“The idea of profit maximization has been extraordinarily harmful,” Babson College professor Raj Sisodia began. “We need to get rid of this old, dehumanizing, toxic way of thinking about business.”
What he said next was what surprised many in the home state of self-described democratic socialist U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders.
“Capitalism has flaws, but junking it isn’t the answer,” Sisodia continued. “We have to retain the dynamism but bring in the decency.”
And so the co-author of the book “Conscious Capitalism: Liberating the Heroic Spirit of Business” argued his case Thursday at the annual educational precursor to this town’s Strolling of the Heifers entertainment weekend.
“Slow living means being mindful to yourself and your community,” event director Orly Munzing said in introducing the kickoff speaker. “It has become even more important in the climate we have today.”
“Most businesses are run on fear and stress, and our work is literally killing us,” he said. “Calvin Coolidge said the business of America is business. But Herb Kelleher” — the co-founder of Southwest Airlines — “said the business of business is people, and we’ve lost sight of that.”
Sisodia understands why progressives like Sanders want change.
“There are things that socialism is based on — the ideas of human dignity and minimum basic standards — I think are worthy,” the professor said. “But we need to figure out how to accomplish those in a system rooted in freedom as opposed to expanding the role of government and mandates.”
Sisodia believes business leaders must alter their thinking to help both themselves and everyone else. In his book “Firms of Endearment: How World-Class Companies Profit from Passion and Purpose,” he notes that while annual employee turnover is about 60 percent in the low-paying retail sector, the rate at the higher-wage Costco chain is only 6 percent.
“They dramatically outperform even as they are taking care,” he said. “Society doesn’t profit without profits, but it matters how you make the money. Love and work are the cornerstones of our humanness — why can’t we combine the two? There is no end to value creation when you align everything.”
The Slow Living Summit, free to the public, will conclude Friday at downtown Brattleboro’s River Garden with local and state experts presenting programs on the theme “Entrepreneur to Table: Growing Your Conscious Food and Ag Business.”
Sisodia ended his speech Thursday by sharing a cartoon of two couples in a leaky canoe. One pair, down in the water, is bailing. The other, up in the air, is saying, “Sure glad the hole isn’t at our end.”
“We are all in the same boat,” the professor said. “This planet is one system. We’re all interconnected. We have to start acting that way.”
