海角大神

Thanks to his unorthodox philosophy and a recent kerfuffle over the use of the term 鈥渇ascism,鈥� a certain grocery store CEO鈥檚 book is getting a lot of attention this week.

In 鈥�,鈥� Whole Foods co-founder and CEO John Mackey puts forward a bold, and controversial, perspective on running a business. His philosophy, the perhaps oxymoronically named "conscious capitalism," has earned Mackey a legion of fans as well as detractors who have vowed to boycott Whole Foods in opposition to the CEO鈥檚 approach.

鈥淐onscious Capitalism鈥� explains Mackey鈥檚 maverick philosophy on business, a view which advocates that companies must have a higher purpose than simply making money. In Mackey鈥檚 view, that higher purpose is creating value and lifting people out of poverty and he argues that we need to redefine capitalism as such to flourish as a society.

鈥淢y co-author Raj Sisodia and I describe this as a way of thinking about business to ensure that it is grounded in a higher purpose to enhance its positive impact on the world,鈥� Mackey said in an interview with . 鈥淲hen reinvented in this way, capitalism is an extraordinarily powerful system of value creation mutually聽benefiting聽all stakeholders.鈥�

The book is also a personal memoir of sorts that charts Mackey鈥檚 remarkable journey to success. A college dropout who dabbled in Eastern philosophy, yoga, vegetarianism (he is now a vegan), and 1960s counterculture, Mackey started a natural foods store in Austin in 1978 with his girlfriend, Renee Lawson Hardy. Named with a wink and a nod, Safer Way was a spoof on Safeway, which operated several grocery stores nearby. Two years later, Mackey and Hardy merged with another natural foods store to open Whole Foods, which they began slowly expanding starting in 1984.聽

Now Whole Foods is an $11 billion Fortune 300 company and the largest natural foods store in the US with more than 340 locations in the US, Canada, and the UK. Besides kale chips, sustainably caught salmon, fair trade coffee, and organic chard, the store is known for its responsible business practices, including providing all employees with health care and capping executive pay at 19 times the company鈥檚 hourly wage.

Mackey details this and other tools of 鈥渃onscious capitalism鈥� in his book, which he considers a blueprint for a new kind of capitalism that creates values and benefits all stakeholders, including customers, employees, investors, the greater community, and the environment.

The outspoken CEO recently found himself in hot water while promoting his book. In a discussion about President Obama鈥檚 health care overhaul with 鈥檚 Steve Inskeep, Mackey expressed his staunch opposition to the new health care legislation, which he characterized as 鈥榝ascism.鈥�

鈥淭echnically speaking, it's more like fascism. Socialism is where the government owns the means of production. In fascism, the government doesn't own the means of production, but they do control it 鈥� and that's what's happening with our health care programs and these reforms.鈥�

The comment drew a firestorm of 鈥� including from angry Whole Foods shoppers who vowed to boycott the store 鈥� and forced Mackey to step back his comments.

He first apologized for his comments in a interview and later in a blog in which Mackey said he regrets using the term, which 鈥渢oday stirs up too much negative emotion with its horrific associations in the 20th century.鈥�

One thing is for sure, that eclectic grocery bag of topics 鈥� fascism, organic produce, responsible capitalism, and a billion-dollar natural foods success story 鈥� has many more of us curious about 鈥淐onscious Capitalism.鈥�

Husna Haq is a Monitor correspondent.