Conscious Capitalism: Business Analysis

After a long day of planning my Eagle Project, I left the Half-Price Books, or as I liked to call it “My Second Home” exhausted and ready to board the bus home. As I walked out the door, a book titled Conscious Capitalism caught my eye. It claimed to be a unique defense of modern capitalism and I decided to buy the book for my commutes. Throughout the trips, I could not comprehend a business model that claimed to be conscious, yet did not prioritize legality or being consistent with business ethics. Instead, I characterized conscious capitalism as profit-maximization through a facade of prioritizing issues that any business ought to innately do.

It was when I read the subsection titled Conscious Philanthropy and Stakeholder Value that I realized that today’s business world is more corrupt than ever. The section talked about how philanthropic initiatives within corporations that work for the benefit of the investors. It explained how corporations, like Whole Foods, conduct prosperity campaigns in which customers can donate to fund microfinance loans in Africa. The campaigns have a near 1000 percent return for the investors, positive publicity for the company, and foster brand recognition, which all in turn lead to sales, profit, and market capitalization. Although the
I decided to join my school’s DECA chapter and compete in the Business Law and Ethics event to both garner experience and raise awareness over the actions of multinational corporations. After progressing from the District and State Conferences, my junior year I finally became the state champion and qualified to the International Career Development Conference! At the International Conference I was able to increase the magnitude of my measures; however, I realized that this was not enough – my actions needed to be on a larger