they were doing. And the reason he did that is because he wanted to make sure that the company showed up full authentic way, that the company was showing up, and that the measurement of their success would be being noticed. It would be are they actually doing this work? Other people start talking about them, and we certainly have heard to some notion that goes much much deeper and the lesson that goes on for hours.

19:37 But I think it is an important one because so often people will say, oh, this is great, I can start doing this. Now, how am I going to go tell everybody that I'm doing it? And my question is why is it important? I'm not saying that's a right or wrong. I just simply said why is that important to you? And get them to think it through and determine is that what they want to do or do they really want their own stakeholders to start discuss opering that things in fact aren't very special and very different about their organization. Thank you for sharing. That's beautiful. Okay, So now what I want to do is I do want to talk about the Beyond Zero filming. I As I mentioned, I'm on the board of Conscious Capitalism here in Dallas, and we featured that film in February of twenty twenty two for our members and our guests and it was really it's so beautifully done. And I know you were a part of making that film. So maybe at this time would you say a little bit about how did that film come to be? What was your role in it? Yeah, so the film came to be. Nathan Hady read one of Ray Anderson's early books, and he's the writer and director of the film. He was really really maybe I was a called. He was called after he read that book and said, you know what, I need to leave the work he was doing on Capitol Hill. There's a better way to actually change the world, to create a world that works for everyone. And he realized it was going to be through capitalism. And Ray became his sort of is you know, his hope in the person that he looked up to and studied through various different things. It became possible for him to actually get collection of all of

21:11 those assets since the late eighties, which include film footage and all kinds of materials, not just a braid, but other members of the organization, interview people, and so he was given full launch, a carte launch to interface. There was no holdback, and there was a lot of willingness. They had no stake in this, money in it, no nothing, and they still they still have nothing. You know, this was a film that they allowed Nathan to do. It's a huge gift to him, and you know he's the one who deserves all the credit board. The film was actually not final. I got involved in starting to look at what is this going to shape up like and giving a lot of contribution and studying it, but that was my I came a little bit later in that process. But it's pretty phenomenal as I as I think back, he's in the film has one various different festivals, some of which were intentionally entered, some just happened, and certainly he knew they were happening and he released the film. But I'd say the one that was really pretty amazing a couple of months ago to be at the Cannes Film Festival, to be invited into screen the film certainly had a lot to say about the film. I got to go back to what you first said as you were talking about this, Kent. I knew this about hard because he mentioned this when he was here in Dallas for that filming, that he had left Capitol Hill, he was had or he had a full career in politics and government go in to pursue business. In this show, part of our tagline is business can be such a force for good in the

22:41 world, and I think that is a beautiful expression of that. And of course the work that you're doing through stakeholder business is really helping to fortify that. So where I want to go next is there. I'm amazed that you know, I do probably I guess I'd probably talked to a lot of people that are more like you then not like you. So when I hear a descent about this idea of, you know, a stakeholder focus is ridiculous. It's you know, untenable, and that's not what capitalism is, et cetera. I just doesn't make any sense to me. So could you kind of want to help us understand why do people have such an aversion to the idea of stakeholder capitalism the whole perspective of that. And if you're also seeing maybe if you're seeing maybe a move away from those staunch disagree ers or they're still really out there and force. Well, one of the things I am noticing is that the people who were disagreeing when they have their you know, particularly large platform voice, and it's become more a political what I would say, you know, we're certainly seeing ESG and another. And what we what we've seen is that really many companies are starting to jump on board. You're curious or I think that those that are curious and they're starting to do something people are wanting to learn, they're wanting to die in and why do they want to do that? And one of the reasons we tell stories, and the stories are like beyond zero of interface. We're chronicling what's happening. We're not showing a trophy moment. How did this actually play out in this organization?

24:11 What worked well? What didn't work well? Where did they invest ten million dollars? There was a bomb, you know, and it took five years later, but wow, it was such a huge payoff, right, And how did they get to that point? What were the learning so when people really kind of are you know, like I'm just not sure or yeah, that's just not for me. These people over here are saying, you know, it's going to destroy us. What I say is, know what, perhaps not, because companies that are following it, their performance seems to be better, actually their profits are better. One of the things that happens when you work on environmental sustainability is that it helps organizations discover inefficiencies, which in turn helps them become more effective, certainly more efficient, more effective. And that's all because it's driving in a and so the organizations do a lot to drive innovation, and innovation, as we know, isn't going to be just around environmental sustainability. It can be innovation in a broader sense. And today who doesn't like innovation. It also helps with employee engagement, retention, talent.

25:15 You know, younger population certainly isn't saying that we won't work for a company unless they're doing something, but they're definitely giving strong cues that they want to work for a company whose brand is attractive to most people. And so if we talk about North America today, you know, everybody, everything shows people want to see companies doing good. They want to see environmental improvements, they want to see improvements in society. And I think another one anything something that's showing up very strong is that people want to feel that the work that they're doing has a meaning, and that the meaning of that has a much bigger purpose. What are the worthy problem that they're trying to solve? Sure that ends up being a results in brand reputation, and I'd say more companies are starting to ask themselves the question, what if I don't do this, will I be left behind? Yes? I can be certain they will be left behind. I think that has more to do with certain industries where a company may be in its growth stage, but eventually it'll be left behind.

26:30 Because frankly, it's a huge benefit to actually be a shareholder business. There's just so many benefits. Forget the financial benefits, there are also so many other benefits. So I think people will begin to see that stakeholder business, stakeholder capitalism, conscious capitalism is actually the future. But we're here today. We need to start learning and digging in and starting to respond. Well. You know, there's obviously incredible alignment here between what you're doing and what I'm doing, and with with culture and leadership as well. And you know, when you start, really if you look at your business from the vantage point of and and really look at all of your stakeholder communities, right, and you start to look at one how can you better unify them around you know, your your purpose so that they're they're really enrolled. But too looking at the vitality of those communities you need each other. And what I want to share, you know, just for our listeners and viewers, is just one simple example I had on several years ago whenever one was doctor Kerry Israel and he I think spent ten years presiding over I think it was Colin County Community Colleges here in the in the Dallas Fort Worth area, and he said, one of the things that he first did when he when he took the role that got him into a lot of hot water is he discovered that most of the staff, most of the teaching staff, had at least one part time job to survive. And he said, you know, gosh, we are expecting our teachers to teach our students and they can't even make ends meet with

28:04 what we're paying them. They have to get another job. Something isn't right here. And he increased all of their pay and of course you can imagine the backlash that he got from that, But it's a perfect example of Gosh, if the mission is to educate our community, and the people that we rely on to do that, you know, don't have their full attention on the ball, how are we actually executing them? Perfect example in them? Yeah, really important. Well, certainly we're seeing more and more organizations making sure that they're paying a loving weights. You're not trying to figure out what little amount they can pay, what one amount needs to be paid, And so I'm speaking of companies that have very large base of hourly employees, and so you know, it is the notion of helping employees live a life in which they love. But certainly it's pretty hard to love your life if you can't pay your bills and you're having to work multiple jobs and the kind of stress. I always say when that happens. As an employer, than that means your employees primary job is not the one in which you hire them for.

29:04 So get on board. Let's make sure those employees are paid well and continue to support them in growing and elevating them in their life. Doesn't doing for them? I mean setting things up to create that really strong culture. Okay, now that we've served up you know the potential of this here, what is stakeholder business really look like? Now? Of course I have to ask you if you've got an example of someone that you've worked with or known a business who's really done well at striving to meet the diverse needs of their stakeholder community or serve it or elevate it. Yeah, well, I think yeah, there's several great examples. I want to go back to Bigbie Coffee.

29:45 There's something at Bigbie's done that I think is actually pretty extraordinary. And so if I looked at the business problem that they were faced with, is that we're going to see coffee as commodity. We're going to see that the supply of it is starting to shrink. We also have a lot of environmental concerns around it, and certainly you know how it's grown, et cetera. But there's also has been traditionally this middleman in between, with a lot of profits being taken so that the farmers don't have enough money to do what they really need just to be able to produce coffee, let alone and pay people living wage. So what they've done is actually work really really hard, and being on a lot of a lot of different locations around the world, is to visit these farmers and find the coffee farmers that meet certain requirements, certainly environmental, but meet a lot of different requirements, and then to partner with that farmer. Farmers there as a source, and they're going to source all the coffee from that farmer. They know the farmers names, they know the growers names, they know everybody in the field. It's a name and it's a face, and it's a place. And to be able to bring that coffee on into Bigbie Coffee. And every package of coffee I have some you know, has the story on it. But what becomes really important about that is Bigbie Coffee gets their coffee. And now it's coming. It's not just fair trade, it's so much beyond fair trade. And the farmers are now

31:18 not only able to pay their people well, but they're able to do more in their community, so their communities are thriving. It's now a vibrant business. So they now farmers have a sustainable business model in Big Big Coffee has improved its sustainability of its business model and it's a real win win. That's so beautiful. So I just want to come up with that really quick and we'll grab our next break. So for me, Kent, why I keep at this is because I look at the through the lens that we have one precious life and we don't know when the exit ramp is coming. And because I work through the lens also a purpose and meaning purposes about urgency. There's a there's a something about you we don't get forever. So it gives us a sense of urgency too to fulfill that purpose while we're here. And what you've just shared with me is in us is a great example of just how beautiful you can be as a business owner or someone in an organization to be part of elevating the lives of people among the whole stakeholder community or maybe even around the world. And I think that is a fantastic use of a one precious life. Yeah, it's amazing, and it's really been amazing to walk, to talk, to go through these two very significant what I call transformations, and that was all let by Nathan Hay and call leagues working them.

32:37 So their stories are very very real to me and and you know, it's kind of making the future, and you might see some films about some of that. I'm in, I'm in, Okay, what that. Let's let our let's let our listeners of viewers think about what we were just talking about there, about the beauty, the potential beauty of being in business and expressing yourself through it. I'm your host, doctor at Least Cortez. We've got the earth Kent Gregor. He's the co founder of Stakeholder Business, where he's on a mission to help entrepreneurs transform their companies from maximum impact to all stakeholders. See what this will be right back. Doctor Elise Cortez is a management consultant specializing and meaning and purpose. An inspirational speaker and author, she helps companies visioneer for greater purpose among stakeholders and develop purpose inspired leadership and meaning infused cultures that elevate fulfillment, performance, and commitment within the workforce. To learn more or to invite a lease to speak to your organization, please visit her at Elise Cortez dot com. Let's talk about how to get your employees working on purpose. This is working on purpose with doctor Elise Cortez. To read our program today or to open a conversation with Elise. Send an email to a lease a l I se at Elise Cortez dot com. Now back to

34:08 working on purpose. Thanks for saying what does it Welcome back to working on Purpose. I'm your host, doctor Elise Cortez. As I mentioned in the last break about my latest book, The Great Revitalization. With that, I have created an assessment that's on my website if you can. If you can go to Elise Corte dot com on the help tab how we Help, you can actually download that three page assessment and see how your practices are are faring for today's workforce. If you're just now joiningus. My guest is Kent greg war He's the co founder of Stakeholder Business. So okay, from here we have to go into this whole notion of the long or guest related to the right way to say it is the short game of business today is today's business world is played in a short game. Some time ago, I think it was probably five years ago, I had on Greg On from Fortune Advisors and he's written a whole book about the long game of business for for a you know, a better outcome, and it's really really quite quite quite amazing.

35:09 So I would love it if you can kind of talk about, you know, here we are in a world room by these short term results, how can leaders encourage their their teams to adopt a more longer term perspective that aligns with a conscious business mindset. Yeah, so, you know, it's it's certainly a big, big challenge. And yet at the same time, I think one of the notions is we have to be patient, right, and but Wall Street says we can't be patient, can't come on, hold on. I think one of those big challenges is, you know, when public companies we have Wall Street and things, you see earnings, you know, a quarter overcords thing. We're a private company, you know, it can be all over the board. Private company might be that the exit, that's what they're they're working for. Like you know, one of my early company shall grow the thing, scale it and exit and you know, walk away with a big amount of money. And if that's the case, then it's it's going to be difficult, right, It's it's not going to un fifth.

36:09 I'd say more it's about helping employees and helping all the stakeholders understand that you know, a stakeholder business it is a longer term play. But when a storm arise arrives, like COVID as an example, we all certainly having forgotten, it is still very much here and when it arrived. Those companies that took a longer term approach to building their organization were frequently the ones who actually did quite well during the pandemic. I know of one company in South Florida at five locations. They're in swimming seven thousand student go through the program every single week. All the things that they did because they took this long term approach. It wasn't like, oh, me now met to entirely new game plan. It was being who they are. They had to make some adjustments. But in those adjustments, after about three months, all the employees came back. They didn't lose employees because they were really understood the long game, how to be a part of it, how they were treated before, during and continuously. So I think that's a really big one. One of the things I think that a huge testament is really Rayanderson. His whole thing was around reducing their environmental impact, and he very well knew it was a long game, it was going to take some time, but he was also going to have some really great innovation along the way it would reduce their cost.

37:42 So getting employees involved in solving these problems and being willing to be more creative share their ideas to help move this innovation forward is what they're looking for because it creates this meaning and their work and helps them reshape their business in the world in which we live. So getting employees involved when they can see that the work they're doing is actually connecting to something larger, makes it worthwhile. That's it's probably my jam Kent. I'm right there with you, and you know, as I you heard me say at the very beginning of this the show when I was introducing it. It's been on air for eight and a half years, so I think your episode four hundred and forty seven, and you know the surround sound that I'm hearing from because I usually bring on you know, thought leaders like yourself, business practitioners and authors, and the surround sound is absolutely get everybody involved in solving the problem. You need all these minds, activate all these hearts and minds, not just a few leaders at the top and everyone else is expected to just fall in line with what they say. We need everybody contributing to the innovation, to the problem solving, and one it's just much more meaningful for them too. And two in today's very complex world, we need to activate all those minds and hearts.

38:54 Yeah, I think that's something that activating the minds and hearts helping CEO's helping leaders understand that stakeholder business is really an amazing gift. When we really understand our stakeholders, we ask them what their needs are, we start partnering with them. That's one of the things I learned from my dad. Even though I got off path when I was ten, he always had gift holds pneering table and was trying to figure out how to help them and help them grow their business. And my father didn't do it. It wasn't like a one to one ratio. He was really vested in them. And I think that when business leaders, more of them, begin to see how the stakeholders are actually a big part of the fuel of our success, we're going to see a much faster adoption. We're going to get to what we say in our business is a sixteen percent tipping point is what we're measuring, and when we receive us sixteen percent tipping point of companies with a billion or more dollars in revenues. That's we're pinning it as to have mass numbers of employees as well.

40:02 When sixteen percent of those companies are following stakeholder business stakeholder capitalism, we will know that the world is changing, certainly North America and Mexico changing. But it is incredibly exciting, Kent, incredibly exciting to me. And what you were talking about before, they're kind of reminding me of the notion that I knew that I wanted to ask you about this, and it's the relationship between profitability and ethics, which can be really, really really sticky, And I'd love for you to just to kind of comment on your perspective of you know, those two worlds and what you've learned, observed or maybe seen in your work with stakeholder business in that realm. Yeah. Well, the first thing I want to say, just as a general comment, when ethics, and you know, ethics is a very you know, we can all say we're ethical, right, but ethics also requires a lot of testing. Others are involved to help keep us true ethics because it's it's very complex to me when we operate an organizational ethics. Frankly, it becomes a lot easier.

41:08 Key stories that we tell ourselves and tell other people are not helping us and we think they are, and we're doing it when it's not. It's very mainfulative. So I would say between profitability and ethics, we don't think of maybe a couple of different examples. The company I know fairly well ironically, they actually one of my companies on the lake in Burlington, on Lake Champlaine in Burlington no longer there, moved to a different location, but Seventh Generation took it over and that was originally where they started. And Seventh Generation a very mission driven organizationalists acquired by Uni Leaver an Inni Leaver now for several kind of company that you know Seventh Generation wants to sell to. That's a huge badge of honor. And they had an amazing, really a fantastic exit monetarily as well as everything else. And I would say it is really predicated upon their customer loyalty, and customer loyalty doesn't exist when there isn't strong ethical behavior by the corporation. I lean Fisher is another. She's commitment to long term sustainability, and it is in fashion. I'd say her customers are very cult like, so again it comes back to customers. But the decisions that they make from an ethical point of view is really difficult to manage because when you think about sustainability and you think about garments, there's a lot of complexity there.

42:37 And of course we all we all know the story of Patagonia. You know, they like to push the envelope. You know, they're very vocal. They that environmental advocate that we've all needed, and they're absolutely committed to the cause. You know, planet is first and everything that they do, and they're quite overt and even sometimes play a little bit of a challenge with even their own products. They'll put it out there and say, maybe you really shouldn't buy this product, maybe you need to hold us to a higher standard. And to me, that's really putting up front, to put to the forefront some ethical considerations. Beautifully share. Oh, that was just gorgeous. We could we could have a whole of the set of shows just on that. In the beginning of our conversation, you mentioned Kent that you were focused on or you were working a lot with AI, and I wanted to definitely ask you, we all understand how technology is completely changing the business landscape, especially even just recently with some of the AI introductions. Interested to hear your perspective on how you see technological advancements influencing trajectory of conscious capitalism and stakeholder driven practices. Yeah, well, definitely get the AI one of the things, certainly are very well aware of social media and it's playing in open moor and all of the other places in which consumers, employees, and other stakeholders can contribute how they feel about a product, your service, and how they feel about the company, how do they feel about working there, whatever it may be. And so we're going to we're going to continue to see that

44:08 at a higher level. We've also seen examples where you know, somebody did something and it literally just crashed their business. A leader, a dentist misbehaves and the next thing he knows is patients aren't there anymore. They're not going to tolerate it. So, you know, kind of going back to ethics and going back to kind of the transparency of doing good. Companies that are not doing good definitely, you know what are harmed. At the same time, I think it also oftentimes has to do with how the company's responding. AI is going to be very very interesting. I'm I'm definitely studying it feverishly. I'm I'm excited. I see conscious capitalism as an event on AI and they're calling it, you know, in that that the person is putting it on is highly respected and somebody I'm anxious to to listen to. But in that they're considering it a potential stakeholder. And I think that's one of the things that I'm wrestling with. I don't know that AI is a stakeholder as much as because it's pervasive throughout the entire organization. Is kind of like saying purpose, Your purpose isn't a stakeholder. Purpose is essential, and then all the stakeholders are connected to the purpose. I think we're going to see AI as more of an operational and how it gets operationalized, to see through innovation to help find these efficiencies some of the things I mentioned before. It isn't just about you know, quickly finding great text and you know, ask a question and you've got your next blog written. You know, it's solving some

45:42 really big challenges. And I don't think it's just companies that are going to spin up because of AI. It's really how are companies going to bring AI into their place? One of the consulting companies, I don't remember which one, but one of the really big consulting global companies is starting to use AI internally for the purposes of a database. Think of taking quicking and everything else and putting all the data that they've ever had in a place so now their consultants can ask questions interest get all of this information. Yeah, it's like it's one of the really big consulting firms. Yeah. Interesting, Okay, I would be remiss, And we're getting close to the end here. I have to know what you see as the future of conscious capitalism and stakeholder business.

46:30 Where's it going? Well? It definitely my hope that more organizations really conscious leadership, the stakeholder orientation, and really this conscious culture that it becomes, you know, this place of common I think that I really do feel strong that this generation that's coming up that's actually not quite yet out of school yet, they're coming up, this particular generation are very much already you know, with consciousness, and we're not to put up with They're not going to put up with anything that's shortsighted. It's just not going to happen. So we're seeing a number of different things that will take place. So I think interesting is in our business, in stakeholder business, we're kind of answering that question as well. It's really important to us in our theory of change.

47:24 Our domains of influence might be a better way of explaining it. Business education, we've been using the Beyond Zero writing the lessons. It's in educational curriculum in colleges and universities and some of the most prestigious ones around the world, and that's eventually going to be rolled out to all of them. We're going to continue that process with all our films, sources of capital, and you know I mentioned KKR and Peter Rabbo's earlier. You know, KKR is the kind of private equity firm that we all want to work with when we're a stakeholder business and understand how to influence others. So that's something we're doing to get to this tipping point. Professional associations in groups as well as the business media. We'll be working with our society members and others, not as the coach the media coach, but to prepare them in the talking points when called upon with media to get these inspiring stories out there so people can understand that, yes, this is being done. And if you've watched Beyond Zero, the most one of the most common things I ever hear from CEOs is I want to be like ryand or something that last thing we're working on as the consultants and helping consultants really understand this and give them the models and the methodologies and the friend works, all the things that need to be done to help support them and give them this learning material to be able to bring into their consultancies to work with the CEO's goal beautiful or beautiful person, beautiful mind and soul. Kent, I'm so happy to know you and to share with my

48:58 listeners and viewers around the world. Thank you for showing up and being on working on purpose. Thank you Louis, listeners, viewers. If you want to learn more about Kannack Gregoire and the work he is doing at Stakeholder Business, just go to stakeholder business dot com. Last week you to miss the live show you always kept to be a recorded podcast. We are on the air with Atifafik, who has served as the chief digital innovator for many Fortune five hundred companies. We talked about his new book, Decision Sprint, the new way to innovate into the unknown and move from strategy to action. We talked about how his book shares the secret SOFCE strategy of innovation to help companies work further upstream to make decisions and create winning strategies. Next week will be on the air with Tracy Schubert Barrett, who spent twenty years building HGTV and has since been on a ten year mission to help businesses, leaders and individuals reach our potential beyond success to embrace the significance. We'll be talking about her new book, What If There's More Finding Significance Beyond Success. See you there, and remember work as an essential part of our lives, ultimately the way we'd spend our lives. It can be one of the best adventures and means of realizing our potential and making the impact we crave. So let's work on Purpose. We hope you've enjoyed this week's program. Be sure to tune into Working on Purpose featuring your host, doctor Elise Cortez, each week on W four CY. Together, we'll create a world where business operates conscientiously. Leadership inspires and passion performance and employees are fulfilled in work that provides the meaning and purpose. They crave see you there. Let's work on purpose.