NigelZelcer021418.mp3
Broadcasting live from the business radio studios in Atlanta Georgia. It's time for Atlanta business radio spotlighting the city's best businesses and the people who lead them.
Meet Cantor here with stone Payton another episode of Atlanta business radio and stuff I'm excited about.
We'll good morning sir. I am too. This going to be a lot of fun. Get a studio full on it. To have. Great conversations. But first up on Atlanta business radio this morning it is my distinct pleasure to introduce co founder and managing partner with J.B. consulting and he's really here I like always I want to get caught up on what people are doing in their consulting practice when that's their case. What he's really here to talk a little bit about Conscious Capitalism. So please join me. In welcoming Nigel. Zeltserman. Good morning sir.
Well good morning and thank you for having me.
Well Nigel before we get into Conscious Capitalism why don't you tell us a little bit about J.B. And how are you folks. Yes sir we're a local management consulting firm with offices in Atlanta Dallas and Charlotte
And we help mid-market and Fortune 500 companies with people process technology and strategy issues and and work through them with them.
And your involvement with conscious capitalism how did that come about.
So Conscious Capitalism probably officially started six or seven years ago when I was at the 5000 conference. I was listening to a speaker and that Speaker was a private equity person. But everything they said about the culture of the company sounded like our company and I spoke to him later on and he said Well basically you're conscious caplets company. So Fishley six or seven years ago. But in reality being conscious couple in the beginning at the time.
Now what is conscious capitalism for those who are familiar with the term.
Yeah. At 30000 feet the concept of capitalism it's the greatest movement for helping humanity. But if we get to do it in a conscious way then we actually get to make the world a better place. And so at 30000 feet that's four major principles. We look at Puppis stakeholders ship leadership and coacher. Now I believe that capitalism in some respects has the needs of some PR help and it gets a bad name out there
For a lot of people. And I think that at the heart of the conscious capitalist movement. Is getting back to the core of what capitalism is about to me at least it's about serving and helping the community as well as your stakeholders in your business.
Correct. Yeah exactly. I mean if you think about all stakeholders you know most people when they're running a company. As for the value of their shareholders. Right. And we look at the value of all stakeholders. Let me just put it in context. We have a local consulting firm. Most firms management consulting firms they get on the road. So Sunday night they say goodbye to their families. They come back on on Friday. You lose a lot of time and taxis hotels. If you're a local firm. You get to have a lot more time on your hand and if you think about the stakeholders we have them more than just shareholders right so. Our employees. We have a concept of everyone having a personal platform what are you famous for. If you have a lot of time on your hand now you're not traveling and taxes and so forth. You can become famous. In your local community. By other stakeholders or clients. Most people go traveling. They go see their client they've never met their client before they leave on a Thursday night and never have to see that again. And for us. We look at growing our clients and making it more than just our job and we see them in the supermarket. We see them in the sports fields. They really are friends you know. And another stakeholder maybe two other quick stakeholders. What would be the community and we have our own 501 c3. It's all about if people become famous in their community they can help grow their community. I think the final stakeholder I like there's many more but the phenols like I really like is family you know to be a mother a father a husband and wife a partner your kids. When we do a family event someone comes up to me afterwards. Maybe a shot and goes. Wow it's really good to have mom. As a soccer coach now are really good to have dad as a baseball coach. You know that you're adding value to those stakeholders. Now where do you where do you think kind of
The misconceptions about capitalism came about. You know you watch every Hollywood movie. The villain is some business owner that's exploiting the environment or are greedy and just trying to amass zillion dollars. I mean we have the privilege of interviewing business people everyday and here. And that's just not my experience with business people business people typically are. Risking a lot. In the hopes. Of making it somehow whatever means. Whatever that means to them. They are. You know trying to serve as many people as possible. Hoping that something is going to come back to them. I don't see that greed but that seems to be the narrative in traditional media and in the film. REEVES Yeah I think when you look at publicly held companies in publicly held companies have to report quarterly
And have to put quality to shareholder wants to hear it and that's where the bad side of capitalism is. I don't think there is a long term view even though those companies might. Be doing well. At the end of the day they're being driven to every quarter by value no matter what. Provide an actual value to that showed up no matter what it takes. That side of it is a greedy side of how people look at it. And then that's kind of trickling down to
The vast majority businesses aren't publicly held companies right.
But you get to see that on the news. I don't hear about the small companies on the news right.
They're just taking all the oxygen and the people right.
Yeah exactly. It's what's making the press and what's making the headlines but in reality there are many small medium and don't get me wrong publicly held companies. Look at Tom's a whole foods. He's a great Conscious Capitalist companies. The news headlines have a tendency not just to share that information.
And that's where this Conscious Capitalism movement kind of grew up and it's now expanding through chapters around the country and around the globe right.
Yeah. There's about 40 plus chapters in the United States that are trying to hit about 40 different countries. The movement's been around for almost 10 years one form or another. But Conscious Capitalism international this year really took a stand to say if we're going to be a movement we don't get a lot more people involved. We've got more chapters in both. So yes it's spreading like wildfire now and now it's trying this grass roots. Roots movement to. Put chapters around the planet and to kind of evangelize. The movement. Correct. Yes this is that's the whole purpose of the chapters to have them on the ground. We've just launched the Atlanta chapter. And that's our way of getting back into the Atlantic community to to tell others and teach others what is this movement all about. And then for you as a company it seems like a logical. HAND. IN glove fit. To get involved with this. Yeah like I described before this whole concept of being a local model having all the extra time on your hands you now have the opportunity to really try to grow your community. Grow your clients grow your employees and in turn don't get me wrong. That helps Jabeen growth. And that's what the movement is all about. And that's I think
One of the main points is that these aren't separate things. They can be. You know kind of join together it's not wholesome to try to
Make profit. It's definitely part of the movement right. Part of the movement is to drive a business to make profit but do it in a conscious way. Yeah capitalism helps people rise. Out of the ashes right. And that's really important
Now for firms that are wanting to get involved in the Atlanta chapter or are you for sponsors.
One of the sponsors of the chapter yeah we're a founding member here in Atlanta. We're also founding member of our Dallas office. And. The best way to look about it is there's a website Atlanta Conscious Capitalism Datto and go out there sign up when news so there's not a ton of events but we'll be having events here in April. The Just a quick shout out. The hope for Global Forum has also got the CEO of conscious capitalism coming at the end of April. And so there's a variety of ways. But yet go to the website sign up. You'll be on the mailing list and then it gets know about the events.
Now when you decided to raise your hand and say I want to get involved that I wouldn't be part of this. Were you surprised at how many people. Kind of also raised their hand and are interested in this.
I'm optimistic so I'm not surprised. I was excited. We ran our very first event. We didn't really tell many people about it was like friends and family and right. And I think we had over 120 people at our very first event at superjet. And we blew it out. And so yeah. There's clearly a movement and the need and the desire that people want to jump on
Right. Everybody I tell about it. They're like. Either they weren't aware or they know you know the whole foods guy right. They may or may not have read the book. But they. Just. The like you mentioned kind of the core point it just resonates with so many people. And especially the small and midsize person that it just
That's how they live their life and run their business anyway is actually a waking up every morning enjoying what you're doing and having a purpose driven business. It makes it so much so much more enjoyable. Yeah right. So I've been telling everyone about it as well including family friends people inside our eco system
And I really resonate with the message I love your and you talk about it and you only talk about it and the gentleman that came in like last week and sat down and we just chatted about it. Everybody was just singing my song. And. I don't feel like I have the language for it when I'm trying to describe it you know I have little bits and pieces so I'm wondering if. One of the great advantages of getting together with other like minded people is you. You learn how to describe how you feel because I clearly feel the same way but I don't have the language yet is that is that accurate. No that's one. Benefit of
Yelling out what you got. I certainly think so because these are principles they're not being dictated of how every business runs at their friend is about hanging out. You get to learn more about the principles and how they apply to your business. Now you can shape your business around those
Principles. How often is this crowd get together.
Well we just kicked off had about we've had three meetings last year. Yeah I think the goal is to have one meeting every quarter. And they'll be education. So people can learn as you describe. And also having guest speakers who are running businesses in that environment
And then are there any baby steps companies can take to kind of get involved with a group like I would guess. Read the book.
Yeah you know that's the first thing I would tell people read read the conscious capitalism book it's written by John Mackey from Whole Foods CEO of Whole Foods and Raj Sedov Sisodia who is a professor out of Babson to read the book is another book that Raj also wrote called Firms of Endearment. So if you really want to see how. Major. U.S.. Companies and international public and private have just exceeded. S&P 500 and all the different numbers. That's a really good book to read. They show up at an event get to ask questions. Everyone likes to share their information and you can learn a lot.
And then the events are going to start happening here in Atlanta. But the group is based out of Dallas. I think they have events also throughout the year. Yes so
Conscious Capitalism and national is actually based out of San Francisco. There are two major conferences that people could join. One is happening in spring. It's actually going to be in Dallas this year end of April beginning of May. So Grätz Conscious Capitalism. Dot org. And then the CEO conference which I attend every single year is in October in Austin.
And business really works is getting involved as well. So there will likely be in the future.
Margarita Mondays I got all kinds of very conscious so now I've somebody went to get a hold of you to learn more about and what's the best way to do that. Just shoot me an email. Nigel Seltzer at Jabeen dot com or send me info at info at Jabeen dot com
And have the website for the conference with him.
Yeah. So it's Atlanta. DOT. Conscious Capitalism. So before we wrap
Can we talk a little bit about J.B. and Keres because this is this is not unrelated at all. It's it's a manifestation of this mindset of this value system right 100 percent. So
We saw our own fiber one C3 very early on it's called Jabeen Kaz. It's an employee led board. His whole mission is to give back to the local community. From a perspective of volunteerism leadership and financial support. So from a leadership perspective 60 percent of our employees now hold leadership positions on boards in their local community. Why is that becoming famous and they give him back. I'm from a financial support. We matched dollar for dollar. Everything that an employee wants to contribute to an employee led board and then we run well have 20 or 30 different donations and events throughout the entire year that everyone gets involved in.
Man what a great way to run a consulting firm and I bet it's turned around and fired from a few. So it speaks from experience one more time Kordan or someone wants to reach out to have a conversation with you. Learn more about the Conscious Capitalism movement. What is the best way.
Yeah I would say that probably the easiest one to follow from an email perspective. Info at Jacobean dot com and that come straight through to me and I'm happy to share any information people want. Conscious Capitalism or sign up at Atlanta dot Conscious Capitalism dot org and I look forward to meeting you at an event.
