Where does your business fit on this scale of 1-5?

See also: Noetic Business Definition

As recently as 1970, Milton Friedman, one of the most influential economists of the 20th Century, wrote in an article in The New York Times Magazine* that the only legitimate objective and rational purpose of a business company is to make money for its owners.  Everything else, he said, is secondary and incidental.

In recent years business increasingly has been viewed as a major cause of social, environmental, and economic problems. Companies are widely perceived to be prospering at the expense of the broader community.

The Noetic Business leader knows that the responsibility of the company extends beyond its shareholders, to the people whose lives are touched by its activities: employee, customer, client or simply a member of the host community.  They are the contemporary equivalents of the legendary “captains of industry” of the early twentieth century.  A Rockefeller, a Vanderbilt, a Ford, a Mellon, an Astor and a Carnegie didn’t think of himself purely as a businessman, out to get the maximum money for himself and his family; he considered himself a builder of society, a force for the common good.  As IBM founder Thomas J. Watson Sr. said, companies exist to “knit together the whole fabric of civilization.”

Broadly speaking, there are five types of businesses (ignoring for a moment non-profits, NGO’s and charities):

1. Traditional Business: Also referred to as mom-and-pop business, is a model which provides goods and services to customers in exchange for fair payment.  Profits are reasonable and allow for slow and steady growth (either of the business or the owner’s desired savings fund);
2. Profit-Maximizing Business: This is the business model espoused by Friedman, which exists solely to generate revenue for government, shareholders, and the board of directors, often at the expense of the worker, customer, and the environment;
3. Socially Responsible Business: This is a model in which a cause for a more just and sustainable world is included with the profit-maximization purpose.  It is often referred to as a triple bottom line or a ‘People, Planet, Profit’ business as it includes an expanded spectrum of values and criteria for measuring organizational (and societal) success: economic, ecological, and social;
4. Authentic Business: These are businesses that generate profit through the pursuit of a profound and positive purpose.  The business is made up of passionate, dedicated and loyal people connected to passionate, dedicated and loyal customers.
5. Noetic Business: These are businesses which embrace the principles of Authentic Business and where the entire executive team are committed to a social objective and a sustainable shift. Noetic Businesses exhibit a deep sense of empathy and connection with all life which goes far beyond Sustainability, Corporate Social Responsibility and Business Ethics. Every individual in a Noetic Business has a clearly defined personal life purpose which aligns with the business purpose.  This connection to the whole generates a profound sense of understanding, common purpose and inner knowing across the organization.  This extraordinary inner knowing allows a Noetic Business to make decisions quickly, knowing that their decisions will be profitable, sustainable and will make the world a better place.

“It’s not that we need to form new organizations. It’s simply that we have to awaken to new ways of thinking. I believe it makes no sense to spend a lot of time attacking the current realities. It is time to create the new models that have in them the complexity that makes the older systems obsolete. And to the extent that we can do that, and do that quickly, I think we can provide what will be necessary for a major breakthrough for the future.”  ~ Dr. Don Beck, Spiral Dynamics Integral

Noetic Business was founded by Michael Haupt and is based on the groundbreaking work done by The Institute of Noetic Science, founded in 1973 by Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar Mitchell.

Watch this video produced by IONS to explain their work in consciousness.

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Footnotes:

* The original Milton Friedman Times article has been archived here.