Be-The-Change Corporations

Jay Coen Gilbert explores leadership questions of the heart during his address at Gandhi 3.0 in January 2024, sharing his own story about the friction he experienced when he found himself “tethered and constrained” to “somebody else’s dharma” and how that led to exploration with like-minded leaders. Gilbert confronts the systemic beliefs prevalent today including a “system and culture of shareholder primacy” and how “wealthy persons matter more than others.” Gilbert offers  an alternative model for change in response. The current system’s  genetically hardwired source code propping up these beliefs are malleable and can be changed: “Until and unless we change”  them, “nothing else is going to change on top of that, other than perhaps marginally. One model for change, the B Corp Movement, launched 17 years ago by Gilbert, includes a tribe of business leaders who sign a  Declaration of Interdependence committed to “[1] design for interdependence, [2] investing for justice, and [3] accounting for all stakeholders in a world that fundamentally is not designed for these aims.” This shift to a more “sacred ecosystem” invites current leaders and power brokers toward more impactful, whole stewardship: “By helping them see their role, as stewards, that can help preserve the system, that can create the conditions in which we can then make better, balanced decisions in the interest of all stakeholders.” When this happens, “we shift our culture and systems so that they value not this invisible hand of the markets, but its visible heart.”

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