Flourishing Business Community
Partner Briefing #01
Exploring the Community’s New Partnership with the Future-Fit Foundation with Martin Rich & Antony Upward
The Flourishing Business Community and the Future-Fit Foundation are delighted to announce we are forming a partnership to help our members get the most from our respective frameworks, and learn how they can mutually support one another.
To launch the partnership we are holding two different briefings for the Flourishing Business Community:
- Tuesday October 24 15h00 UTC – where Martin Rich will introduce the Future-Fit Business Benchmark to the Community
- Tuesday October 31 15h00 UTC – where Antony Upward will explain the how the benchmark can be used to guide strategy design when using the Flourishing Business Canvas
To convert UTC to your time zone please enter the event date here. Note on Oct 31 clocks will have gone back in some parts of the world and not in others – 15h00 UTC may be at a different time in your time zone on Oct 31 compared with Oct 24.
Registration for both events is via Eventbrite at
You need to obtain a ticket for each event
In Part 1, come and learn about:
- The origin and benefits for the Future-Fit Business Benchmark
- What is the benchmark
- How it was developed and tested
- How you can get involved
In Part II, come learn about:
- The challenge of designing far-future inspiring vision / flourishing business models – the need for a science-based goal
- How the benchmark can be used to design far-future inspiring vision / flourishing business models using the Flourishing Business Canvas
- How to approach designing far-future inspiring vision / flourishing business models
Briefing Part 1: Introducing the Future-Fit Business Benchmark with Martin Rich
| Date: Tuesday October 24 |
| Time: 15h00 UTC – 08h00 PST, 11h00 EDT, 16h00 BST, 17h00 CET, 01h00 JST (+1 day) |
| Duration: 1 hour |
| Registration: Required via Eventbrite at |
| Topic: Introduction of the Future-Fit Business Benchmark to the Flourishing Business Community |
Martin Rich is a sustainability and impact specialist with over 25 years’ experience in both mainstream and social investment. Martin is the co-founder of Future-Fit Foundation, a UK-registered charity and the developer, promoter and steward of the Future-Fit methodology. The organisation’s vision is a Future-Fit Society – one that protects the possibility that humans and other life will flourish on Earth for generations to come, by being environmentally restorative, socially just and economically inclusive.
Given where the world is today, the Foundation’s vision can only be realised through a rapid and radical shift in the way our economy works. Its mission is therefore to catalyse this shift by translating systems science into practical free-to-use tools (all published under a creative commons licence), designed to help business leaders, investors and policymakers respond effectively to today’s biggest challenges. The organisation’s primary tool is the Future-Fit Business Benchmark, the world’s leading open source, science-based framework which empowers any business to implement, measure and report on real progress.
The Future-Fit Business Benchmark collates and curates best-in-class third-party resources into one unified self-assessment tool. The development process included hundreds of academics, experts and practitioners from around the world, alongside a core ‘Development Council’ of around a dozen multinational companies and financial institutions. It is aligned with global initiatives such as the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and is used by a significant and growing number of businesses worldwide.
Looking ahead, the Future-Fit Foundation is focused on continuing to refine and develop its core methodological intellectual property and tools, alongside growing the global community of users. You can get involved by joining our online Changemaker Community (free for anyone), our Accredited Advisor program for consultants and advisors, and our System Changer program for companies – find more details on their website.
In his talk Martin will introduce the Future-Fit Business Benchmark to the Flourishing Business Community and take questions.
Briefing Part 2: Using the Future-Fit Business Benchmark to Guide Flourishing Strategy Design with Antony Upward
| Date: Tuesday October 31 |
| Time: 15h00 UTC – 08h00 PST, 11h00 EDT, 15h00 BST, 16h00 CET, 01h00 JST (+1 day) |
| Duration: 1 hour |
| Registration: Required via Eventbrite at |
| Topic: Using the Future-Fit Business Benchmark to Guide Flourishing Strategy Design |
Antony Upward is a flourishing business architect with over 35 years of experience designing strategies, business models and business processes with the leadership teams of small, medium and large enterprises. Antony is also the originator of the Flourishing Business Canvas, and, co-originator of the method for its effective use in established organizations, the Flourishing Enterprise Strategy Design Method (FESDM).
FESDM uses a backcasting against science-based principles approach to strategic planning, i.e. starting with the end in mind, and the creative constraint of our best available knowledge of what is desirable or feasible in the future. Compare this to most strategic planning approaches that use forecasting – looking to the past without reference to our best available knowledge on what is desirable or feasible in the future.
But how can we make the complex knowledge of sustainable flourishing accessible to senior leadership teams as they design their far-future inspiring vision business models? This is where the Future-Fit Business Benchmark, which is based on the best available scientific knowledge, comes in. FESDM asks leaders to creatively constrain their visions of the future by the benchmark’s 23 “cause no harm” goals and 24 “positive pursuit” goals.
In his talk Antony will introduce the Flourishing Enterprise Strategy Design Method and explore how the Future-Fit Business Benchmark can be used to creatively constrain the design of far-future inspiring vision, aka flourishing business models. He will also take questions.