What Is Conscious Capitalism?

I was originally attracted to Zaadz by the ambitious attempt to unify spiritual values with capitalist practice. Initially, this innovative idea was both inspiring (for its revolutionary vision) and upsetting (for its integration of two seemingly disparate fields). I felt joyfully enthusiastic that this long overdue integration was occurring and yet suspiciously skeptical that it would ever live up to its promise. With time, having seen how many people really want this to work, i have become more optimistic about the possibilities of conscious capitalism, but i still feel that there are some fundamental questions that need to be discussed.

Perhaps the most important area of confusion (at least for me) is the set of principles of conscious capitalism. What exactly is "conscious capitalism"? What distinguishes it from traditional capitalism? I think the advocates of conscious capitalism all understand that it is a way of doing business with more enlightened attitudes and objectives, but it is not clear how this idea translates into a new practice of capitalism. Perhaps we could say that the most obvious difference is that common capitalism is based on creating profit for the individual whereas conscious capitalism focuses on creating benefit for the community. But how does this theoretical difference manifest as real-world (legal, economic, organizational, etc.) differences between the capitalist system that we have and the enlightened system that we desire? Is conscious capitalism about creating a new version of our economic system (with modified laws and regulations) or is it simply about doing business as usual in ways that make us good about ourselves?

These questions are important because the corporate culture's interpretation of capitalism has become institutionalized in laws and practices that encourage greed and selfishness. If we try to just do our own thing and engage in business with an altruistic motivation - without working to change the established parameters that define business practice - we will find ourselves working within a structure that is continually encouraging us to become a little bit more selfish and a wee bit greedier. Although politically reforming the current capitalist system may not be the primary objective, i think a commitment to conscious capitalism implies an urge to change the embedded legal and political conventions. And this means having a clear model of conscious capitalism that can function as an alternative to our current system.