Business as usual purposeful.
I engage change-makers & business leaders in exploring the essential actions of stakeholder capitalism.
Business leaders have more power to solve societal issues than any elected official. The time is now to embrace the new era of corporate activism and social entrepreneurship – bringing together the best of business with the best of society. But how?
My work examines the tension-filled intersections of profit and purpose, business and society, and stability and change. Using a model of moral courage to guide thinking, decision-making, and action, leaders of today and tomorrow can engage with challenge, face change, resolve conflict, and activate the next era of business ethics, impact, and purpose.
Courage creates action. Action is the new politics.
The moral dilemma courage of success.
Moral courage: a model, a practice, a calling
Moral courage is a model for betterment, to raise standards for improvement across business and society. Moral courage is a practice for business activism, to enable virtues in action. Moral courage is a calling to reckon with change and challenge, ethics and impact.
By engaging tension where it lives – between profit and purpose, business and society, and stability and change – we create corporations, communities, and citizens that flourish together.
Business has a soul. Activism awakens it. Courage leads it.
I’m Jon Mertz
Researcher, speaker & thought entrepreneur
I study moral courage, stakeholder capitalism, and social entrepreneurship. In classrooms, companies, and virtual spaces, I facilitate deep and robust conversations that explore the evolution of capitalism, the next generation of leadership, the call for corporate activism, and implications for business, society, ethics, and impact.
“Jon activates leaders to collaboratively unearth and foster the possibilities offered by the passion and values of interconnectedness. He offers a humbling and inspiring perspective on purposeful leadership.”
We have become values-centered in our actions and policies, and it is tearing us apart. Values are personal or based on an outcome important to an individual. Virtues are behaviors focused on taking action for a societal benefit, not a personal one. We need to shift to virtues in how we live and lead.