'Companies that Mimic Life****: Leaders of the Emerging Corporate Renaissance' is a #book by @Joseph Bragdon that chronicles the radical transformation taking root in the corporate world. Industrial capitalism is broken. The signs transcend national ideologies and are everywhere: climate change; ecological overshoot; financial exhaustion; fraying social safety nets; corporate fraud; government deceit; civic unrest; terrorism; and war. But there is hope. This book tells how transformation is taking root in the corporate world—the last place many would look for solutions. The ideal of "organization-as-machine," which has been dominant for hundreds of years into the late 20th century, is giving way to an ideal of "organization-as-@Living System." Understanding that everything of value ultimately arises from life, they place a higher value on living assets (people and Nature) than they do on nonliving assets—a practice called @Living Asset Stewardship (LAS). The operating leverage of LAS resides in the speed of learning and adaptation. LAS is a skill that relies on a heightened corporate consciousness. Consciousness is a unique property of life and so, the more lifelike companies become, the more conscious they become. Companies that mimic life exhibit six @Six Lifelike Qualities that are present in all life from single-cell organisms to large ecosystems. These six qualities are (1) decentralized, self-organizing @Networked Structures whose component parts serve the health of the whole; (2)@Regenerative Life Strategies that increase opportunities for survival, reproduction, and improvement of cultural DNA; (3) @Frugal Instincts that seek to optimize their use of resources; (4) @Openness To Feedback that enables adaptive learning; (5) @Symbiotic Behaviors that link individual wellbeing in the health of the larger systems in which they exist; and (6) @Consciousness of capabilities, interdependencies, and limits. Companies that Mimic Life shows the intuitiveness of @Ecocentric Capitalism by telling the stories of @Unilever, @Nucor, @United Technologies Corporation, @Novo Nordisk, @Henkel, and @Nike. Companies that Mimic Life was recommended to us by @Mike Mollé of @Comar-Mollé.

Reflections

“This is one of the world’s most important books on leadership and corporate consciousness. [...] It is part of the Corporate Renaissance.” ~ *Steen Hildebrandt, Professor and Adjunct Professor, Aarhus University and Copenhagen Business School *

“Jay Bragdon has done a great service with this wonderful book, which turns a well-focused microscope onto some of the world’s most inspiring stories of corporate sustainability transformation.” ~ Alan AtKisson, CEO, AtKisson Group

References

Contexts

#companies-that-mimic-life (this memo is the @Root Memo)
#bookclub (See: @Citizens' Bookclub)
#recommended-book
#frequently-reading