Neville Isdell wants to do nothing less than re-create capitalism.

If capitalism fails to remold itself, says the former chairman and CEO of the Coca-Cola Co., the global recession, increased government intervention, social issues, and changing social mores will fundamentally alter the free market.

“The system that continues to deliver so much to the world is under threat,” said Isdell in a September 22 interview with the Atlanta Business Chronicle.

The social issues that will define the 21st century—climate change, energy, and water—will define 21st century business, Isdell contends. Businesses must pursue profit for investors, but will have to be more socially conscious than ever before.

For it to survive, capitalism, which has lifted hundreds of millions from the depths of poverty and given rise to the world’s greatest economic powers, must evolve, Isdell said.

And he’s recruiting top executives from some of the Southeast’s most respected companies and interest groups to help him do it.

At a summit held September 22 and 23 at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, Isdell and Georgia State University’s J. Mack Robinson College of Business gathered top officers and board members from 20 Southeastern companies and nongovernmental organizations to join the cause.

Officials from the Robinson College, USAID, CARE, and other civic groups joined officers from Coke, United Parcel Service Inc., SunTrust Banks Inc., Georgia Power Co., and many others, representing hundreds of billions of dollars in annual revenue and more than a half-million employees to discuss how to change capitalism for the betterment of business and society.

Calls for capitalism to grow a social conscience have come for years. Microsoft Corp. founder Bill Gates, for instance, has called for “creative capitalism.”

The future of capitalism in the wake of government bailouts and corporate failures has been a topic of conversation from the media to corporate boardrooms.

“The face of capitalism is changing, and we’re trying to influence the change in a way that’s positive,” said Fenwick Huss, dean of the Robinson College of Business, which served as facilitator of the summit.

Isdell calls his vision “connected capitalism,” the bridge between good business and corporate social responsibility.

Companies must change the way they connect with society or society will reshape business, Isdell said.

“In business, you must lead change or else change leads you,” Isdell said.

Isdell, the son of social activists and a trained social worker who railed in newspaper columns against apartheid during college in South Africa, said the human element of capitalism must change.

In the wake of the economic collapse, governments have become more protectionist, which Isdell said will slow recovery.

Banks have been shaken, bailed out, or failed, and two U.S. automakers are now largely government owned.

Public perception of corporations has been shaken to its core, Isdell said. In a wired (and wireless) world, public perception spreads quickly, he said.

Companies must connect the bottom line of their businesses with their social conscience. Their philanthropic aims must match their core business and the values of their employees.

Companies must be connected across four channels: the communities they serve, governments and nongovernmental agencies of social change, philanthropies, and values of employees, he said.