- by Riaad Isaacs
“Where are you in your life right now?” I asked the person I was guiding. Without missing a beat she retorted, “I’m in hell, and I’ve been there since December.” “Great” I replied, “it’s a starting point and at least you know where you are. So, now tell me how have you created this hell?” To which she replied, “What do you mean I’ve created this hell?”
I had similar conversation with three different people in the past week, all of them in deep existential pain experiencing some form of hell. None of these entrepreneurs seemed to recognise that they were the architects of this hell. If these entrepreneurs do not know, as well as acknowledge, that they are responsible for creating hell, they simply remain victims of their circumstances and are powerless to create a different reality.
Rather than being two realms of the afterlife, Heaven and Hell are a state of mind which we create. Hell is usually created when we live and work unconsciously. The moment we become conscious, which I define as being aware, awake and mindful, we begin to be able to create heaven in situations where, once, we experienced hell.
My encounters with these entrepreneurs, as well as my thoughts on conscious living, led me to think about the question: “What does it mean to develop a conscious business?”
Adam Smith, in his book Moral Sentiment, explains how a moral foundation is the basis for the success of business. If we ignore this, and allow our businesses to operate without moral foundation, we will soon create an amoral, if not immoral, business and society. One does not need to look very far for evidence of how endemic this phenomenon already is. In 2002, the world watched in disbelief as Enron, once the darling of Wall Street, imploded when it was revealed that they had boosted earnings and hidden debts to the tune of more than $1billion. The global giant Worldcom overstated its cash flow by booking $3.8 billion in operating expenses as capital expenses and Xerox admitted to falsifying financial results for 5 years. Closer to home, a South African stalwart, Tiger Brands were fined R99 million for price fixing, Adcock Ingram also had to pay R70 million in fines for price fixing and another home grown giant, Sasol, were fined R3.7billion for participating in a paraffin wax cartel. The evidence suggests that this trend is escalating with the sub-prime debacle precipitating the recent economic collapse.
The media may focus on the ‘big guys’ but I believe that we have to re-examine the moral and ethical foundations of businesses at a grassroots level, i.e. SMMEs and entrepreneurial ventures. Most businesses, including the abovementioned large corporations, began as small concerns with ambitions of growing into global enterprises.
I contend that the main reason we are facing widespread institutionalised corruption and general social malaise is that the majority of these businesses began life unconsciously and grew into unconscious empires, perpetuating an unsustainable, myopic perspective or, in simpler terms, hell. Fining or reprimanding these transgressors amounts to little more than a slap on the wrist that will ultimately do nothing to change their behaviour. For the behaviour to shift, we must all assume the responsibility of developing ourselves and our businesses more mindfully in order to become the leaders of model global empires of the future.
In his book Conscious Business, Dr Fred Kofman puts forward 7 qualities required for creating a conscious business:
unconditional responsibility
essential integrity
ontological humility
authentic communication
constructive negotiation
impeccable coordination; and the over arching enabler
emotional mastery
Kofman maintains that these qualities are essential to building a conscious business. For a conscious business to work, all employees must maintain a high degree of awareness. Kofman observes that conscious employees take responsibility for their lives. They don't compromise human values for material success. They speak their truth and listen to others' truths with honesty and respect. They look for creative solutions to disagreements and honour their commitments impeccably. They are in touch with their emotions and express them productively. When an individual entrepreneur begins to integrate these and other essential attributes into their businesses, their businesses become a true expression of themselves and a vehicle for placing these qualities into the world. Through this heaven is created, where hell once existed.
Imagine a business, your business, operating on these fundamental tenets and maybe you will begin to create heaven where you now create hell. In The Prophet, Khalil Gibran wrote, “Work is love made visible. And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy.”
Disclaimer: The contents of this article reflect the views of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official views or policy of Raizcorp.
