Are You Ready for Today’s Business Complexity?
As consultants and coaches, we know our clients are faced with a more complex world than any previous generation of leaders. And we know, our clients struggle to engage with this additional complexity as they attempt to design business models that will flourish. But what is it about this growing complexity that makes it so challenging?
Leaders and entrepreneurs are faced with the reality that today one must fully integrate the social and environmental contexts of a business along with the financial in order to manage risk and identify relevant opportunities. No longer is it sufficient to consider the financial alone. This has become a dangerously over simplistic approach.
But what does engaging with the complexity of these additional contexts mean in practice? It means: (a) considering all your stakeholders, not just the paying customer and investors. And, considering them as full human beings, not simply ‘rationally minded’ economic beings. (b) considering where all the tangible materials used in the business come from and where they end-up, whether that’s raw materials, or ‘waste’, or the product at the end of its useful life, and (c) considering what the stakeholders of the business need, and how the business’ goals ensure these will be met.
This only scratches the surface. Unfortunately, previous business model design tools don’t integrate the social, environmental and economic contexts, and so are unhelpful at engaging with the additional complexity. Previous tools don’t provide a complete list of all the business model elements that must be considered in light of all three contexts. And, the previous tools can’t enable your clients to have useful conversations about how all these elements fit together into complete business model stories that respond powerfully to the additional complexity..
Curious to learn more about a new visual collaborative tool that embeds all the elements you need to integrate the social, environmental and economic contexts into powerful new flourishing business models, download the free Flourishing Business Canvas here. And to learn more, download the free Interactive Guide here.