Last week I wrote about testing collaborative approaches in business, and earlier that same week I was on a judging panel at the University of Auckland Business School for their 3rd year marketing showcase.

Through all this there were tensions bubbling — collaboration vs competition, profit vs ethics / sustainability — and it got me thinking, there’s this elephant in the room, called Capitalism.

As I asked students questions about how their strategy of more would work alongside their strategy of sustainability, they seemed utterly confused. They’ve been tasked to grow revenue, after all.

They’re kind of set up to fail, if they want to live their values.

Do they realise, I wonder, that the system they’re operating in is rigged against them?

Like a hidden figure, pulling strings, pitting you against each other - Capitalism, underpins so many things. Did anyone tell you?

There is an alternative, of course — designing businesses in a way that are regenerative — that value people and our planet, not just profit. It’s not easy, but neither has anything worth doing ever been.

Of course, it would be helpful if our economic system was designed to support this. And it can be, redesigned.

The point of this email is not to propose any specific solution, but simply to bring this elephant to your awareness, if it isn’t already, and encourage you to look for it, consider it — it’s always there — and when you have chances, to make choices for the better.

You always have options.

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📌 This was Issue 42 of The Forward — our regular communication for conscious-minded business leaders.

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