The Yoga of Profit

"Every investment we make is a statement of intention, a statement of purpose, a speculation about the future of humanity and our role in the scheme of things, not merely a financial speculation" - Woody Tasch, Slow Money

Do you have a few hundred, a few thousand or maybe 10’s or 100’s of thousands of dollars in a savings or retirement account? What is that money doing? What is your intention for that money?

Money has power. More power then a vote. More power then a protest. More power then a war.

Don’t judge something…do something!

The only way to enjoy the long term annualized growth of the companies (which we fund) who have the biggest effect on our lives… invest in them. The best way to influence their intention…invest in the right ones!

For the longest time I wondered how my deepening yoga practice, how this inward journey, translated into the capitalist world I enjoyed and depended on, and the financial industry where I had worked for 15 years. Besides, as aware of my own footprint on the environment and my influence on others, I still drive a car, fly on airplanes, purchase packaged goods, eat food from far away and am totally addicted to a never ending flow of water and electricity. And how much do I really do to improve the lives of others in the community around me. I’m inclined to donate to charities or hand money to a homeless person, but I certainly don’t take 30 minutes of my time and sit with that person and talk over a cup of coffee. Sure I try hard to temper my consumption and consider the providers’ footprint, but whether I'm flying on the most environmentally responsible airline or whether I’m careful about which gas station I use, I am still taking. How much taking is OK? Where is the line?

Then it occurred to me. How our contemplative practice translates into capitalism is very much the same as how it manifests within us. Corporations are living organisms, the sum of all their employees who are like their cells. As our practice transforms us, then surely a corporation that practices mindfulness must transform into a being that feels better and is more compassionate. I had a hard time believing that business people had not figured this out and used it to their competitive advantage or more so that there were high level executives or decision makers whose contemplative practice drove a successful management style.

After two years of research I am happy to report that there are publicly traded companies, household brand names that are humble, that are compassionate and that embody social and environmental responsibility. This small but growing list is companies who put the community and environment ahead of profit. They are driven by building sustainable business’s with the manifesto of increasing our well being and preserving the environment. As Aetna CEO, Mark Bertolini said at Wisdom 2.0, “Profit is not the goal, profit is the output of a mission driven organization who delivers consistent products to its customers”

What are the indicators? A combination of qualitative and quantitative evaluation including financial strength, products that are unequivocally good for us, the lowest possible use of natural resources, happy employees, women make up twenty percent of the board, low CEO pay - relatively, company wide offering of yoga/mindfulness, humble CEOs and a C-suite who have a personal contemplation practice, and compassionate intention written into their Form 10-K annual report. That's the quantitative. Qualitative is reading between the lines, by scanning the news and blogs for indications of embodied social and environmental responsibility, by hearing feedback from users of their products and services. Looking for indications of yogic decision-making. Checking off the yamas and niyamas, the eight-fold path, the middle way, the golden rule.

My research has resulted in an investment portfolio of companies. Companies I invest in and share with others. I feel more confident investing in humble companies with strong ethics, and I am much less afraid of loosing my investment especially when the market crashes. This portfolio has opened my eyes to companies who really care and I always choose their products. Often I will go without a product or service if a compassionate company does not offer it. I plug these companies on social networks for their intention. I go out of my way to give them feedback; quite often they don’t know what they don’t know. Our guidance is important. My hope that a company’s mission, rather then its earnings and products become what its brand name represents.

Corporations have more influence on our well-being and future than anybody except ourselves. There are companies out there who have transcended the “profit at all cost” approach perfected during the industrial revolution. We can play a bigger role in our evolution by investing in the companies that care, by being more mindful of how we spend our money and by bringing awareness through dialogue to the potential of the corporate world helping us into the next age.

"As long as the way we invest is divorced from how we live and how we consume our befuddlement will worsen" - Woody Tasch, Slow Money

Aetna is hiring a Chief Mindfulness Officer

A title once reserved for a monastery or ashram has found its way into a Fortune 200 company. A healthcare company nonetheless. Shhhh, don’t tell the Senate Health Care committee.

This is a sure signal of the role that mindfulness is playing in the corporate operation. SAP, the software company has a Director of Mindfulness and Google boasts a Chief Happiness Officer.

The role of these positions is to make sure that this practice has a seat at the executive table, to be integral in the growth and sustainability of the company, its employees, and its clients. Executive titles only come about when it is clear that this person’s work has already played the latter role.

Who is your Chief Mindfulness Officer?

Mindless Barista

I write this on the sidewalk outside of a coffee shop in West Chester, PA, soaking up a spring morning in the summer. Sipping on an almond milk latte. With awareness around how many water sucking almonds it takes to make it, I am trying to make sense of its creation...from my order to a cup in my hand.

These days I make a point of drinking coffee in a "to stay cup" at the coffee shop. For me it's important to sit and enjoy the moment, an opportunity to slow down the rat race even for just a for 15 minutes. In ordering a ceramic cup I'm also aware of the reduction in waste. One less paper cup in the "recycling" cycle or pehaps the city dump.

This morning I order the Latte for here. The barista used a plastic cup to decanter the almond milk from the carton. Then he poured that into a paper cup which he used to steam the milk, after which he poured it into the ceramic cup and handed it to me. He threw both the plastic and the paper cup in the garbage. 

My mind wanders to the mindless waste this represents in our society. There is no accountability for how much we waste. We waste food, water and resources in a way that further harms the source of all of these. Take a look around you next time your at a restaurant at all the food that doesn't get eaten. Why do we continue to do this. Why do we continue put our convenience ahead of our future and well-being.

I will appreciate this latte more then ever because it cost much more then the $3.75 I was charged and because it will be the last I ever have from this coffee shop. Starbucks is just around the corner!

Getting on the Bandwagon

The Financial Times reported that a study made by Insead concluded that “coaching programs based on introspection and meditation techniques, without any discussion about CSR [corporate social responsibility] topics, exhibit a significant impact on both the probability to act in a socially responsible way and on the factors that influence the probability to behave that way”.

Last week we heard that Verizon has purchased AOL for $4 billion. Considering that AOL is a holding in the Yoga Capital portfolio, it got me to thinking how this reflects on this portfolio’s purpose. It prompted a soul searching of social and environmental investing. If AOL, is indeed a stalwart of socially and environmentally aware companies, then does that mean that Verizon is also such a leader, or does it mean that AOL is not. Does this purchase by Verizon indicate a move by them toward being more sustainable. I’m not going to pretend to know the answer, but I do think the answer should be more obvious.

Again the question is prompted which companies are socially and environmentally responsible because they truly are compassionate and truly care about the community and environment as opposed to being trendy, or wanting investors and clients to see that they are playing their part.

The Insead study indicates what I believe to be the most important indicator of CSR. Companies whose executives or decision makers who have personal contemplative practices, tend to organically be socially and environmentally compassionate. It is these companies that are the most sustainable. It is these companies that represent a new era in capitalism – a new industrial age. To identify and segment these companies is to create an investment class that represents the future of investment. This is still advanced strategy, so to have a rounded portfolio might require broader exposure, but the tide is turning and to have a portion, if not all of ones money in this investment class is essential.

This type of awareness when investing represents our deepest knowledge and beliefs. There is not a sustainably successful investor who does not show attributes of mindfulness and social and environmental awareness.

In order for Yoga Capital to truly represent this strategy, it’s time to take its screening process to the next level. Currently we pick companies that score high on the CSRhub.com rating system, and then we find the companies whose executives have a personal mindfulness practice, and then we take those who have strong financials. But this is not enough. We must now look closer at the companies output and ask the question, “Is this company paving the way to the new era in business, or is it stuck in the old “profit is the goal” way of operation”.

Keurig Green Mountain has also been a holding despite the controversy around the plastic K-cups. My defense has been they have s short-term action plan to overcome barriers to recycling. But I was asking the wrong question. And then I saw someone using a Keurig coffee machine. The K-cup goes in, a pull of the handle and the user hurries off to the chaos of the day. The paradigm of the machine is the problem. I doubt quick coffee will be integral to the new era. Coffee, maybe. And just when Keurig comes into question, it offers up a soda machine.

Deutsche Bank is another one. They made the cut because of a company mindfulness program. A breath of fresh air in a stodgy banking industry. But that’s not enough. Investment banks in their current form have no place in the new era of capitalism. If a bank is going to make the cut, they will have to show extreme proactive signals that profit is not the goal. Goldman Sachs, believe it or not, is on the watch list, but certainly not ready.

Yoga Capital will shortly reallocate, and rebuild with a keener sense of awareness around the real trailblazers. We will find the boardrooms that decide with compassion, that strategize with the future of themselves, and the world around them in mind. As Patagonia does, build companies that will last 100 years. As Google does, do no evil!

Businesses on the mindfulness bandwagon - FT.com

 

What is the American Dream?

"Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" - says nothing about making a lot of money, but somewhere along the line we made that translation.

Recently I heard someone say that successful people consider money a reward for self-actualization.  Said differently, my guess is Warren Buffett would not do much differently if he lost all his money or if he was making the minimum wage. If you happen to cross paths with him please ask and let us know? The American dream is the freedom do do what we are good at, what we enjoy doing, what we look forward to doing, and for most people that does not have to be restricted by net worth. That same "most people", however, now are anxiously chasing pay out, the title and the recognition - constantly managing our identities - and are missing out on doing what we would really enjoy doing. Yes, the latter might mean an adjustment in economic expectations, but the quality of life becomes much higher when one is doing what we love to do then by owning a nice house, nice clothes, a new car and the latest iPhone. If your not convinced look to those who are dying. As they say 20/20 vision is the most acute and perhaps the most objective, and without fail people who are at the end of their life report their regrets of not spending enough time doing what they wanted to do, even at the risk of less money. Let's learn from the wise!

So what about this selfish perspective. This selfish approach turns out to be the most selfless way we can live. When we are doing what we are meant to do, our impact over our lifetime will be much greater on the world then if we conform to spending our time cultivating our image. We will enjoy an optimal experience which will reflect in our work, and our interaction with others, both of which will have unimaginable positive impact on others. There is an expression - "if a butterfly flaps its wings in Brazil, there will be tornado in Texas". In the same way, maybe you love to build rock gardens and after building one for someone, that person everyday will enjoy seeing that rock garden and their interaction with each person they see that day will be positively effected, and those people in turn will be effected and so on. And the joy you might feel after building that rock garden will reduce the chance of any destructive behavior that may come from stress. 

The American Dream is not to make a killing, it is do what we love to do. It doesn't necessarily mean a drastic change of career or job, but simply to find the opportunity to realize our gifted talent within what we ready do. And make no mistake, we all have a gift...an innate talent.

Life, liberty and doing what we enjoy doing...that's the American Dream!