John Mackey, the co-founder and co-chief executive of Austin-based Whole Foods, has just released a new book, Conscious Capitalism: Liberating the Heroic Spirit of Business. The (trademarked) idea of "conscious capitalism" is the soul of the book and promotes embracing the "higher purpose of a business, its relationships with interconnected stakeholders and the impact it has on the world."
Certainly no guide on how to start a vegetable stand, this personal memoir of Mackey's points to the ethics and nobility of business.
In the book, Mackey explains his jaunt through 120-hours of college classes sans a degree, growing a beard and living in an Austin commune, when he started his life in the grocery world. After many ups and downs in the business, he devoured books by economists and thinkers, from which he "learned that a voluntary exchange for mutual benefit has led to unprecedented prosperity for humanity."
And so it begins. Now we can get almonds in bulk like nobody's business.
Based on 21 Amazon reviews, the book has four of five stars.
