Even as companies become increasingly global, a reverse trend is happening that is worth paying attention to. In an intriguing feature story in Madison, Wisconsin’s alternative newspaper, The Isthmus, journalist Phil Busse argues that Madison is at the forefront of a revolutionary approach to agriculture – Slow Money, an offshoot of the local food movement, that holds the potential to disrupt the food industry. Revolutionary suggests something outside normal business. Actually, it’s business at its best. Slow Money is an innovative business model ecosystem for building local employment, reducing carbon footprints and enhancing the nutritional value of locally available food. Back to the story – A small group of Southeastern Wisconsin agricultural innovators are seeking to build a more robust growing and food-processing infrastructure. The problem they aim to solve is the fact that the average American meal is estimated to travel 1500…
Business model strategy anchored in abundance
Happy Thanksgiving. I love the Thanksgiving holiday. Each year the celebration reminds me that practicing gratitude and believing in abundance create a more abundant life. These two concepts are at the heart of great leadership, an opportunity mindset, and building a better business model. Gratitude (versus being unappreciative) and a belief in abundance (versus scarcity) are interdependent in my life. Reflecting on what I feel grateful for changes my lens on life. I see even more things to feel thankful for, making my world feel more abundant. When I fall into the trap of being too busy for my daily practice, my frustration level starts to rise and the world can feel far more limiting. Gratitude is at the heart of great leadership. Grateful leaders are far more aware of how others are trying to advance their organization’s success. As a result, they…
Business Model Innovation and Sustainability
For decades, corporate social responsibility has been managed by most CEOs as a Pubic Relations activity, financed through philanthropy and Marketing Department budgets, rather than as a core principle guiding decision-making. What a loss to companies, consumers, the environment and communities. Those few companies who were early adopters of sustainability as a business practice versus messaging opportunity gained attractive financial and market position advantages. Fortunately, “The times, they are a changing.” A recent Accenture-UN Global Compact report states that sustainability is moving from the sidelines into senior leadership team meetings where sustainability issues will influence corporate decisions on capabilities, processes, systems, in fact the entire supply chain. “According to the survey, A New Era of Sustainability – UN Global Compact-Accenture CEO Study, 2010, the global economic downturn did little to dampen corporate commitment to sustainability, in fact it seems to have done the…