Dane County, Wisconsin likely has more organizations focused on environmental improvement per square foot of geography than any other county in the USA. An early member of the “green community” was Sustain Dane. Like many non-profits, Sustain Dane grew out of the values of founders who shared a drive to make the world a better place. In 1998, attendees from a half-day session on The Natural Step with Torbjorn Lahti, the father of the Swedish eco-municipality movement, began meeting regularly. They established Sustain Dane to move Lahti’s eco-municipality concept forward locally. Like many new non-profits, Sustain Dane’s business model was defined by projects a working board and single staff member wanted to take on. One notable project was development of the rain barrel, RainReserve™, used to divert rainwater from gutters into a water reserve for grass and garden. Over 2000 rain barrels were…
Democrats could learn from business model innovation best practices
The President’s current political, foreign policy and domestic issues remind me of running a business in challenging times. Never forget about customer experience and how markets change. Our economy totally tanked. Yet the Obama administration and Congress marched forward into health care as if nothing was really different. A more moderate approach to health care reform, coupled with a stronger emphasis on innovation initiatives to improve our long term economy would have been a smarter move on the administration’s and Democratic party’s part. To what extent is your business model based on old paradigms about your target market? Recognize competitive threats, but don’t get so focused on the threat, you lose sight of opportunities. The terrorist threat is daunting and must be managed, much like many competitive threats businesses face. But if all US policy’s focus is on this threat, as NYT columnist…