CONSCIOUSNES CAPITALISM
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Conscious Capitalism: We Can All Win Together
Forbes Books Author.
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May 31, 2024, 05:06pm EDTShareSave
After being introduced to the book Conscious Capitalism by John Mackey and Raj Sisodia, I embraced one of its main themes: capitalism is about more than profits.
Organizations should serve the needs of all their stakeholders—not just returns for shareholders and investors, the dominant philosophy shaping capitalism since the 1970s. When my team—my employees—their families, suppliers, customers, community, and even the environment meet their needs, we ALL win.
For years, I’ve been involved with the Conscious Capitalism movement, speaking at Leadership conferences and sharing ideas with like-minded leaders. I recently had the opportunity to speak with another leader, author, and speaker in that space for a podcast.
Ginny Clarke, a former director of leadership staffing at Google, shared, “When I had my teams at Google, I always tried to make decisions that were in the best interest of most. … Who are you trying to serve?”
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The Best Interest of Most
I realized I’ve had this mindset since the nascent beginning of my company. It’s my approach to creating a corporation my entire team can passionately believe in. Firms have many stakeholders to consider, whether they realize it or not. Anyone or anything that is affected by your existence has a stake in your existence. So, besides doing well by yourself and your investors or partners, consider employees, the community you operate in, and the environment, just to name a few.
I am often asked, as the leader of a very public business with thousands of employees that happens to have “Love” emblazoned over every doorway, across every T-shirt, and even in the headlines of our Wall Street financial reports: How do you create a conscious, positive culture where people can thrive?
Ginny Clarke said, “It starts with a mindset of collaboration. It’s not you versus me, it’s an abundance mindset instead of a scarcity mindset that says it has to be you instead of me. There’s plenty here for all of us.”
I think when you surround yourself with good, capable, caring, intelligent people, how can they not bring exciting new ideas to the table? How can you not create a powerful team or company to transform lives and serve all your stakeholders?
The trick is to collect the best ideas, prioritize them, and develop teams and systems to methodically bring them to life in an organized way over time. Sadly, we’re compelled by this modern world to spend more than half of our waking lives at work—it might as well not suck.
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We also rely on our commitment to Sustain-ability. Besides considering our earth as a stakeholder in an obvious way, the concept should be broadened. You see, if you cannot build your organization sustainably, it can do no further good for its people or stakeholders, including the environment.
Too many leaders these days overlook this aspect of sustainability and allow themselves to be driven by powerful motives that push for short-termism and wealth extraction only—sometimes even as they wave the banner of “sustainable” products to their customers!
They have no credible path to profits or a truly sustainable business and culture—only piles of money they’ve raised on hopes, relationships, and speculative financial models. They enrich their founders and early investors at the peril of our capitalist system’s credibility.
We need to expand our view of stakeholders and our obligations to ALL of them. I also know that when we embrace that mindset—a mindset of collaboration, as Ginny said, a mindset of a team, we all win together.
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Shawn D. Nelson is the founder and CEO of Lovesac, repeatedly recognized as the fastest growing furniture brand in the US for over a decade. Lovesac is publicly traded on Nasdaq, ticker “LOVE,” and is projected to exceed $1 billion in annual sales over the next few years leveraging its rapidly growing fleet of more than 270 Lovesac branded retail locations.
From humble beginnings, Shawn founded Lovesac in 1998 making Sacs by hand for neighbors and friends while in college. He graduated from the University of Utah in 2001 with a BA in Mandarin Chinese before opening Lovesac’s first retail location in his hometown of Salt Lake City shortly after graduation. In 2005 Shawn won a million-dollar investment by Richard Branson on his prime time hit reality TV show, The Rebel Billionaire, and was named acting President of Virgin Worldwide for a time.
Shawn later achieved his master’s degree in Strategic Design and Management at the world famous Parsons, The New School for Design in New York City and continued on as an instructor there for a few years teaching courses on Sustainable Business Models, Leadership, and Innovation. Shawn now holds over 50 issued patents across multiple product categories with dozens more pending. The majority of Lovesac’s sales today are driven by the ever-expanding product platform called “Sactionals,” the world’s most versatile couch and myriad Sactionals product extensions including embedded technology.
Lovesac’s continued success is underscored by Shawn’s unique design philosophy, “Designed For Life”, which demands that products are built to last a lifetime and designed to evolve—promoting things that actually sustain to achieve true sustainability. This drives Lovesac’s strategy and animates its vibrant culture.
Shawn’s recent book, Let Me Save You 25 Years, celebrates Lovesac’s colorful history and the many “mistakes, miracles, and lessons” learned along the way.
Shawn lives in St. George, Utah, with his wife, Tiffany, and their four kids, two cats, and one crazy dog. Visit shawndnelson.com or listen to his “Let Me Save You 25 Years” podcast to learn more.Read More
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The Next Tech Supercycle Is Shaping The Future Of Financial Services
Brand Contributor.
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BRANDVOICE | Paid Program
Aug 19, 2025, 10:04am EDTShareSave
Some questions are always the same; it’s the answers that change, as our understanding evolves when new knowledge and perspectives emerge. One such question is about the future of AI.
The reference to Albert Einstein’s famous quip on why some questions are timeless served as the opening statement at the recent SAP and SAP Fioneer Forum for Financial Services event presented by TAC Insights in Munich. It was meant to remind the audience of financial experts that AI is shaking up the world as they know it. The importance of continuous learning and adapting to new information, rather than relying heavily on past knowledge, has never been more important.
“At SAP, we see AI as the defining force of the next technology supercycle – one that will deeply transform how enterprises operate,” said Dominik Asam, CFO and member of the Executive Board, SAP SE, during his opening keynote.
“AI is a must-win area for SAP,” he emphasized. “The transition to AI will determine success in enterprise tech, and the cloud is a prerequisite for AI to work at scale.”
Asam noted that this AI wave is bigger than any previous supercycles such as mainframes, the internet, and cloud computing. AI isn’t just a product – it’s a platform technology, underpinning and enhancing other innovations, including automation, robotics, analytics, personalized customer experiences and autonomous systemsForbesAI Prompting: The Hot, New Skill Where Context Is EverythingBy Judith Magyar | Paid Program
Asam explained SAP’s strategy to put AI first, integrating AI into every business process, transforming how people work and enhancing the productivity, profitability, and growth ambitions of its customers. This involves hundreds of AI features and agents embedded directly into SAP solutions, covering areas from supply chain management to customer experience. SAP’s AI copilot Joule serves as the new user interface in the age of AI – embedded everywhere, from the SAP Business Suite to mobile devices and even integrated with third-party assistants.
The impact on financial services
Asam sees financial services as one of the sectors most impacted by AI, and SAP is aligning its solutions accordingly. That’s because financial services demand accuracy and auditability. AI must improve, not compromise, control functions.
AI is already being used to detect anomalies in real time, automate reconciliation and reporting, and reduce compliance risk and audit failures.
“In finance, you can’t afford hallucinations. AI must beat the assurance level of a human,” said SAP’s CFO, highlighting AI’s role in strengthening, not replacing, human oversight.
However, Generative AI is only as strong as the data that powers it. One issue some financial institutions face is that their HR, finance, risk, and customer data are all housed in separate silos. SAP offers a seamless integration of applications, data, and AI in one ecosystem.
With Business AI, financial institutions can enhance forecasting and planning. Now, for example, banks can use HR data such as attrition and recruiting to refine cost forecasts, and automate bottom-up budget models instead of relying on subjective, top-down estimates. This leads to faster and more objective forecasting.
Joule for finance
When it comes to Business AI for finance and spend management, it’s all about efficiency. AI-copilot Joule partners with SAP Document and Reporting Compliance to translate complex e-invoicing errors into natural language. This way, error misunderstandings will be a thing of the past.
Joule enhancements in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition will increase efficiency with proactive sales order fulfillment monitoring, direct fixed asset master data creation, and price adjustment suggestions. And for SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition, Joule helps users with field logistics, cash management, contract analysis, and streamlines convergent invoicing processes. The first Joule agents are now available in spend management.
“Regardless of the use case, we are placing special focus on trust, explainability, and control,” said Asam. Last fall, SAP updated its Global AI Ethics Policy to ground it in the human-rights centered approach of the UNESCO Recommendation on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence. “We do this to deliver Business AI that drives relevant outcomes, activates reliable insights, and scales responsibly.”
The bottom line
SAP sees this supercycle as a chance to rewire the enterprise for agility, accuracy, and control. Financial services organizations that embrace AI with the right governance and integration strategy will:
- Improve efficiency
- Help ensure compliance
- Gain real-time business insights
- Stay competitive in a data-driven economy
“This is not optional – we work every day, day in and day out, to make sure businesses benefit from this tremendous opportunity,” Asam underlined. For SAP and its financial services clients, AI is a now-or-never moment.
Many SAP customers in the financial service industry are heeding the call.
During his keynote at the same event, Stephan Paxmann, Chief Innovation Officer, Landesbank Baden-Württemberg (LBBW), corroborated Asam’s view that AI is a now-or-never-moment.
“AI in fintech is already pervasively integrated, quietly reshaping our lives,” said Paxmann, expanding on the topic in a recent article on SAP BrandVoice. “It’s transforming financial services, not with sudden disruption, but through a gradual, pragmatic shift that empowers people, augments human tasks, and requires thoughtful, responsible integration—especially around data, usability, and trust.”
In closing, both financial experts agree that AI is not just another tech trend – it’s a tectonic shift. Those who understand and adapt early will be best positioned to ride the wave.
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