A SOCAP Guest Post By Rachel Zurer, Editor-In-Chief of Conscious CompanyIn the lead up to SOCAP18 we asked a few of our media partners who are covering stories that are of interest to the SOCAP community to curate and share pieces that relate to our SOCAP18 conference themes. This week’s suggested content comes from Conscious Company.*
Whatever theme you’re focusing on this year, these in-depth interviews, calls to action, and how-to articles from Conscious Company will get you inspired and up-to-speed.
1. Top Conscious Business Leaders 2018
Why it’s worth a read: These 21 thinkers, entrepreneurs, and business leaders are all on the cutting edge of running companies that do business differently.
Related SOCAP18 Themes: Africa, Circular Economy, Core Conversations
Key Passage
“What is success? That’s the essential question of conscious business. Is it success to run a profitable enterprise and feel empty and depressed at the end of each day? Is it success to grow a company with low employee morale that offers an attractive return to investors? Is it success to expand market share of a product that slowly makes people sick? These questions don’t, in fact, have objective right answers. There’s no inarguable instruction book to leading a good life. Yet, increasingly, a community of leaders is coalescing around a vision of success that is quite different from the messages embedded in our contemporary mainstream…They’re saying no to profit at all costs. They’re saying no to sacrificing their personal and communal wellbeing on the altar of unquestioning growth. They’re saying no to myopic, short-term thinking. And, just as importantly, they’re saying a big, heartfelt yes to using the creative power of business to envision and invoke a more socially just, environmentally sustainable, and spiritually fulfilling world.”
2. Meet the New Face of Angel Investing
Why it’s worth a read: In 2011, Natalia Oberti Noguera launched Pipeline Angels via what would become the company’s signature program: an angel-investing bootcamp for anyone identifying with womanhood (cis, trans, or third gender). “I’m on a mission to change the face of angel investing,” she says. “We’re creating capital for women and non-binary femme social entrepreneurs.” Pipeline Angels recruits and trains those who might invest in such entrepreneurs.Since its inception, the program has graduated 300 members who have invested more than $5 million in more than 50 companies via the group’s pitch summit process.
Related SOCAP18 Themes: Gender+Markets, Impact Investing
Key Passage
“When people hear the words men and money, they’re like, ‘Sharks. Financiers. VCs. Businessmen.; These are very different words than when people hear women and money; that’s like: ‘Philanthropists. Donors. Charity.; Those are great things. At the same time, guess what? Women and femmes can also be sharks, financiers, business people, VCs, and angels.”
3. Diversity Is For White Men Too. Here’s How — And Why It Matters.
Why it’s worth a read: Most diversity efforts at work target women and minority groups. Too many men — especially straight white men — are, at best, unengaged with diversity and inclusion efforts or, worse, feel threatened by them as they find themselves targets of anger and frustration or watch women and minorities rise seemingly at their expense. Yet white men hold the overwhelming majority of leadership positions at US companies. The math doesn’t lie: if more equality is the goal, white men need to be involved. That’s why Michael Welp co-founded his consulting and training firm, White Men as Full Diversity Partners (WMFDP), more than 20 years ago. Here’s some of his best thinking and advice on the issue.
Related SOCAP18 Theme: Racial Equity
Key Passage
“We have a culture. But we live and breathe in our own cultural waters so much that we don’t even see it as a culture. We just equate to being a good American, or being a good human…To be white and to be male is not to have to think much about being white and male. It’s just a normal thing. The world is set up for us.”
4. The Most Important Impact Investment Is Not What You Think
Why it’s worth a read: To affect the greatest change, says Gino Borges, impact investors must first invest in knowing themselves. Here’s how to being thinking about that.
Related SOCAP18 Theme: Impact Investing
Key Passage
“Deciding where to invest our money is a more personal journey than it may initially appear to be. The most common approach to creating an investment portfolio is to evaluate the standard metrics for risk and market assessment, typically outlined in an array of statistics and graphs. This detailed analysis certainly satisfies the mind, but rarely does it meet the needs of the heart.”
5. 30 World-changing Women In Conscious Business – 2018
Why it’s worth a read: These 30 female thought leaders, investors, CEOs, intrapreneurs, founders, and social entrepreneurs are making the world a better place by leveraging the power of business. Get inspired by their stories.
Related SOCAP18 Theme: Gender + Markets
Key Passage
“Half of all humans born on this planet are female. You’d think that would mean that half the heroes we hear about — at work, in school, in the media — would be, too. But we all know the truth is far different, especially in the business world. Only 32 of the Fortune 500 companies have female CEOs. Women receive less than 1 in 5 Academy Award nominations. Even at Conscious Capitalism’s CEO Summit, only three of 19 speakers last year were female. We’d like to change that.”*Conscious Company Media and SOCAP are both part of Intentional Media, a family of brands including Good Capital Project and What Will It Take Movements.
