Perspectives

Welcome to the New Business Paradigm Rinaldo S. Brutoco is the Founding President and CEO of the Santa Barbara-based World Business Academy and a co-founder of JUST Capital. He’s a serial entrepreneur, executive, author, radio host, and futurist who’s published on the role of business in relation to pressing moral, environmental, and social concerns for over 35 years

Joanne is a professional international photographer and journalist. Contact her at: artraks@yahoo.com Lyle Lovett in Concert

As an impact investor and an early leader in the conscious capital movement starting in 1981, my career has been focused on creating mission-driven companies and inspiring business innovators to take responsibility for creating a better world. It has been a long journey, yet one that I believe is essential to having a peaceful and productive world. I see several signs that this idea is starting to bubble up into the business world zeitgeist. In January 2020, the World Economic Forum hosted its annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, with a brand new agenda to build a sustainability strategy for the future of business that implements the long-standing “stakeholder capitalism” missions of the World Business Academy (the Academy), which I founded in 1986, and JUST Capital, which I co-founded six years ago.

Each year at the meeting, global business and political leaders set the business agenda for the upcoming year. This year, following the Business Roundtable’s revolutionary 2019 update to the “Statement of Purpose” for corporations to be entities that serve all stakeholders, the annual Davos meeting had a goal of defining stakeholder capitalism in the post-Milton Friedman world.

Why does this idea sound so radical? In the early ‘70s Milton Friedman of the Chicago School of Economics famously stated that the sole purpose of business was to earn profits for shareholders, preferably on an accelerating quarterly basis, and all other stakeholders should be ignored. This deeply flawed concept became the “conventional wisdom” that almost all businesses followed. The Business Roundtable finally turned this dictum on its head by observing that the proper role of a corporation in modern society is to serve all its stakeholders, including employees, customers, vendors, shareholders, and communities. This is the biggest shift in business thinking since 1970 and poses revolutionary corollaries. Finally, we will see business begin to act as a servant of the society from which it emerges rather than as a predator of that same society.

Working for the adoption of stakeholder capitalism for 35 years, I know it is a ridiculous notion that somehow an economy can flourish

when the society from which it arises is suffering major dislocations. Business must be a reflection of the needs and desires of the larger society of which it is part in order to succeed. No one can make money today in Yemen but munitions makers – an unstable society is nowhere to make a profit. Hence, you can be certain that business has a major bias toward creating societal abundance for production, sales, and profits to continue growing into the future.

When the Business Roundtable redefined itself through the “Statement of Purpose” mentioned above, the Academy sent a letter to the President and CEO Josh Bolton acknowledging the monumental shift in the mindset. We offered to have JUST Capital monitor and report on the Roundtable’s newfound commitment to society as a way to convince the public that this was not going to be merely a whitewashing exercise.

JUST Capital is an independent nonprofit that ranks companies based on their level of stakeholder capitalism as defined by over 90,000 interviews of average Americans which in turn are reflected in annual rankings analyzing the behavior of the largest public companies in the U.S., and how well those companies are listening to what behaviors the public wants to see as “just.”

Showcased personally in numerous key meetings by Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum, JUST Capital lead the Davos conversations to catalyze a major statement released at the end of the meeting underscoring the assent of the stakeholder capitalism model to the pinnacle of business strategy.

As Klaus Schwab observed, “With the world at such critical crossroads, this year we must develop a ‘Davos Manifesto 2020’ to reimagine the purpose and scorecards for companies and governments. It is why the World Economic Forum was founded fifty years ago, and it is what we want to contribute to for the next fifty years.”

And that is exactly what they did. The meeting concluded with a list of 21 actions for 2021, including enhanced standards for transportation, supply chain management, work safety, data protection, and

Gracing our town with five-part harmonies from heaven, fourtime Grammy winner Lyle Lovett made a serious stop here with his all-strings acoustic band called Lyle Lovett and his Acoustic Group, presented by Arts & Lectures UCSB at Campbell Hall. One of 46 tour dates in a five-month spread across the country, he uses buses and schedules time after the show for good friends in each town. Here he gave a nod to many locals and L.A. fans in the audience, and some were honored with a song. Of note, the sponsor of the concert was Ms Loren Booth of Booth Ranches. His band opened the concert with a core acoustic intro, and then Lyle came full on with “Once Is Enough” and “Head Over Heels.” Moving seamlessly from his first LP, Lyle Lovett from 1986 on MCA Records at age 26, with the song, “God Will,” progressed to witty lyrics in “Queen of No-F,” “Pants,” and “She’s No Lady” and added a few sentimental issues, “A Private Conversation” and “12 of June.” Each member of his band is a superstar of their instrument with vocal ranges sans auto-tone or protools. On fiddle is Grammy winner Luke Bulla who has played with Lyle since 2014, Viktor Krauss on standup bass since 1994, Jeff White on lead guitar and mandolin since 2002,

employee welfare.

The Academy would like to formally honor the World Economic Forum for adopting, at last, the standards which they admit are truer to their founding principles than the Friedman aberration they adopted 50 years ago. This is a huge win for

• The Voice of the Village • Lyle Lovett and his Acoustic Group bringing it home at UCSB

and Josh Swift (Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver) on a Resophonic model slide guitar named after him, the Josh Swift Signature in black – total ear candy.

Weaving captivating and hilarious stories of the band members’ personal goings-on, winning and not winning Grammys and inviting them to retell a tale or two, Lyle also shared humble details about his family as an only child with lots of relatives growing up on a farm in Texas, family road trips, and cutting early chops at local steak restaurants for people who wanted to dance, with his sound system plugged into the restaurant’s food-ordering P.A. Lyle teasing the known-to-behealth-conscious California audience said, “Steak brings people of Texas together, you know, MEAT!”

Playing for over two hours straight up on his Bill Collings custom handmade acoustic vintage guitar using individual finger picks, he brought us home with rich, warm and eclectic music, coupled with compelling lyrics. Yes indeed, once again showing us why he is one of the most beloved artists working today. After a brief off-stage moment, he came back for a 20-minute encore. The finale, “That’s right you’re not from Texas” got everyone up, real happy and in Love-ett! •MJ

MONTECITO JOURNAL 27 consumers, employees, vendors, and everyone who participates in the global economy.

It is great news that the business community intends to be more involved in solving global issues, and, it has the additional benefit of being very good for business! •MJ