Reimagining Capitalism

Imagine a world where capitalism is human-centered, empathic, good for the people and good for the planet.  

Imagine a world where the system is based not on exploiting a person, but on actually realizing their true potential.

Is it easy for you to imagine or is it hard? If it's easy, please come work with me! But if it's hard for you, well, it's hard for a reason.

I believe, that we can actually make it happen. And I’ll try to share… “HOW?”

Brief overview of the history.

In what world are we doing business today? This socio-economic model is about 400 years old. 

The main driver of this idea is COMPETITION.

The main rule – “everything that is not prohibited is permitted”. 

In this model the strong has the right to destroy the weak. It’s a very tough world.

How do we (as business owners) set the price (and level of profitability)?

We may have two different sources of motivation:  

1) values (I can't do otherwise) 

2) passions (greed, I want more). 

Humanity had a historic choice:

-      To describes values and create ethics of setting the price

-      "trust the market, and competition will regulate everything on its own".

The people have chosen simple option – “trust the market”.

I want to say that, the philosophy of competition as a social institution is a voluntary acceptance by society that greed is the engine of progress.

The result is the trend towards:

·      Consolidation of business. (emergence of global TNCs in a wide variety of industries).

·      Specialization of labor (as the primary driver of economic efficiency). 

As a consequence, a person working in such companies (on a junior and middle level)  does not have to possess holistic competencies.

No demand, no supply. Huge problem with education in the world. 

So, as the result: business gets bigger people get smaller

Recruitment is the challenge #1 in my company. Not the challenge of growth and development. It’s the challenge of surviving. I’d say, Tomorrow, we'll have no one to work with. 

How do we (as a business) prepare ourselves to get ready for a lack of qualified staff?

Automation. Digitalization. Robotiс application. AI.

This is a solution for low-skilled personnel. But our businesses will not survive without talent and without leaders. And ability to grow up such leaders will be the key competitive advantage.

I believe that for sustainable existence in the future our business should meet three criteria:

1)   Being human-centric

2)   Being socially responsible

3)   Being multicultural 

And the core of this concept is leadership. Only people with specific competencies and talents can do that. Let's call them Impact Leaders. Or Impact entrepreneurs.

What is the competence (quality) number 1 for such a leader? 

In my company the answer is EMPATHY

So, EMPATHY. Than  Visual thinking, Self-discipline,  Modesty in personal consumption,  The ability to care about oneself, know your dream about oneself and follow it,  Ability to serve a big idea (something that is above money).

These are our soft and hard skills requirements for leaders. But it all starts with empathy!

·      Empathy unrolls sensory perception and visual thinking.

·      It makes you feel other people's suffering as your own.

·      Gives you the opportunity to create TOGETHER.

The question of the questions: HOW to create culture for growing up IMPACT LEADERS? Let me to share with our experience.

Our numbers: USD 3 bln revenue, 20 thousand employees, 16 factories, work in 50 countries, feed 200 mil people.  

We're also facing all challenges. And looking for solution, how to attract talents, keep them and help them to realize their potential their.

Solution number one for us is our investment strategy.

5 years ago, we changed everything. We Transformed ourselves from traditional food company to biotech corporation. We've created Healthy Innovation projects.

And started to develop plant-based alternatives, cellular nutrition, sweet proteins, fats from microorganisms. For 5 years we reinvest all we earn in the projects which are at the same time:

• Good for the planet
• Good for the people
• Affordable (not premium)

This is part of our survival strategy. And this is the way how we attract talents. 

But the main solution for growing up impact leaders is our shareholder’s model.

·      none of us has control. Max allowed ownership is 28%

·      Everybody is working. And working hard

·      Our shares are not transferred to our children

·      If you leave the company you lose your ownership

·      Every employee can be the shareholder

·      3% of shares is min. And everybody has VETO right

Our company is a social experiment that lasts for 30 years.

An experiment of building a non-capitalist company that could survive and win in the free market. 

The main part of our social experiment – how do we see the prosperity and what the share capital means for us.

Do you agree that we don’t need money? We need emotions we can get for a money. And the main emotion for entrepreneur is emotions from creating something new. 

In EFKO we split share capital into two parts. 

First, it’s resources that provide “freedom to create”.

The second part is for personal consumption of owners. For a living.

And the price for our shares is not the price of the company.  It’s just a formula which gives a good income. But here's the thing – we don't take out the capital that creates social benefits. Because it's the capital that gives us the freedom to create.

It's not just about saving money for our strategy. It's more about how regular folks (and future leaders) see us and our dedication to the business. It builds a different kind of trust and loyalty.

In our company The Nature of power is competence. If you have money and no competencies, you cannot be a shareholder. If you have competencies and no money, you can become a shareholder.

8 of us. Nobody has control. It’s unsustainable system. We have 6 commitments in our partnership agreement for making it stable:

1) caring for each other.

2) willingness to be a junior (even if you are senior).

3) teams should include different personality types .

4) a reasonable level of conflict is normal (it helps us to be economically efficient) 

5) being self-ironic (for protecting psyche) 

6) ability to perform complex and multi-level modeling

We’ve got 6 types of resources: 

•      Emotional

•      Intellectual

•      Communication

•      Organizational

•      Willpower resource

•      Material (money, assets..)

Money – is only one of the resources. And company's most critical resource is the emotions of top management. When we say "we need resources" or "we don't have resources" we mean the balance of these six.

In our business we have production, R&D, marketing and sales. But we say that KEY role in our business is HR. Therefore: 

•      Recruitment, assessment, assimilation, talent management – it’s not a business of HRD, it’s a responsibility of shareholders.

•      We have our own corporate university. And for Impact leadership program 70% of academic hours, we teach - Psychology, sociology, neurophysiology, philosophy, comparative theology. We are trying to teach our leaders about the human being and human relationships 

We call our corporate university as Scientific-Educational Center.

We've been researching empathy for 20 years. Psychological tests have been developed. We make programs on how to protect empathy. How to help empathetic people realize their potential.

We call our Corporate University as a main factory of the company. 

We say that the business will continue to exist as long as it is able to reproduce new shareholders. Those Impact leaders.

May I ask you? Who in this triangle (State. Society. Business.) shall be the first to start the change?

I argue that if we live under true capitalism, this shall be business. So – WE ARE.

And inside the business, it's the owners. Because the owners are the main beneficiaries of the entire system.

Let me to remind you that the OWNERSHIP is not only about financial freedom and ability to do whatever you want. This word comes from the verb TO OWE.

And being owner and Impact Leader means: to OWE to myself (in the beginning), to owe the family, to owe the society, to owe the planet

I was hesitating to show this slide last year. It's quote from the Gospel. To offend or hurt someone. 

But I decided to keep it, because it looks like a formula of business success for impact leadership. That's how I suggested to understand it:

But seek first doing good for others (for our customers and employees) and all these things (business, revenue, profit) will be provided to you.

 And I’ve got key to this formula. Another quote from the same book:

“The Kingdom of God is within you.” (Luke 17:21)

 Which can be translated into our modern language as follows.

Before doing good for others, start doing good for yourself

I mean, before making impact, start building yourself.

I wish you all the best in doing good for others. 

And remember – that we have the power!

The power of being owners (at lest owners of our lives and destinies) . 

The power of being Impact Leaders. 

The power to build empathic capitalism. 

Russian version:

https://telegra.ph/Pereosmyslivaya-kapitalizm-02-05