Business Model Innovation for Sustainability requires investment in time and money (directly and as opportunity costs), but it is often essential if a company wants to ensure success and contribute to a sustainable future. Several success factors must be considered:
CULTURE
Awareness: Foster culture for innovation and sustainability by raising awareness and capacity building. One way to achieve this can be through establishing routines (informally) or processes (formally).
Willingness to change: Accept that innovation is a painful process, because it shows how things can be done differently that they are done today, implying that what is done today is not as good. Embrace it and be open for these inputs.
Falling forward: Testing new grounds means not knowing everything from the beginning. A first prototype might not be accepted by its users; learn from their feedback, iterate, and test again.
ORGANIZATION AND SETTING
Space: Create and offer space that allows for the current business model, products/services, and processes to be challenged. Ways to create space include inviting employees to give input, conducting research (e.g., on sustainable business solutions), or engaging with peers from other companies.
A strong, multidisciplinary core team: Apart from those developing ideas, there is a need for a strong, multidisciplinary core team of sustainability and innovation experts from the company and potentially also from external organizations. The core team drives the innovation for sustainability process, creates space, and connects innovators with top management.
Community, cross-organizational and cross-sector collaboration: Talk and collaborate with peers from other organizations and sectors, engage in discussions with regional or thematic communities, academia, and experts.
Low entry barriers for ideas: Keep entry barriers for ideas low to get as many ideas as possible.
Diversity and collaboration in innovation teams: From strong multi-disciplinary and multi-organizational teams and include different perspectives and ideas.
Decision-makers on board: Include decision-makers (management) who commit resources (people/time, money, support) before the project starts; and deciders in the project team, to avoid the risk of heading in a direction that would not get support.
PROCESS
Innovation process and selection criteria: Define the process and expectations that need to be fulfilled for projects to get started and be continued, to give guidance to the innovation team(s). The selection criteria should include a strong case and a competent team, as well as the anticipated sustainability impact.
KPIs: Define realistic and useful criteria to measure the success of a sustainable innovation. For instance, forecasting a turnover of XY in one year before even knowing what the innovation should be would not be helpful.
Reduce complexity: If the innovation culture is not yet established within your organization, start with product/service or process innovation, but aim for business model innovation.
Research: Conduct research in different sectors to give guidance on where / in which field to develop new business models for a more sustainable economy.
Prototyping and testing: Validate assumptions as soon as possible to limit the costs of swimming in the wrong direction. Ask your customers, listen, and learn.
Putting in place this process will help to create resilient new business models that aim to be financially viable and tackle environmental and social challenges, by making effective use of a company’s unique competencies. At times, this ambition for transformation change can appear overwhelming. But despite the scale of the challenge, this is a story that must start to be written as soon as possible.
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Dogma C3X is an Intelligent Business Consulting Platform inspired by the 3Cs industry model, which offers a strategic look at the pillars that every company needs for success: Customers – Company – Competitors. “Intelligent” because by using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) it can collect, process, and analyze the growing tsunami of data (structured and unstructured) related to the 3Cs, which is incredibly valuable. Only by strengthening, positioning, and integrating these three pillars (Customers – Company – Competitors) you will be able to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
