Conscious Business®
– a corporate philosophy that inspires people to fulfill themselves through work
The term “business” is so ingrained in our lives that it feels natural: a human, a flower, a business. We speak of companies as if they were living things with goals, aspirations, and challenges. But we forget that everything a business achieves or fails to achieve starts with people.
Like fish unaware of the water around them, we often overlook this human factor. And yet, it is always humans who either execute a strategy or stand in the way of its execution.
Our habits, our mindsets, and the way we collaborate determine how sharply a business can adapt to a new strategy and how fast it can grow. That’s why the first step toward growth is
developing conscious awareness of this human dimension, seeing clearly how our beliefs, fears, and behaviors shape results.
What Conscious Business Means
Conscious Business is a term coined by Fred Kofman of Axialent’s co-founders in the early 2000s. It describes an organization where personal success is aligned with team success, and team success is aligned with business success.
Why shouldn’t those be aligned? For decades we’ve known that a good workplace isn’t defined by perks or even friendships, but by fairness and shared purpose. A place where people know what’s expected of them, work together toward common goals, and feel that their growth contributes to something larger.
A Conscious Business is not a perfect one, it’s a human one. It’s a place where people recognize the strengths and limitations in how they see reality, face it with honesty, and work together to become more effective in reaching their goals. It’s a place where people take responsibility, accept each other’s humanity, and put the long-term good of the business above short-term personal gain, not out of forced altruism, but from the understanding that real success lifts everyone.
Beyond Business Success
Modern corporations have become, for many, a source of exhaustion rather than fulfillment. Nearly nine in ten employees report symptoms of burnout or fatigue. Over 80% experience chronic stress, and two-thirds describe their work environment as toxic. This suffering is bad for people and bad for business. Burnt-out employees cannot drive ambitious goals.
But most of this suffering doesn’t come from bad people. It comes from well-intentioned people trapped in systems that reward politics, favoritism, and bureaucracy instead of clarity, fairness, and truth. Renewal begins when leaders stop sweeping these issues under the rug. When they develop awareness of how their culture actually works. When they model integrity and call out behaviors that go against shared values.
By doing so, they create a different kind of organization, one that is psychologically safe, where people collaborate better, achieve more, and choose to stay longer.
We help you design and build Conscious Businesses.
