Towards a Regenerative Business Culture

The long story that led here – all roads leading us to a global human nation.
As humans evolved since at least 200,000 years, when we walked out of Africa and spread across the globe, when we were tribes.

We saw the rise of kingdoms, empires, and today nation states. We moved from tribal bartering societies, to feudal exploitative societies, later giving away to mercantile societies with trade-based economies, what then evolved to what we have today which is capitalism.

 

Although wars have marked our memories and been engraved in our histories, the stories we tell one another, the larger share of our existence is in fact characterised by coexistence, sharing and cooperation.

 

Capitalism itself has evolved much, but meanwhile other models were tried to promote fairer distribution of income, to promote higher social welfare, centralised planning of resource and wealth distribution, either as nationalist models or open trading nations. Today we have a largely prevalent global capitalist economy, where the most neo-liberal form of capitalism has taken hold with markets and the global financial systems dominating the agenda. From the onset of capitalism large businesses evolved into corporations that worked hand-in-hand with nation states through extractive and exploiting business models that shape today’s economies, closely linked to imperial ventures of nation states.

 

One thing that hasn’t changed for at least 200 thousand years is that we have been humans and we have many shared stories. In this game the majority have generally remained out of the game, although the trickle-down effect, or better said, the labour-based societies have seen some benefits that gave rise to better distribution of wealth, largely through wage labour, and the emergence of the middle class.

 

Empires came and went, but colossal corporations have grown to dominate our economy, wielding more power and influence than nation states together.  Today corporations control most of the world’s wealth and resources that are ultimately owned or controlled by a handful of individuals through a web of holding companies in offshore havens and managed through globally operating institutional investment firms. The current market-led globalised capitalism has resulting in unprecedented concentration of global wealth where only 1% of the world’s population own more than 80% of the wealth and resources – and over 80% of the income goes to the top 10% of the world’s population whilst the bottom 50% of the poorest receive almost none of the wealth. At the same time, the production system and consumption behaviour that is embedded and promoted by the current economy is no longer sustainable. There is no way the ecosystem can bear the brunt of the replication of the modern way of life across emerging economies such as China, India, Russia, Brazil (so called BRIC nations), and new emerging economies in Latin America and Africa.

 

Besides the environmental catastrophe that awaits us if we don’t radically change course, the societies can not be sustained on such a concentration of wealth in the hands of so few. The democratic model that has been the cornerstone of modern capitalism sustained by the middle class is being challenged.

 

Digitisation has brought about the global finance and the digital commerce economy which facilitates the efficient real-time flow of funds to the few that dominate the system. In the digital form of capitalism, a handful of firms dominate the information and data across societies. We have evolved from feudal societies to capitalism, and now to surveillance and consumer capitalism powered by digitisation, automation, combined with the borderless globalisation of trade and finance. The separation of corporate conduct and individual responsibility, with the hidden nature of owners of capital and non transparent mechanisms, there has been a moral and ethical degradation that is seen across society, particularly in businesses and government – seen as the revolving doors that often work between senior corporate leaders and high-level government positions.

 

Professionals and small businesses struggle to survive, serving the corporations or carving a niche in society. There is a growing awareness by many across the globe that the current model is directly responsible for our predicament. The inherited system is crashing and would take us all down with it. In this old model the wealthy may be able to minimise the burden and impact of the environmental collapse, but they will find it hard to escape the wrath of the societal unrest that will come with it – if we let this decline continue.

 

The 'consumers' that support the extractive society are complicit silent partners. There is often a blame-game regarding responsibility: is it the consumers that demand the consumerist lifestyle who are responsible, or the producers that externalise costs and avoid extended producer responsibility? Who promotes consumerism?

 

There is on the other hand a growing and reassuring movement that is the kindle of the light of a new promising economy and global society to come. The Human Nation emerges from and represents the new global society of individuals and professionals that look beyond nation states or corporations, or mere employment – looking for purpose and meaning, with hope to build a regenerative culture that our children will be proud to have inherited. The emerging society recognises the commonality amongst human beings across the globe and empathises with the common challenges we all face.

 

A growing number of people are aware of the transnational nature of the challenges we face where old structures no longer make sense to protect us from new challenges. Consumers are becoming ‘conscious consumers’ and are demanding action. Employees are demanding change. Some employers are responding. Investment banks are counting their risks; risking-in climatic, other ecological and societal risks.

 

We are co-creating a new global society and we need to build a new regenerative culture with a new economy, if we are to survive and thrive in the 21st century. In fact the next two to three decades are critical and will shape the future of humanity and determine the fate of many species on this planet, including ourselves.

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HumanNation project aims to act as a uniting force that embraces the new movement, recognising the common human fate, but also embracing the beauty of an ever more connected global human society, shared human values and universal truths. HumanNation acknowledges a higher purpose of humanity regardless of where we are on the planet, and is aware of the vast power and abundance that awaits us whenever we join forces and work together in community towards the common good.

HumanNation project aims to implement these changes playing its small but vital part by supporting the transformation towards a regenerative culture. We work together for the common good which is inherent in a regenerative culture.

Us humans, in business, at home and in our communities will bring about this new hopeful future by acting today and co-creating the new world we want to live in.