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Introduction

Background

The current system of funding and operating businesses has remained essentially unchanged since the rise of Mercantilism in the early 17th century: Investors give their money to limited-liability companies that conduct business and then pay those investors a dividend from their earnings. Management is judged on its capacity to produce a profit. More profits yield more personal rewards for both investors and management.

Public exchanges are used by investors to buy and sell stock (ownership interest) in those companies. Since the rewards management gets for its efforts often take the form of stock (or options to buy it at a reduced rate), management decisions are often driven by the desire to maintain or advance the stock price rather than by what's in the long term best interests of the company (or the community at large).

Management tend to see individuals as nothing more than interchangeable components in their profit-making machine and other companies as adversaries to vanquish in one-sided business dealings. Many fortunes have been made this way, but often at a significant cost to those at the bottom of the social rung and to society in general.

Opportunity

People are waking up to the fact that we are all “spiritual beings having a human experience”. They are becoming increasingly dissatisfied with the old corporate model. They are making conscious choices about where they shop and what they buy. The goal of “Profit at any cost” is no longer enough.

Instead of looking out for #1, they are saying “We are One”. Their new sense of social responsibility and interconnectedness is giving them reason to look for alternatives which reflect that perspective.

What they want is an enlightened way of organizing, funding, and conducting business. Such a system would allow people to come together, express excellence, and create value in a context that benefits those involved, local communities, and society as a whole.

Solution

The solution represented by the Aquarian League has been forming in my mind for many years. The overall key to it is in removing the “making of money” as the driving force for company creation and operations, and by replacing it with the goal of “doing good, profitably”.

This system integrates ideas that have been considered to be in opposition to each other, utilizing both for-profit and non-profit organizations to get the best of both. It nurtures individual contribution and teamwork while merging real world business acumen with a sincere concern for the community and those in it.

It provides a means for companies to consistently produce profits by delivering value to customers while honoring staff and giving back to the community.

A Culture based on Love and Freedom

Those are the two fundamental ideas that form the base of Aquarian League culture. Many on a spiritual path, know that the second, Freedom, is implied by the first, but it's called out here because not everyone understands that yet. Not everyone knows that allowing others to be free, to respect the choices that they make, is indeed what love does.

More specifically, individual and organization members of the League agree to honor and express these ideas in everything they do. This means bringing ones best efforts, abilities, and insights to anything undertaken as part of the League. It means being honest, fair, and reasonable in all dealings. It means treating people well, with grace and kindness, no matter who they are. If you will forgive a bit of an anachronism, it means being noble.

League members are committed to making things better. While different people can have different ideas of what that means, league members sincerely persue those ends as they understand them (without violating the free will of anyone else).

In a Nutshell

Here's how it works:

1. People wanting to “give back” to society donate money through a Charity in their country, possibly with a statement of the kind of good they want to support.
2. That organization gives the money to one or more international non-profit Foundations.
3. Those Foundations own one or more for-profit holding companies whose subsidiaries engage in business activities designed to make things better in a meaningful way.
4. All of the subsidiaries conduct business according to the same basic model that respects and rewards both staff and the greater community, engages in truly win-win relationships with other firms, gives preference to other companies similarly aligned, and utilizes leading-edge business practices that consistently increase sustainable profitability.
5. The profits that those subsidiaries generate are allocated as follows:
   1. 10% goes to the staff members responsible for the profits as profit-sharing.
   2. 10% goes to support vetted non-profit activities that benefit the corresponding community.
   3. Up to 70% is retained by the subsidiary for growth.
   4. The remainder (at least 10%) is sent upstream to the Foundation.
      • The first 10% is used to support global charitable activities.
      • Any profits above that are used for additional business funding.