The Rise of Conscious Capitalism

By Liz Thompson

Patricia Aburdene is one of the world's leading social forecasters. For 25 years, she has helped thousands of organizations and millions of people make the most of social change and transformation.

Patricia is the co-author of the publishing phenomenon, Megatrends 2000, and she has a new book out called Megatrends 2010: The Rise of Conscious Capitalism. The book is a guide to the economic, spiritual and social trends that will shaping free enterprise, as well as how we live, work and invest.

Patricia describes 'conscious capitalism' as a holistic vision of business in which consumers, investors, suppliers, managers, and visionary CEOs all play a role. More than a megatrend, it's also a self-organizing movement, with everyone trying to restore ethics, accountability and soulfulness.

"Leading from the Middle" is a chapter from her latest book, and it reminds us to look past our narrow definition of authority to include 'informal authority', as well as a one that is more spiritual in nature.

Some would argue that this 'moral authority' is as valuable as more traditional kinds of authority. The way you lead from the middle is by living and breathing your gifts when you're on the job. That is absolutely a brand of leadership; there's no question about it. You're influencing people.

We as consumers have extraordinary power over corporations that we disagree with or complain about. We take our values shopping with us. How are we using our vote as consumers? We vote at the cash register every day for the products we like and the products that we think demonstrate our values. We vote against those we don't think mirror our values.

Values-driven investors are those who want to earn a return, but they want to do it by bringing their values to the table, as well. This movement toward socially responsible investing has been going on in the US since the 1970s.

At present still a minority culture, Patricia believes that in the next five years conscious capitalism will be mainstream. As we learn the power of prosperity on our spiritual paths and extend this into the marketplace, we'll be aligning our values with our products and investments.

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