Traditional business models fall short in a world shaped by climate change, biodiversity loss, pollution, and other linked global challenges. Their inward thinking approach ignores how an organisation affects a wider ecosystem.
To remain viable, organisations must reframe their business models, giving the finance function an opportunity to move to an approach that recognises systemic risks, long-term impacts, and how sustainability is now hard-wired into value creation, according to the new report Reframing Business Models for a Sustainable World.
The report details how sustainability is no longer a side activity but a business model issue. Organisations will need to anchor their business models in a do-no-harm approach that connects performance with purpose.
The report explores:
The two foundational concepts of reframing business models
The seven aspects of a polycrisis and why traditional business models don’t work
How shifting from a resilient mindset to an anti-fragile mindset helps organisations get stronger
The holistic characteristics of a macro-stewardship lens that puts ethics and the public good first
What skills and mindset changes are needed to reframe business models
The risks organisations take if they stay rooted in their linear ways of thinking
Research findings offer a clear message to the finance function: A system-centric approach that goes beyond the balance sheet will enable organisations to align value creation with the long-term health of society and the planet.