Inspired Capital - A Blueprint for Sustainable Business Success in a Brave New World

Are you and your organisation battling to keep up with the rate of change in your industry and the world today? Are the old ways of thinking and doing things simply not working for you any more, and is this causing you and your people to fear excessively about the future? If this is the case, it may be some comfort to know that you are not alone. A recent survey* conducted by IBM of 1,541 CEO’s and senior executives of large organisations around the world revealed that the majority felt that radical change and the extremely rapid rate of change in their industries and the world was their biggest challenge and they felt their organisations were ill-equipped to deal with the challenges created by this change.

The current worldwide economic recession, the recent collapse of many financial institutions and governments around the world and climate change and environmental destruction are all changes that are symptomatic of a deeper underlying problem with the industrial-age system of capitalism that spawned them. You may be able to see the truth of this and that there is a deeper systemic problem with the whole system we call ‘capitalism’ which makes the system unsustainable in the long term, but you may not be able to see how we can collectively create a sustainable system that will solve the problems created by the old system and what you and your organisation can do to be part of the solution rather than the problem.

This is because a new paradigm (defined as ‘a theoretical framework or model for understanding’) is required to understand how to solve the problems we have created as a society through our adherence to the principles and practices of industrial-age capitalism. Albert Einstein stated this principle very eloquently when he wrote: “The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.” As Plato, another enlightened mind from a different age, said, “All wisdom begins with the definition of terms”, so what is required to solve the problems humanity now faces is a new definition of wealth that is not limited to money and the purely financial capital that is the bottom-line measure of performance in industrial-age organisations and the raison d’etre for their existence, as well as a new way of measuring wealth based on this more holistic definition of wealth.

‘Inspired Capital’ is a definition of wealth and capital that refers to the extent to which an organisation creates ‘Whole Wealth’, which is what results in a better quality of life for its customers, employees, stakeholders, partners, society as a whole and all other sentient life. What is measured in an organisation is what is managed, so using a performance metric that measures the extent to which Whole Wealth is created in an organisation is critical to ensure that everyone in the organisation is aware of and properly compensated and motivated by the extent to which they are acting in accordance with the organisation’s collectively agreed positive values that align the organisation with its long-term vision to create Whole Wealth and Inspired Capital as a measure of it.

Creating Whole Wealth and Inspired Capital is the challenge and the opportunity facing every business in the world today, or as the CEO of Wal-Mart, Lee Scott, put it, “Sustainability is the single biggest business opportunity of the 21st century… it will be the next main source of competitive advantage.” And the way to make your business truly sustainable? In the IBM Global CEO Study, the majority of the CEO’s surveyed identified creativity as the most important factor that will determine their organisation’s success or failure in the next decade.

Clearly, business leaders have to stop doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result, which Einstein said was the definition of insanity, and start exploring new ways of thinking and acting driven by more positive values than the fear and greed that have largely characterised the business world over the last two centuries to ensure the future survival and prosperity in the brave new world that is rapidly unfolding around us of not only their businesses, but perhaps also of the human race as a whole.

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This article was written by Jonathan Quail, the CEO of Lifebuild, an organisation whose mission is to empower and inspire individuals and organisations to transform themselves and experience a happier, healthier, more meaningful and more productive existence as a result. Jonathan has created a unique performance metric called the ‘Inspired Capital Index’ (ICI) that measures the extent to which an organisation creates Inspired Capital and facilitates a transformation of the values lived by people within organisations so these values, and behaviours and systems and processes that are their tangible expression, come into alignment with the organisation’s long-term vision of sustainable prosperity for all its stakeholders. For more information about the Inspired Capital Index, please contact Jonathan by emailing him on This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or calling him on +27(0)71-853-2368.