Unions are like herpes and John Mackey is the Man.

John Mackey and Whole Foods: newyorker.com

Here is a must read profile of Whole Foods CEO and co-founder John Mackey. The big kahuna of hippie capitalism and one of the few leading business luminaries I actually admire and respect. His career is a testament to what modern corporate social responsibility (CSR) management theory should consider and implement if it was honest with itself. There's too much content in this article to parse out in one post, but this newly discovered Mackey quote “The union is like having herpes. It doesn’t kill you, but it’s unpleasant and inconvenient, and it stops a lot of people from becoming your lover" is epic, and spot-on. (The werewolf may have it chiseled on his tombstone)

As a great admirer of conscientious capitalism, I have always been dumbfounded by the lefty, do-gooder, hippesque adoration for unionized labor. Unions represent a huge threat to stakeholders like consumers, suppliers, shareholders, management, and the even the long-term prospects of employees themselves. (has anyone looked at Detroit and the US auto industry lately?) Monopolizing labor is just as dangerous for the long-term, as the monopolization of any other good or service in a market driven economy. I have long been fascinated by the inherent incompatible realities of unions and those who claim to care about all stakeholders, as CSR stewards. It's time to address the elephant in the room and realize that one of the most ethical and socially responsible moves a company can make for its employees and workers is resist unionization at all costs. If CSR is serious about itself as a concept, it will file divorce papers from the liberal/democratic interest groups and de-link itself from partisan politics. Wishful thinking.

Hippie Capitalism.

This NY Times piece was both amusing and inspiring. Although my firsthand experience with absinthe has always been ugly, I was hooked by the line "Five years ago, Ms. Lins was living in a yurt in New Mexico. To escape the heat, she came to this small town in Delaware County, chosen for no apparent reason other than instinct." The fact that the article's entrepreneurial heroine was recently chasing the archaic lifestyle of Asiatic nomads who haven't known glory since the 13th century in the middle of the Southwestern wastelands, and seems to have eschewed the traditional notion of the American dream prior to her current venture is an impressive testament to both the power of markets and the newly emergent "specialized" sub-sector of the economy. I am still working through the details of how to frame and analyze this growing, "hand-crafted" product trend from a macro perspective, but it dovetails nicely with the fact that two business school classmates of mine have successfully launched a natural dog treat company, and are being well received throughout the market place. Granted they earned their MBA's (not a special qualification for entrepreneurial success, but certainly more grounded in the bottom line than Yurt dwelling), however, their product, branding efforts, and boutique like manufacturing operation are strikingly similar to that of Ms. Linds. I wonder, are some of the great entrepreneurs of the next decade going to be those who offer specialized consumer products that reject the homogenization of tastes that have been prevalent for the last several decades? Just some food for thought.