JOHN ELKINGTON, one of the giants in the field of sustainability. Is credited with the widely used framework of the triple bottom line, also known as people plant and profit. His recent blog offers a welcome optimistic perspective* for the future role of business in the creation of a world that works for all.
He then quickly shifts to challenging thousands of newly-minted chief sustainability officers (CSOs) to move beyond incrementalism to structural solutions citing examples of corporations that have spun off separate entities dedicated to creating market based solutions to challenges of sustainability – for example Ford Motor Company and Solvay, a Belgian multinational chemical company.*
This kind of corporate structural innovation can indeed be a successful shift, allowing both its legacy functions to thrive, while providing resources and leadership to emerging market opportunities. We do not oppose any of this; however, given the slow rate of such structural change, we suggest a reframing of the criticism about everything else, which he dismisses as incrementalism.
We propose that human resistance to business model change can often be overcome by inviting corporate leadership and external stakeholders into a process of business model innovation through safe prototyping rather than betting the farm on a major structural change.
Towards this end, we continue to develop the methodology called Co-Creating Mutual Value (CCMV) as one practical, low-risk, and low-cost approach to regenerative business growth.
CCMV is a 3 phase methodology designed to safely and economically create new products and services that are both profitable for the company and that address any of the many social human and ecological challenges we all face. It is a methodology that does not require huge investments or major structural changes as a first step. Rather the CCMV methodology ensures the use of existing capabilities and resources as the basis for service or product innovation. Moreover, the CCMV method taps into the highest aspirations of people within the business while building significant social capital among stakeholders within the company’s ecosystem.
It Is a method that can be utilized at any scale, and can be a toe in the water approach to shifting business growth from a singular focus on profit, to a focus on profit from purpose.
CCMV begins with the identification of new regenerative business opportunities – and then accelerates the journey by applying systemic design thinking practices in both the product/service innovation and implementation phases.
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*Read Elkington’s December 19, 2024 post https://www.sustainabilityprofessionals.org/after-the-sustainability-recession