The Business of Conscience

Conscience = critical thought + acting together to effect change. Our formula for the conscientious business is built on a willingness to think issues through in a critical way, from the perspective of all stakeholders (which requires both self-insight and awareness of others) and the will to work together to deliver transformative change. This means businesses need to integrate conscience into the core of their business. To make conscience explicit and usable, a company will often put its belief system into words, by using such concepts as purpose (its raison d’être) and principles (the fundamental tenets that guide acts). This is not exactly conscience, which is irreducible and beyond language but is rather a proxy for it. Conscience comes to life when purpose and principles are used to adapt to the specific contexts in which choices have to be made. Here, we argue that there are three attributes of a business with a conscience—fair, open and responsible—which can enable them to both do the right thing and be profitable. But, as our guest writer, Brian Berkey, reminds us there can be conflicts between ethics and profits and that this sometimes means making difficult choices.