Question

Why Costco is considered a conscious Capitalism company?

How the 4 tenets: higher purpose, stakeholder orientation, conscious leadership, and conscious culture are exist in Costco performance?

Thank you,

Answer 1

Costco have found a winning approach by embracing Conscious Capitalism, a business movement that’s proving to be inspiring as well as profitable.

Because of its focus on four key tenets -- higher purpose, stakeholder integration, conscious leadership and conscious culture.

Conscious Capitalism is built on four pillars

1.Higher Purpose: Profit will always be the driving force behind any business because without it that business would cease to exist. Profit should not encapsulate what that business is. Conscious Capitalists would say a business should always have a higher purpose beyond the final tallies on a balance sheet.

2.Stakeholder Orientation: In addition to its investors, Conscious Capitalism looks to maximize value for the entire ecosystem a business inhabits (employees, customers, suppliers, society and the environment). If every stakeholder buys in to the organization’s success each step along the way, that success is much more likely to be realized.

3.Conscious Leadership: The leadership ultimately determines if Conscious Capitalism will nurture and grow within the organization. Conscious leaders operate with a “we” mindset that strives to draw out the best from those around them. Under their charge, strong leaders implement the keys to fostering a strong culture, center the business around stakeholder enrichment and place the business on a path to realize its higher purpose. Without strong leaders willing to construct and cultivate this unique business environment, Conscious Capitalism can’t succeed.This idealized corporate vision can achieve superior results. Some of the most profitable companies in the world have adopted Conscious Capitalism like Whole Foods, Costco, Google, Amazon and Starbucks.

4.Conscious Culture: A business begins and ends with its culture. Regardless of its innovation and talent, if employees view the business culture as toxic, it will slowly drain the effectiveness of its work force and could ultimately lead to the failure of the business. A business must build trust between its team and stakeholders to establish that core cultural foundation. In addition to trust, a healthy culture must also push transparency, accountability, integrity, fairness, loyalty and personal growth. The more a business strives to grow in each of these areas, the stronger their corporate culture will become.