The New Capitalists

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The plain fact is that in today's business world, as companies of all sizes embrace "corporate social responsibility," or CSR, villains can be heroes and the Man often acts like a gentleman. The simple principle of CSR is that companies should enhance the public good. As a result, a growing number of giant international corporations are appointing CSR vice presidents, launching environmental programs, scrutinizing suppliers' human rights records, and adopting ethical guidelines to govern corporate behavior.

Critics of CSR say it's a sop to special interest groups and unions, a ploy to promote deregulation, or a "greenwash" to cover up malfeasance (many companies, like Wal-Mart, have websites peppered with heartwarming facts and stories). But there's no denying that CSR initiatives have genuine value. If every corporation adopted Wal-Mart's pledge to reduce energy use by 30 percent in the next three years, for example, the effect would be profound.

CSR also represents a fundamental shift in our collective understanding of the role of business in society. It's no longer enough, more and more corporations are conceding, for capitalism to simply make money. It must also make a difference.

Back in 1982, futurist John Naisbitt accurately predicted globalization and the information age in his outrageously successful book Megatrends (Warner Books). He and his partner, Patricia Aburdene, turned the book into a megabrand with regular forays into the future. The latest, Megatrends 2010 (Hampton Roads, 2005), penned by Aburdene alone, predicts "the rise of conscious capitalism."

Aburdene says that capitalism is finding its soul and traces the discovery to the activist movements of the 1970s and 1980s that lobbied successfully for, for example, divestment of South African stocks. Since then, a growing number of Americans have sought a spiritual path and they're bringing their spirituality into the workplace. Add the refusal of GenXers to sacrifice life for work and the campaigns by students against corporate abuses like sweatshop labor, and the broad seeds of a grassroots revolution were planted.

Then came the now-familiar series of disasters in global capitalism: the tech-stock bubble, the Asian market crash, 9/11, and waves of U.S. corporate scandals. And business as usual hit the breaking point. "We have been facing the worst crisis in capitalism since the Great Depression," Aburdene told Utne, "and we are seeing the cost of what I call 'unconscious' capitalism -- the idea that the sole purpose of business is to make money."

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