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CAN BIG BUSINESS SAVE THE WORLD?

Discover how people are transforming big business in order to transform the world.

Big business has changed the world. The global growth of corporate culture has brought with it the spread of democratic systems, increased wealth and education, and diversified local economies. But it has also created extreme degrees of exploitation, greed, and environmental destruction. What if these potent forms of human organization and ingenuity contain the seeds of profound and positive social change? We believe some do. Driven by an interest in the spiritual—as well as material—welfare of human society, some forward-thinking agents of change are infusing their organizations with ethical principles, social responsibility, and a sincere interest in unleashing the creative potential of their employees and the societies they live in. (See listings below.)

  • Meet the unsung heroes of the corporate world,

    the innovative consultants, idealistic entrepreneurs, and compassionate CEOs who are struggling to change the way the world does business.

  • Behind every great business consultant stands their spiritual guru.

    Let us introduce you to the extraordinary spiritual leaders behind some of the most prominent change-makers in business today.

  • Just as industrial manufacturing can create ecological havoc,

    industry’s more innovative engineers are able to dream up socially responsible ways to solve these problems before they occur. Like eco-friendly chemist Michael Braungart, whose creations include snack wrappers that dissolve into soil-enhancing fertilizer and popsicle sticks that harbor native plant seeds and the nutrients to make them grow.

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Business
What Is Enlightenment? is the Wired magazine of the spiritual world. Yasuhiko Kimura

Corporate Social Responsibility and Organizational Change

Get acquainted with the inspired lives of the new corporate change-makers who are unleashing the creativity of capitalism to serve the planet and its people.

The Business of Saving the World

Elizabeth Debold

Innovative organizational change makers—and their corporate counterparts—are tackling one of the most complex problems facing humanity: the urgent need for big business to evolve from being a profit–driven machine to a living system working for the future of the planet.


I Have No Choice

Tex Gunning

An interview with Tex Gunning, president of Unilever Bestfoods Asia and point man in the war on blind corporate culture, whose passionate care for the well-being of Asian children is transforming the way international aid dollars are being spent.


The Bank with the Human Face

Sonia Stojanovic

Consultant Sonia Stojanovic created a program that took more than 21,000 bank employees through personal development workshops, catalyzing a dramatic overhaul of the company's internal organization.


Authentic Business Leadership and Sustainable Development

Read about the bold and idealistic businesspeople who stake their careers and their fortunes on the premise that doing the right thing will pay off in more ways than one.

Going Public

Rob Glaser

Given the opportunity to write the rules from scratch, Rob Glaser imbued his start-up company with a philosophy of giving—writing a clause into his original business plan dedicating 5% of profit to charity.


You’ve Got to Hang in There

Mats Lederhausen

Mats worked at McDonald's since his father opened the first branch in Sweden in 1973. By the age of 35, he was head of McDonald's in all of Sweden. Inspired to make a difference, Mats used his influence freely to create environmentally friendly and socially conscious business practices.


The Mission is the Thing

Walter Robb

Robb and his partners built the stunning success of Whole Foods Market on the notion of a management and employee culture based on principles of inclusion, responsibility, and co-creation of the future.


A Structure That Benefits the Whole

Greg Steltenpohl

Greg Steltenpohl had to learn the hard way that corporate culture isn't easily changed, and in response, he created a new capital venture, Interra Project, formally based around core principles of sustainability and cooperative inter-activity.


A Fractal of Consciousness

Joseph Jaworski

This successful entrepreneur and lawyer, along with his colleagues at Generon, formed the Global Leadership Initiative, committed to creating and implementing innovative solutions to ten of the most intractable problems facing humanity—beginning with the world food supply and child malnutrition.


Social Visionaries and the Future of Business

These organizational wizards view large corporations as microcosms of society: dynamic, creative, and capable of producing not only goods and services, but of tending to the health and well-being of the whole.

The Business of Changing the World

Peter Senge & Jon Kabat-Zinn

Best-selling authors Peter Senge (The Fifth Discipline) and Jon Kabat-Zinn (Full Catastrophe Living) dialogue on the emerging integration of spirituality and business.


In Praise of Consumerism: The Spiritual Fruits of Materialism

Howard Bloom

Join author, cultural scientist, and raconteur extraordinaire Howard Bloom as he radically redefines the significance of consumer culture.


 

The Café at the Beginning of the Universe

Howard Bloom

One of today's most imaginative minds plays cosmic (and comic) tour guide through the formative moments of the universe, hinting at wild surprises yet to come.


Transformation by Design

Dee Hock

Founder of Visa International and self-made philosopher Dee Hock invokes the new science of complexity theory to show how human organizations can become powerful agents for evolutionary transformation.


A New Social Technology for Transforming Capitalism and Deepening Democracy

Otto Scharmer

Join Otto Scharmer, corporate consultant and MIT visiting professor, for a presentation on “presencing,” a truly innovative social technology for accessing our deepest capacity to sense and shape the future.


The Real Gurus Behind the Business Gurus

It seems that behind every cutting-edge organizational guru, there stands a spiritual guru. Find out who the real gurus-to-the-gurus are and why these intrepid business pioneers pay so much attention to what they have to say.

God Can't Do It Alone

Dadi Janki

WIE founder Andrew Cohen spoke with Brahma Kumari world director Dadi Janki at the 2004 Parliament of the World's Religions.


All We Need Is the Vision

John P. Milton

This former professor of environmental studies takes high-powered business consultants on vision quests, leading them far into the wilderness in order to connect with the unity we share with each other and with the planet that sustains us. He has been a guide to Brian Arthur, Joseph Jaworski, Otto Scharmer, Peter Senge, and others.


Whole Systems Change: White Papers

We are pleased to present this growing collection of white papers, submitted to us by prominent change leaders, business theorists, and organizational innovators. They represent the state-of-the-art on the theory and practice of organizational evolution and on the implications of our increasingly interconnected global economy. Please note that the ideas and opinions expressed in these articles do not necessarily reflect the editorial position or opinion of WIE.

Friends and Associates

The Association for Spirit at Work
Helping to Envision and Create the Enlightened Workplace

ASAW is a membership organization that provides community for those who are integrating work and spirituality and those who are called to support societal transformation through a shift in organizational consciousness.
spiritatwork.org