Conscious Capitalism: Business Beyond Profit with Shane Jackson

**SPEAKER_1** (0:02)
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** (0:16)
Well, welcome back to the show, everyone. I'm Stephen Sakach here again with my co-host, Mike Liwski, and our special guest today, who we'll introduce in a second. So according to Gallup's State of the Global Workplace report, only about one in four employees strongly agree that their organization cares about their well-being. And trust in leadership is increasingly fragile. At the same time, long-term research on purpose-driven and stakeholder-oriented companies shows that businesses that put values, purpose, and stakeholders at the center often outperform the broader market. So today we are exploring what it looks like when a large, complex company chooses a different path and treats purpose, values, and people as core to its business model, not as a side initiative. Mike, please introduce our guest today.

**Mike Liwski** (1:06)
Yeah, I would add to that a very large organization. So our guest today is none other than Shane Jackson. You may know him as the president of Jackson Healthcare, which is the parent company of a family of healthcare workforce businesses that really collectively serve millions of patients each year. And as well under his leadership, the organization has grown into one of America's leading private healthcare workforces, providers, and has been recognized as America's leading private healthcare workforce, recognized as best places to work and companies that care lists. Now, Shane, as well as the author of This Is the Thing About Life, Joy and Owning Your Purpose, which we know we really love to talk about. He's also the author of Fostering Culture, A Leader's Guide to Purposefully Shaping Culture, which we would love to hear more about that Shane today on the show. He also champions Jackson Healthcare's LoveLifts Community Impact Platform, which really looks to partner with nonprofits to expand access to care and support of young people.
Shane, with that, we are so delighted to have you on our show with us today. Welcome to The Bliss Business Podcast.

**Shane Jackson** (2:30)
Thank you for having the honor to be with you guys and appreciate what you-all are doing.

**Mike Liwski** (2:34)
It's our honor.

**Stephen Sakach** (2:36)
Shane, you work in an industry that's constantly under pressure to do more with less. You talk openly about purpose and joy and improving the lives of everyone your company touches.
Sometimes, those things don't really jive with a lot of other corporations. They believe in a way, but we know it's not true. When you think about Conscious Capitalism, what does it actually mean in practice for Jackson Healthcare, and how has it reshaped the way you define success?

**Shane Jackson** (3:10)
I first learned about Conscious Capitalism in that concept and movement. I don't know. I remember close to 10 years ago, I was on a board of another company and I got invited by someone to go to one of the events that they do, their CEO summit.
I just remember getting there and being struck by, I was like, wow, I didn't know that other people thought about business the way that I did. We thought we were the only ones. I was like, oh, there's actually other people that think about business this way too. One of the things I remember very distinctly from that event is hearing someone articulate what Conscious Capitalism is. I think the part that's often missed and is unfortunate is that Conscious Capitalism starts with the foundational understanding that capitalism itself is one of the largest forces for good in the history of the world. Capitalism has done arguably more than anything else that's ever occurred. Anything else has been invented by humans in lifting people out of poverty. Everywhere that capitalism is used, incomes go up, quality of life goes up, all those sorts of things. It's the only moral economic system. People participate in capitalism voluntarily on both sides, and they only transact if it's something that's good for both of them. Any other economic model is forced. You start there by saying, what we do in business is inherently good. We're providing value for someone else, doing something that they can't do as well or as cheaply that they couldn't themselves. What we do is good.
But, in business, we can do so much more than that. In that, there's also this opportunity with everyone we come up with, all of the, as we refer to, the different stakeholders that are touched by your business. Not only your shareholders, but also your customers, and your employees, and your vendors, and your partners, and your community, like all these other things. Like, it's, there's this platform where you can do so much more. And then further, I think people involved in Conscious Capitalism would argue that actually thinking about your business that way, and focusing on making sure you are winning for all of these different stakeholders is actually a superior strategy that makes your business even better. And so, you know, I remember hearing that and being like, that's exactly right. Like, you know, this is, this is, is, is, is foundational to kind of how we think about business. And, and I think it's right for a lot of reasons.