first and foremost by the organization and service to all of the stakeholders. nay are much less driven by -- [inaudible] the last is they tend to have a you teak culture. a culture of awe thennistty and love and care. they are built on love and -- [inaudible] that seem like the fuel to get people what they need to work [inaudible] they realize it's not about that. it's not when you get human beings acting to their highest potential. when they are driven bay sense of purpose and meaning. so the work not becomes just a

job but a period. so both the element that comprise of the interesting thing -- [inaudible] that came a few years ago show that those kinds of businesses create multiple kind of value for stakeholders. if you focus on the financial, it turns out these businesses are -- [inaudible] by a nine to one ratio. every a sten-year period. we add more data which is ten and a half to one. this is showing -- [inaudible] this is not about trade-off. you can make money for investors. to do that you must please your customer, employee, -- [inaudible] >> do you consider conscious capitalism to be evolutionary step in our capitalist system?

>> in a way it is. i think the -- [inaudible] is a beginning when business used to have a well defined moral dimension to it. and businesses that were created started with some kind of -- in many cases it came from a religious. i think what happened over time that got tashing out as we have more companying and the economists came in and we started to have the corporation and the definition of if i fiduciary responsibility got narrowed down. you must look to maximize the value otherwise you get fired or sued. i think that got lost in the process. work is a fundamental thing in our life. it levels corner stone. we separated those in the past.

i think we are bringing that together now. i think it's evolutionary in a sense that we as human beings the world is changing. 989 was a turning point not only a collapse of communism but a bunch new free market economy but also the [inaudible] we have invention of the worldwide web. it created -- [inaudible] we had -- [inaudible] in this country. it's the age of the population and the immediatage age -- what it means is that society as a whole is driven by midlife value. and the midlife value are more around meaning.

[inaudible] what kind of legacy. we are also becoming more connected, of course. we are more phone number than people on the planet. we have facebook with over a billion members. we are woven together in the fabric. we almost have a shared sents of -- [inaudible] we know everything that is going on. we can share it with each other. we're becoming more intelligent. that shows the human irntion q is raising every ten years for the last seven or eight decades. it means with the average 100iq take them they would be in the top 2% of intemg. they would be considered a genius. they are merely average today. we have more education. [inaudible]

the impact is dramatic on women. stha a great equalizer. a -- 60% for more are ready for the college level and higher at graduate school level. they get higher grades. almost every white collar are fecial will be -- [inaudible] it will transform the nation. [inaudible] i think our journey of rising conscious if you look at the market and -- [inaudible]

it's anywhere in the world but now we cannot imagine that. [inaudible] all kind of abuse twenty years ago. things are changing ratchedly. these are all evolution. evolutionary market of higher consciousness that we recognize all of the consequence of our actions. we have a final sense of right and wrong. and it was acceptable to us in the past must be acceptable in the future. i think that standard will continue to evolve. the key thing for business is -- [inaudible] they were created or operating system of business was defined back in the industrial age. and largely operating on that. businesses haven't adapted to the new realty. people are afraid of them.

you can't use the old approach. about how to run a business or motivate people. >> how does it fit in we are here at the freedom fest. how does it fit to libertarian? >> if you look at the subtitle of the book you the experience. in our society return to look down on business. we have a very negative -- [inaudible] that business is about selfishness and therefore more successfully would be in business. that's simply not true. i think you have to change -- [inaudible]

we don't create value. it it's ethical because it's based on voluntary exchange. i cannot force you do anything. i can't force anybody to be a customer or supplier or -- that business is -- [inaudible] most of human history most of humanity -- [inaudible] almost -- [inaudible] for people to explore what it means to be human pen at prosperity life expectancy from 30 to 68 or so. population has gone from -- [inaudible] so many more can aspire to

higher thing in life. we can explore art. [inaudible] it used to be molten lava. where does it come from? people have the ability to -- [inaudible] it's largely heroic. government and non-profit and the religious organization cannot sustain belie lift people out of poverty. they can help in short term situation. they cannot create sustainable mean for people to elevate their existence. just in the lant twint years. 500 million chinese. with a we also say is you can actually make it even better. business is fundamentally good

when it's done, you know, with security and free market and chronic capitalism and all of the kinds of distortion. but then if u yo apply a higher consciousness to it, people -- [inaudible] exsuppose to a higher level. you start to see the bigger level and start to see business as a living orgnism not as a machine. a living thing that needs to flourish it creates all kinds of thing in the world when it does. >> who is john? >> the cofounder of. >> who does whole foods fit in?

>> why it was created? a company started in austin in 1978 with the original name -- [inaudible] a play on safeway. a for you to eat more foods that are whole. they are fundamental premise was to educate people that what you put in your body makes a difference to your health. it makes a difference to the health of -- [inaudible] that's it for time and energy. that's more today than even when they started. used to be 5.7%. now we are down 8%.

we are buying more -- [inaudible] we are paying for it. it's so -- [inaudible] that is why they exist. they're not just another -- [inaudible] trying to make money. there's a fashion behind there. they look at all of this interconnected and interdependent. there was a drafted by the employee called the declaration of interdependence. connected and customer, employees, farmers, suppliers. question are all connected and therefore make decisions we must consider the consequences for all. improve margin and profit. we need think about the consequence for all that try to come up with win, win, win, across all stakeholders.

that takes a lot of creativity. it's easy to find -- [inaudible] then you can come up with -- [inaudible] they also have a legal tan culture inside. you know, the highest -- cannot compete 19 times. captured at 19 and fundamental. the front line people of the -- [inaudible] the people at the top are relatively modest compared to the other peer and the company and the chief financial officer of the company that might make $700 ,000 or another making $8

million. they want people by -- [inaudible] who care about the business and not just hired hands. i find the leader are more effective and inspirational and ultimately more successful. , by the way, total tran parent sincerity. everybody knows what everybody else gets paid. you can find out and do that. it's a greater -- [inaudible] when you do all of that you create a -- [inaudible] diagnose that you are looking at. you start create value with the team member and get engaged, inspired. a experience for customers making sure their needs to spent. you don't need to spend lot of

money. how i got involved looking for companies that does not spend much at all on marketing and yet customers are -- [inaudible] they don't need to spend money on ads and gimmicks and that sort of thing. that leads to higher revenue and sales per square foot. higher margin, happy investors, and allows you to be able to -- [inaudible] to the community and do things for society. but also the idea is these are highly profitable. but it's not profit. the purpose is the purpose and the higher profit enable to them to -- [inaudible] they a greater impact on

people. now a $13 billion company. and get to a -- [inaudible] that's the driver. >> how did you and john get hooked up on the book? >> as i mentioned i had -- [inaudible] a set of companies despite not sending much on marketing i love the way the customers trusted and high level of -- [inaudible] the spending more and more marketing in the country.

more than 85% of the world population live on. we are quite frustrated with the marketing field. we're waiting a lot of money and -- [inaudible] in order to address that question, i saidlet find companies that marketing -- [inaudible] soon we discovered it wasn't about marketing at all. the employees are -- and the suppliers are local and the communities -- [inaudible] you're not going move unless you have -- [inaudible] hep the tight of the work.

these are companies we love, actually. there's a tremendous power in that. we don't recognize the -- [inaudible] yet we choose to stay away from it. in that connection -- [inaudible] had not spoken with john. he had a policy of not speaking to any -- [inaudible] at that time. when the book was almost done -- [inaudible] can you e-mail the document? john actually read it and -- [inaudible]

at this time i had a mind map that i created. i was excited after 25 years of teaching business to discover a another way of being. there are companies doing wonderful things. how much we don't teach them. i had a mind map and a vision. i was calling the institute for new capital. get a non-profit set up or the movement. get the professor the way we teach business. wasn't getting much headway.

i have grown to love it. i think it's exactly what we're talking about. and include -- [inaudible] invite a few other people to get involved. now we do multiple conferences a year. we have global chapter in australia, south africa, u.k., india, many of them are -- [inaudible] and any type of movement. executive, and business school. >> "conscious capitalism." the subtitle.

coauthor. the website consciouscapitalism.org. send us an e-mail at atbooktv@c-span.org. or tweet us at twitter.com/booktv. >> i have been trying for, i guess the last twenty something years to stop writing books. [laughter] i keep, you know, i totally get it that i work for the ancestors . i sometimes will feel very free i finish something. i remember finishing the color purple thirty years ago, and just weeping in joy, you know, okay i'm done!

this book i'm going read "the cushion in the road" i want to read a little bit how it came about. how did i come to think of the life that i lead, which is very -- when i'm not, you know, on the road somewhere, it's so quiet t so contemptlative. it's so happy with me and my sweet heart who is a musician. one of the irony of life that i love quiet. i fell in love with the person who plays trumpet. [laughter] life, i'm sure it's the same with you. life is, you know, always telling us who do you think is in charge? [laughter] did you by some dream imagine that you you were in charge? well, i'll just show you. so this is a very short introduction to this book.

i have learned much from dowest thought. it has been a comfort to me since i read my first poem. which was sitting quietly, doing nothing, spring comes, and the grass grows by i.t. to me this is a perfect poet. but there's also from that tradition this thought. a wanderer's home is in the road. a wanderer's home is in the road. this has proved true in my own life. i'm such a home body. i love being home with my plants, animal, sunrise, sunset, the moon. it's all glorious to me. when i turned 60, i was prepared

to bring all of myself to sit on my cushy in a meditation room i prepared long ago and never get up. [laughter] it so happened, it so happened i was in south korea that year. of course, and south korea agreed with me. in fact, in that culture, it is understood that when we turn 60 when we turn 60 we become -- [inaudible] perhaps it not how koreans spell it. and this means we are free to become once again like a child. we are to rid ourselves of our cares especially those we have collected in the world. and the turn inward to a life of ease of leisure, joy. i loved hearing this. what an affirmation of a

feeling. i was already beginning to have. enough of the world. where is the grandchild? where is the cushy? i began to prepare myself to wrought from the world. there i sat finally on a rush shon in mexico. with a splend splendid view. to what i thought would be the next unlike my great, great grandmother who lived to be 125, i figure 801 doing really well. [laughter] than miracle happened. america was about to elect or not elect a person of color as it president.

what? then too an unsuspecting guest left the radio on. i learned that bombs were falling on the people of gaza. a mother unconscious herself lost fiver of her daughters. didn't i have a daughter? would i havemented to lose her in this way? wasn't if i mother eastbound if imperfect in the role? well, my curbs began to wobble. i had friends that became eggy and managed to stay eggy. i envied them. for me, the years following my 60th birthday seemed to be teaching me about something else. i could become like a child again and enjoy the pleasure of wonder of child experiences. but i would have to maintain the joy in the vis attitude of the

actual world. a oppose to the meditative universe. any travel would take me to the travel in washington, d.c., where u knew barack obama would be inaugurated. they would carry me the morning after the festivity to far away burma. where i could wave happifully at the people who smiled back. they would take know gaza, and many writing about the palestinian-israel. to the best bank, india, all kinds of amazing places. like, for instance. who knew? i would find myself raising a nation of chickening in between

travel and business holy people. sometimes soon far away. i condition i do not like or recommend. then in a dream it came to me there have a long highway like the one that passed by my grandpa's place when i lived with them as an 8-year-old and 9-year-old. my grandfather and i would sit on the porch in the still georgia heat, and count the cars as they went by. he would choose red. i would choose blue or black. it was a southbound sit for the two of us. hours could go by and we were

perfectly content. perhapses that is why in the dream the solution to my gawnd i are was available. there in the middle of the long perfectly straight highway with the slightly faded yellow center line i had known and loved as child. sacked by are rose colored meditation cushy. right in the middle of the road. directly on the line. so what do i believe? that i was born to wonder? and i was born to sit. to love home with a sometimes almost unbearable affection. but to be lured out in to the world to see how it is doing as my beloved larger home and paradise. you can watch this and other programs online at booktv.org.

due to the recent discussion on student loan rates in congress, for the next hour, booktv brings you portions of author presentations about the cost of higher education. we start with the panel from june that included william bennett. author of "is college worth it" the former u.s. secretary of education presents his thought of higher education and whether going college is worth the expense.