I’ve been thinking about career best practices + the reform opportunities available for both career businesses + career professionals.  Last year a term started to come back around + to the economic policy forefront called Stakeholder Capitalism.

Investopedia defines Stakeholder Capitalism as “a system in which corporations are oriented to serve the interests of all their stakeholders. Among the key stakeholders are customers, suppliers, employees, shareholders, and local communities. Under this system, a company's purpose is to create long-term value and not to maximize profits and enhance shareholder value at the cost of other stakeholder groups… a stakeholder has an interest in the performance of a company.”

More than ever, leadership experience + performance management should be driving your thoughtful discussions as a career business owner + work professional.

Last year, the World Economic Forum launched a fresh set of ethical principles for companies that were outlined in a new Davos Manifesto.  As I reviewed the manifestos of 1973 and 2020, my imagination started thinking about how business leaders and workers can provide meaningful changes coming out of the current pandemic to help us reform our careers with better-working structures + systems.  

This is a new era. How will capitalism affect your career?

In the midst of the present crisis, new jobs are being created + new markets will be unveiled. There are careers not yet seen, but in “career creator ovens”, that will impact economic recovery + the future growth of many industries. Ah, did I say future?

What a great lead in to discuss our next generations in the workplace that have been rocking the world with a different level of creativity and textured concern. I see a convergence of thought where the principles + goals of Stakeholder Capitalism align with the 2019 Deloitte Global Human Capital Trends article describing ways the employer/employee experience should become more human. In fact, Millennials + Gen Zers desire “bottom-up” individualized experiences at companies that prioritize workers, society + the environment. This may be an opportune time to reform your business purpose plan, refresh your idea of careers, + reform the human experience in this 21st-century career development era.

How does this type of capitalism affect you as a career business leader or career professional? Your influence can shape your workplace with a primary decision to make an ethical global impact.  Addressing gaps in outdated work systems + human capital connectivity can promote the whole health of business organizations. Renewed focus on creating more transparent human experiences may turn a failing stakeholder strategy + collaboration around.

Take a look at the environmental, social + governance criteria (ESG) + sustainable development goals (SDG) of corporate governance, which help career creators envision a broader portrait of business sustainability + shared goals.  The comprehensive health of your stakeholders determines your business health. The economic, social + environmental health of your employees, investors, suppliers + customers determines mutual career success. As a career professional, your input + work contribution determines the critical role of mutual productivity in stakeholder relationships.

As a career creator, here are 3 ways to grab your stake and ultimately expand career business + worker success going forward.

1.     As a Career Business Owner: Refocus on stakeholders. First, revisit your business purpose, mission statement + core values. Look at your short + long-term goals. Identify the ones that are shared with your stakeholders + realign. This is where you should start to analyze how 21st-century innovation and growth can benefit your business + stakeholders moving forward. Don’t shy away from your sustainability thresholds. Boldly uncover transformation in what you’re seeing financially that’s trending locally, nationally + globally. It’s time to innovate!

A robust analysis + reformed communication plan will prevent you from missing the forward mark. How do you see your business and its’ defining moment to build + sustain a healthy culture of innovation and growth in your industry sector? Fine-tune your business metrics such as customer loyalty, quality stakeholder leads, productivity ratios, employee retention, business growth, and all of the processes that need a vigorous, spirited tune-up. Become an active career business creator to resolve the stakeholder conflicts that exist in your industry niche for success.

Is the current economic crisis affecting the human predicament within your day-to-day business operations? As you experience and watch businesses pausing, struggling, or shuttering, own the reality that there is a human tight-spot within every stakeholder relationship + their vested interest. The new Corporate purpose for all mantra pressing businesses to acknowledge the stakeholder capitalist mind shift that’s been highlighted in major 2019/20 roundtable forums. If you questioned the long-term value of reinvesting in business risk + performance quality, it’s a great time to revisit this internal discussion with your team, which should include executive, managerial + lower-tier workers. The new era chant is humming new Commitment to all.

2.     As a Career Industry Professional: Refocus on productivity, reskilling + new era benefits. Your compensation will be commensurate with your ability to rapidly upgrade your experience + skills. The benefits must be creatively negotiated. I understand we are in a health crisis. However, the economy will boon; NOW IS THE TIME to reskill + upskill. Digital tools should be your knife and fork. Not surprising, you are at a creative banquet in a productive environment to dream career big. What does long-term prosperity look like for you in your career?

Discover productivity success by considering how you’ll use your strongest asset in 3, 5 + 10 years. Move into an uncomfortable imaginative moment. Take your strongest hard + soft asset + see yourself displaying your productivity across industries (technology, consumer retail, education, media, health, etc.). Now imagine how you can produce and create your career in each one. This exercise will expand your assessment of how you can become productive and grow your career with your shared stakeholders. Start nurturing your productivity. Align with the shared core values of your stakeholders and yield fresh ideas for industry growth.

Create value + invest in yourself. Post-secondary educational learning will be assumed by those cheering you on as a serious life-long career creator. Right now, notable + prestigious universities are offering free courses with certifications or classes at an enormously discounted cost in areas such as computer science, business, data science, health, medicine, education, and other forecast-growth industries.  We are in a historic 5-generation workforce. Older workers are sharing their tacit knowledge while younger ones are offering reverse-shadowing. I believe this inter-generational power-sharing among business + career professionals will bring shared value to its shared stakeholders. May I call this a win-win-win?

Make the long-term decision to work for businesses that foster upskilling and are committed to investing in reskilling budgets. Does the business have social + environmental responsibility in its mission? What impact are you anticipating making in your career in the next 10 years that will affect your employer + their stakeholders, your community, environment + society? A career creator is always incorporating a long-term, broad-based work plan into their destiny for life-long career success.

Another material issue that concerns your work is employee benefits. Our worker benefit systems are underperforming for segments of employees (gig workers, part-time workers, low-wage workers, independent contractors, discrimination with aging workers, etc.). Should employment benefit, unemployment + transition-support systems be overhauled to create new robust policies, laws + structures along with innovative governmental systems for long-term value, health + success? How can new benefit blueprints come forward to assist your workforce profession? Presently what rights do you have as a shared stakeholder? Businesses must join with their stakeholders to adequately supply benefits that will ultimately sustain you + your relationship together. Don’t be afraid to start the conversation with local, national + international think tanks to help design a new, emerging landscape for career creators.

3.     As a part of Global Business Society: Focus on human, environmental + economic growth. Have we moved into the Triple Bottom Line or “3Ps” framework approach to gain a broader perspective for a greater value? Even with digital advances, every creative step begins with human hands put forth to the earth to start the next frontier of economic change. Stakeholder capitalism includes area topics of people, planet + profit, + although I believe the concepts aren’t the same, I do feel they could be discussed together if an action plan with/for shared stakeholders will be designed with essential performance measurement tools.

Given the business and career tumult we’ve seen (and experienced) during this pandemic, global society is queued-up for stakeholder capitalism. International stakeholders that share the thought, “It’s time for values change” are ready to explore how the next wave of global corporate/governance change can happen. Again, career creators are now moving from thinking to doing - - from principle to practice. Are you in that number?

What are some keys to help us turn this concept into an actionable initiative?

·       Learn the societal, community, economic, environmental factors that affect your stakeholders. Know their “pain points”.

·       Listen to your stakeholders so you can receive + interpret material issues correctly.

·       Empathize with your stakeholders. You can’t help them grow if you don’t understand their needs.

·       Create Measurement tools that show benchmarks + a deliverable-based plan.

·       Bring major influencers to the global forefront that is using this model to drive economic success for their stakeholders. Have them create a best practices procedural tool that can be shared + taught globally.

·       Be ethically + morally responsible for a global society, environment + economy.

Career businesses have to figure out how to capitalize +bring people into their companies that have been excluded from the traditional workplace. Bring the workforce back with respect, inclusion + dignity.

Career professionals have to figure out how to capitalize on the valuable resources offered when businesses invest in them to provide a comprehensive on-boarding process, reskilling, upskilling + learning development opportunities. Return investment back to the company with genuine loyalty, long-term commitment.

All stakeholders will embrace your effort to invest in one another’s life-long success as a humanitarian duty and obligation. More importantly, they’ll applaud you for reforming careers you were destined to transform!

Living Life Today making creative changes for career success!

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