Why Companies Are Turning To Meditation And Yoga To Boost The Bottom Line

Mark Bertolini, CEO of Aetna says, "profit is not the goal, profit is the output of a mission driven organization that delivers a consistent product to their customers".  Mr Bertolini fuels this mantra with a personal yoga practice, and a company wide yoga offering.  And per the attached article Promega and others are doing the same thing...successfully boosting their bottom line with yoga and meditation.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/11/mindfulness-capitalism_n_3572952.html

Corporations are our role models

Some believe that we choose our parents. If you don't believe that you must certainly agree that we choose the people that we look up to.  Be it a boss, a mentor, a teacher, a friend or perhaps someone famous.  We choose who influences the way we act and how we think.

Every day, in every way we choose to be influenced by the corporations of the world and in turn corporations help to shape the way we act and think.  Today's technology makes that quite obvious...think iPhone, or Facebook, or Google.  Go back 100 years and think Ford.  Now settle into all the less obvious companies that are part of our lives every day.  Perhaps its the company we work for, or the company with which we partner, and its certainly the companies who manufacture and distribute all the stuff we depend on, from food to fun, clothes to cars, travel to technology.

It seems that choosing the companies that shape our lives is as important as choosing a mentor.

Now lets flip the coin.  Do companies realize their position as role model in this world?  Executives must focus their attention on their impact.  Yes, environmental impact is important, as is social impact. But also the realization that they have a more subtle effect on peoples lives, and that through the matrix of commerce, consumption and corporate structure the general population emulates the behavior of those who run the worlds' corporations.

Tweet from Cerulli

9/8/14, 8:10 AM PR Nearly 90% of Managers View Increasing Attention to Environmental, Social & Governance Strategies as Secular Trendbit.ly/1nwF8sl

 

Does our business look like a big dam?

The mythical giant half snake/half fish...Nyaminyami...is what the Tongan people believe is the god and protecter of the Zambezi River basin.  The building of the Kariba Dam in the 60s angered the Nyaminyami who retreated to the dam gorge from where he unleashed his wrath.  The Tonga people have lost their power and identity, many people have died in the building and subsequent floods, to this day the dam's infrastructure is in danger of failing and the economic backlash arguably contributed to crippling the entire "bread basket of Africa"(the country of Zimabawe).

Or...building dams is just bad business.  As a youngster living in war torn Zimbabwe, I was always intrigued by Kariba and since then I've always been intrigued by dams, wondering if they are indeed good or bad.  As this article suggests, they are bad.  They are industrial ventures that are on the other end of the SEA spectrum.  Communities are destroyed, as is the environment and when its all said and done, their financial strength is  model for what not to do in an economics 101 class.  The heavy loans, social and environmental loss are covered in a shroud of corruption, and "energy for the people" marketing.

Big dams is not SEA business and big dam boardrooms should turn their attention to alternatives for the sake of their own sustainability.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/24/opinion/sunday/large-dams-just-arent-worth-the-cost.html?module=Search&mabReward=relbias%3Ar%2C%7B%221%22%3A%22RI%3A7%22%7D

Corporate Responsibility is here to stay...

Because...."The costs to business and society of getting it wrong and the benefits of getting it right are increasingly apparent"

http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/blog/five-trends-corporate-social-responsbility-global-movement