iKarma

It's the End of the World as we Know it.

Meaning of Life

www.MeaningofLife.tv is an interesting project hosted by Slate.com.  The author of the book "NonZero", Robert Wright does a fantastic job interviewing some of today's brightest minds on the subject of belief and the meaning of life.  Here's an interesting conversation he had with the evolutionary biologist Daniel Dennett.

Stuart Davis: Reminding us that the whole point of saving the planet, is saving the planet for humanity.

John Mackey; The Pee Wee Herman of Wall Street?

Everyone masturbates.  John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods just got caught doing it.  I don't have a problem with what John did, but I'm not the SEC, nor a lawsuit hungry securities attorney.  I fear that by the time they get through with him there won't be much left.  What a shame.  I personally think John is a great CEO and a good human being.   As I mentioned in a pre-scandle post, I consider him a Business Hero.  From what I've read, he didn't bet against his own team and he didn't disclose any non-public information.  He also wasn't knocking the competition during the time period when he was thinking of buying them.  I was also looking forward to John Mackey joining the advisory board at Integral Institute, a group I support.  I understand he had been invited to do so by Ken WIlber, the founder of the integral movement. 

As the CEO of a small public company myself, I can understand the temptation John felt to express himself freely.  Google automatically sends me an alert every time my company, iKarma, is mentioned on the internet.  I'm sure John Mackey got the same alerts for Whole Foods.  It's good for a CEO to know what the public is saying.  But people often say things on-line that I wish I could respond to, but ethically and/or legally can't.  This is especially true about the stock boards.  Over the past 10 years cheap electronic trading has enabled the growth of a small army of day traders. These traders often survive by betting on small stock movements of a fraction of a cent.  Many (most) get desperate as the cruel mathematics of the game take its inevitable toll.  On line day trading is like a virtual Las Vegas where the house takes one percent rather than five.  It often takes a months for traders to learn the hard lessons about betting against the house on Wall Street that can be learned in a single Vegas weekend.  As a result, the stock boards are awash with desperate traders who will say almost anything to try and move their stocks up or down and avoid going back to their day job.

 

Because I'm the CEO of a very small company whose stock price could actually be moved by comments on a stock board, I refuse to even look at the boards.  I don't need the frustration of not being able to respond, and I don't want the temptation.  But John Mackey really wasn't in my situation.  Whole Foods is a huge company with a massive market cap.  I doubt that the trading volume generated by the Yahoo board ever moved the stock of Whole Foods more than a penny during John's time there.  So I can understand how John may have seen his anonymous posts as a harmless pastime.  Given the nature of the misinformation found on some boards he may have even seen it as a public service.  As long as he remained anonymous, it was.  Had John simply hired a professional PR firm to engage day traders in electrical intercourse, none of this would be a problem.  But he didn't; ironically for an ethical company like Whole Foods that would have been an irresponsible use of company funds.  Now John Mackey, one of the best and brightest CEO's in the world is about to become the Pee Wee Herman of Wall Street.  What a waste.

This is why the internet beats television.

Allerca / LifestylePets Scam?

When I first heard about an allergy free cat several years ago I rushed to send in my deposit and get on the waiting list.  I'm allergic to cats but I'm married to a cat lover.  Now it appears I may be lucky to get my money back.
Allerca, the company behind Allerca.com and lifestylePets.com appears to be a scam.  While this company has been featured in Time Magazine, CBS Morning News and The Rachael Ray Show, it appears that reporters for these organizations may have been duped.  Anyone thinking about buying an allergy free cat, or putting a deposit on one of their new Ashera cross breeds would be well advised to first read the following reports by the diligent reporters at TheScientist Magazine and the San Diego Union Tribune.  Here are the links:

http://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/39383/
http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/53265/
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/business/20061028-9999-1b28brodie.html
Additional links can be found on the Allerca Wiki at:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allerca

Keywords: allerca, lifestyle pets, allergy free, allergy, allergies, simon brodie, fel d1, fel-d1,Hypoallergenic cats, ashera, allerca.com, lifestylepets.com

Conscious Capitalism: Creating a New Paradigm for Business

I've been a fan of John Mackay, the CEO of Whole Foods, for several years.  In an age where corporate scandal and capitalist excess can be found on every corner, John stands out as a real live business hero.  His holistic business philosophy extends far beyond the limited old-school concepts of supply and demand.  For those of us who are still optimistic about the possibility of being both good human beings as well as successful business people, John Mackey has blazed the path and mapped the course.  Beyond supply and demand.  Beyond game theory.  Beyond systems theory and beyond the latest business book gimick or strategy.  John Mackey presents a holistic and integral way to do business that is as good for consumers as it is for the bottom line.  I urge everyone to take a moment and really read and digest what this modern day business hero has to say.  Enjoy!

Conscious Capitalism: Creating a New Paradigm for Business

The Empathy Symbol

I found this at www.EmpathySymbol.com.  The simple peace sign has always seems just a little too simple to me.  I believe empathy is a quality that is too often lacking in business, politics and life in general.  I also believe that empathy is probably one of the most important forms of human intelligence.
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Give Empathy A Chance!
a symbol for today

Use the Empathy Symbol to Foster Connection

Heinz Kohut defined empathy as "the capacity to think and feel oneself into the inner life of another person.” We think that's what the world needs today. As the cultural wars rage — West vs. East, Judeo/Christians vs. Muslims, Red States vs. Blue States — what we all need is to walk in each others' shoes, to empathize with the other’s position, situation, upbringing, life experiences and feelings. Empathy leads to respect and caring for each other, and that is the sure path to peace.

The empathy symbol stands for reaching out to the “other” and then opening up to truly understand each other. Use the empathy symbol to indicate your support for a world in which we all can get along.

The empathy symbol is copyright © 2006 by Deborah Kolbo Ellsworth. Individual use is encouraged without permission as long as the copyright is present. For organizational use please contact us.

Mystery Solved!

Holacracy™

It has always seemed odd to me that our belief in democracy stops at the doorway of our belief in capitalism.  We are a democratic society populated by millions of little business dictatorships.  I never really thought any other structure might be workable until I read the interview below.

An Interview with Brian Robertson
President of Ternary Software, Inc. on
Holacracy™

( See also: Sociocracy and/or Holocracy )