Conscious Capitalism: Business Beyond Profit with Raj Sisodia

**SPEAKER_1** (0:03)
The Bliss Business Podcast, the show about empathy, connection, and consciousness in business. Today's episode is brought to you by Zero Company, your paid search, social media, and programmatic ad experts.

**Stephen Sakach** (0:17)
Welcome back to the show, everyone. I'm Stephen Sakach here with my co-host, Mike Liwski. And I believe our guest is actually, this is, I was told yesterday, this is going to be our 100th guest on the show. We've done 200 plus shows. So, perfectly planned. It wasn't by accident at all. But, yeah, no, we're happy to have Raj here as our 100th guest. But let me start with this stat. Three out of four employees say they want to work for a company that balances profit with purpose. Yet fewer than one in four believe their employer truly does. So that kind of tells us something profound about how disconnected business can become from a deeper human purpose. And today's episode invites us to examine what it means to build organizations that heal, inspire and uplift and where profit can become the outcome of purpose and not just the opposite of it. Mike, tell us a little bit more about our guest and how he's shaped this global conversation around conscious capitalism.

**Mike Liwski** (1:22)
My goodness, Stephen, where do I start?
Yeah, we are super delighted and honored to have Raj Sisodia with us. We have him listed here as the co-founder of conscious capitalism. I was going through that and said, man, he's one of the fathers of conscious capitalism. And so we're so pleased to have him. Yeah, he's also the author of a number of books, Firms of Endearment being one of the most influential books, redefining really purpose of business. And then also in Raj's work, he's inspired really this global movement that's focused on leading with love, purpose and humanity. Really, it's at the center. It should be at the center of commerce. And as well for those who may not be familiar with conscious capitalism, it has reshaped how organizations think about value creation. As well, Raj is currently the FEMSA Distinguished University Professor of Conscious Enterprise and the Chair of the Conscious Enterprise Center at Tecnológico de Monterrey in Mexico. Right, you didn't know I spoke Spanish, did you? And he has served as the FW. Olin, Distinguished Professor of Global Business at Babson College, and as well has co-authored other books like Conscious Capitalism with John Mackey, The Healing Organization, Everybody Matters, and Awaken. Just to give it a small summary, really. So Raj, we are so honored to have you on The Bliss Business Podcast today. Welcome to our show.

**Raj Sisodia** (2:59)
Thank you, Michael and Stephen. It's a pleasure to be with you. How do you say no to bliss? That's what it's all about.

**Mike Liwski** (3:08)
Yeah, exactly. We're trying to spread that.

**Stephen Sakach** (3:11)
Hey, Raj, so you've spent kind of decades helping leaders rethink the definition of success. What first made you realize that the way we measure business performance was incomplete?

**Raj Sisodia** (3:24)
Well, you know, so I've been a professor for 40 years. Okay. Believe it or not, you're supposed to say, wow, you don't look that old.

**Stephen Sakach** (3:33)
You don't look that old.

**Mike Liwski** (3:33)
Oh, did you start when you were 10?

**Raj Sisodia** (3:37)
And before that, I had six years of business education. And now as I look back, I'm at the stage of life where you look back as much as you also look forward. But I realized in those six years of business education, it was all about the head and the wallet, right? I think you would agree with that, right? Most business conversations are about the head and the wallet, the numbers, the theories, the frameworks, strategies, et cetera, and everything has to go to the bottom line. What I realized in hindsight is that I was never inspired during my business education and I was never emotionally touched by what I was learning. My heart and my spirit, my soul were bypassed completely as we went make the journey from the head to the wallet. I realized that that is something that was a big, big loss because as human beings, I think everything that we do should engage our hearts and should engage our spirit. We should be inspired and uplifted by what it is that we're doing and dedicating this precious life to, and our emotions should not be shut off from that. I had the distinct experience when I was writing the book you mentioned, Michael Firms of Endearment, which was my awakening and connecting to my purpose and elevating my consciousness. That I was literally in tears as I was writing parts of that book, some of the stories.