Being the Buddha Boss by Michelle Cromer

Introduction

You know why I like Star Wars IV, A New Hope? Because good overcomes evil, courage is rewarded, and when you help someone, you end up helping yourself. I find it fascinating that the only people who fought with the light sabers in this film were Darth Vader, Obi Wan Kenobi and Luke Skywalker. It seems these light sabers were Force-sensitive.

We in the business world are in the middle of a Star Wars movie. In October 2008, as companies began to collapse overnight, the battle of Wall Street bled black, white and red all over the stock market pages of the newspapers worldwide, people panicked, and the theme of the presidential debate went from foreign policy to economics overnight, as some of the nation’s oldest companies hanging on by a thread, waited for word from the White House regarding whether they might be given a second chance. The dark side of the force had shown its face, and it wasn’t wearing a black helmet or breathing through a complicated machine-it looked like you and me. This battle spread to each of us as we thought about our personal roles in the meltdown and contemplated the new role of business in the emerging 21st century. Greed was out, the question was-what was in?

Perhaps some of us realized we weren’t facing an economic crisis, but a spiritual one. Our system is not flawed and corporations are not bad, rather the individuals who work within the system oftentimes are. We have allowed Darth Vader to run our organizations and now it is time to invite Buddha into the boardroom.

In Being the Buddha, I wrote that all of us who are breathing must learn to master our lower-self and become our higher-self. We must master fear and separative thinking and transcend our negative-ego thought system. It’s time we evolve in our consciousness to think and feel from the Buddha consciousness. In order to accomplish this, we must become balanced within ourselves and have a relationship with a Higher Power before we can be effective and successful in all our outer endeavors.

The next cycle in our evolution is much-needed merger. Spirituality points to the meaning of life; business is about the bottom-line. But, when consolidated-in spiritual capitalism-we have a growing movement that is taking an integrative approach by making the connection between our businesses, our work and us.

The world of business is being transformed by companies that are embracing this new paradigm shift. To these new mavericks, taking care of business means taking care of others.  Not just because it is the right thing to do, but because spiritual capitalism is a smart business move. Employees and managers who embrace spiritual values such as respect and forgiveness are happier-and therefore more productive.

At the same time, increasingly, consumers are using their purchasing power to reshape companies. The popularity of the green movement, organic produce and the growth of the socially responsible investment sector, a two-trillion-dollar business according to the Social Investment Forum, are testament to the fact that the perceived conflict between “doing good” and “making money” is on its way out and companies that embrace spiritual capitalism are in. Sixty-five percent of American consumers say they would change brands associated with a good cause if the price and quality were equal. Sixty-six percent of recent college graduates will not work for companies with poor social values. And more than 60 million people are willing to pay a premium for socially and responsible products.

More and more CEOs talk about stakeholders, which is a group that includes personnel, clients and vendors-in an attempt to show that these firms serve a broader audience than just shareholders. Spiritual capitalism goes one step further. It takes an integrative approach towards business and makes the connection between your business or work and you.  A movement that at first was championed by a small circle of idealists has now grown into a massive and much-needed development. As a former partner of the largest multi-cultural advertising agency in the Southwest, a career I left to contemplate the deeper meaning of life and to travel to the acupuncture points on the globe, I can attest to the fact that this movement has arrived in the middle of the perfect economic storm.

Being the Buddha Boss captures eight American companies that are all offering a new model for conducting business through values-based leadership working in the traditional free-enterprise system.  Based on the Buddhist practice of the Eightfold Path, these companies are examples of the Buddhist concepts of Right View, Right Intention, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, and Right Concentration. They all reflect what the Buddha encouraged-an eight-step path that can lead us individually and our companies away from greed and into our own awakening.

Many of the companies I interviewed offer employees paid time off to serve their communities. These programs build strong teams and galvanize the company’s greatest resource-the employee-as a unified force for change.

Some offer service sabbaticals, which give the employees the opportunity to think big and create and even greater change at a non-profit organization of their choice. In some cases the length of service can be up to six months. Many companies gave two weeks off to any employee who wanted to provide immediate assistance to those affected by the devastation from Hurricane Katrina.

Twenty-five hundred years ago, the Buddha defined mission statements for corporate America, and each of the companies featured in the book have embraced the Buddha’s philosophy that:

1. Generosity is not optional.
2. Everyone is responsible for himself or herself.
3. We have a spiritual obligation to respond compassionately to those in need.

I invite you to grab your light saber, to be the Buddha boss at your business or organization and to embrace a different, but much-needed, approach to how society can be structured and organizations can be led. By refocusing our intentions, capitalism can evolve into a system that incorporates human values without losing the benefits of free-market economy.