Giving Compass' Take:

• This B the Change post discusses how citizens can change the way corporations and other powerful entities operate by making their voices heard and taking action.

• The author cites some examples (such as Google employees walking out to protest gender discrimination at their company), but are power dynamics really shifting so dramatically — or do we still have a long way to go?

• Here's more on how we can turn Corporate Social Responsibility ambitions into a reality.

It has started. A revolution is underway to change our world forever. Just as the Enlightenment led to a Civil Society, the power now being unleashed will lead to a new democracy and a Civil Economy.

This autumn, Google employees walked out to protest gender discrimination in their company. Earlier this year, they forced the company to pull out of Project Maven, a Pentagon pilot program to apply artificial intelligence technology to warfare: “We believe that Google should not be in the business of war,” they said in a letter addressed to Sundar Pichai, the company’s chief executive. It demanded  —  and received — assurances that Google will not “ever build warfare technology.”

This is just the latest prophetic signal of something that is happening everywhere  —  a growing democratic awakening that we, the people, have more power than perhaps we realized. We have looked beyond our dysfunctional politics in a desperate search for new levers to shape our world. And, oh boy, have we found them. The profound power of these levers is just starting to dawn on us.

It is us  —  not fund managers and bankers  —  who own the biggest companies in the world. You and me. Ordinary people. We  —  through our pension, insurance and other savings  —  are the major owners of the world’s biggest companies. Whilst we fully appreciate and support the crucial social role that these awe-inspiringly powerful machines play, we despise some of what they are doing to us and our precious world ...

Read the full article about the appeal of purpose-driven companies by James Perry at B the Change.