Peter Fisk

We live in a time of great promise but also great uncertainty.

Markets are more crowded, competition is intense, customer aspirations are constantly fuelled by new innovations and dreams. Technology disrupts every industry, from banking to construction, entertainment to healthcare. It drives new possibilities and solutions, but also speed and complexity, uncertainty and fear.

As digital and physical worlds fuse to augment how we live and work, AI and robotics enhance but also challenge our capabilities, whilst ubiquitous supercomputing, genetic editing and self-driving cars take us further.

Technologies with the power to help us leap forwards in unimaginable ways. To transform business, to solve our big problems, to drive radical innovation, to accelerate growth and achieve progress socially and environmentally too.

We are likely to see more change in the next 10 years than the last 250 years.

• Markets accelerate, 4 times faster than 20 years ago, based on the accelerating speed of innovation and diminishing lifecycles of products.
• People are more capable, 825 times more connected than 20 years ago, with access to education, unlimited knowledge, tools to create anything.
• Consumer attitudes change, 78% of young people choose brands that do good, they reject corporate jobs, and see the world with the lens of gamers.

However, change goes far beyond the technology.

Markets will transform, converge and evolve faster. From old town Ann Arbor to the rejuvenated Bilbao, today’s megacities like Chennai and the future Saudi tech city of Neom, economic power will continue to shift. China has risen to the top of the new global business order, whilst India and eventually Africa will follow.

Industrialisation challenges the natural equilibrium of our planet’s resources. Today’s climate crisis is the result of our progress, and our problem to solve. Globalisation challenges our old notions of nationhood and locality. Migration changes where we call home. Religious values compete with social values, economic priorities conflict with social priorities. Living standards improve but inequality grows.

Our current economic system is stretched to its limit. Global shocks, such as the global pandemic of 2020, exposes its fragility. We open our eyes to realise that we weren’t prepared for different futures, and that our drive for efficiency has left us unable to cope. Such crises will become more frequent, as change and disruption accelerate.

However, these shocks are more likely to accelerate change in business, rather than stifle it, to wake us up to the real impacts of our changing world – to the urgency of action, to the need to think and act more dramatically.

The old codes don’t work

Business is not fit for the future. Most organisations were designed for stable and predictable worlds, where the future evolves as planned, markets are definitive, and choices are clear.

The future isn’t like it used to be.

Dynamic markets are, by definition, turbulent. Whilst economic cycles have typically followed a pattern of peaks and troughs every 10-15 years, these will likely become more frequent.  Change is fast and exponential, uncertain and unpredictable, complex and ambiguous demanding new interpretation and imagination.

Yet too many business leaders hope that the strategies that made them successful in the past will continue to work in the future. They seek to keep stretching the old models in the hope that they will continue to see them through. Old business plans are tweaked each year, infrastructures are tested to breaking point, and people are asked to work harder.

In a way of dramatic, unpredictable change, this is not enough to survive, let alone thrive.

• Growth is harder. Global GDP growth has declined by more than a third in the past decade. As the west stagnates, Asia grows, albeit more slowly.
• Companies struggle, their average lifespan falling from 75 years in 1950 to 15 years today, 52% of the Fortune 500 in 2000 no longer exist in 2020.
• Leaders are under pressure. 44% of today’s business leaders have held their position for at least 5 years, compared to 77% half a century ago.

Profit is no longer enough; people expect business to achieve more. Business cannot exist in isolation from the world around them, pursuing customers without care for the consequence. The old single-minded obsession with profits is too limiting. Business depends more than ever on its resources – people, communities, nature, partners – and will need to find a better way to embrace them.

Technology is no longer enough; innovation needs to be more human. Technology will automate and interpret reality, but it won’t empathise and imagine new futures. Ubiquitous technology-driven innovation quickly becomes commoditised, available from anywhere in the world, so we need to add value in new ways. The future is human, creative, and intuitive. People will matter more to business, not less.

Sustaining the environment is not enough. 200 years of industrialisation has stripped the planet of its ability to renew itself, and ultimately to sustain life. Business therefore needs to give back more than it takes. As inequality and distrust have grown in every society, traditional jobs are threatened by automation and stagnation, meaning that social issues will matter even more, both globally and locally.

A new generation of businesses

In an era defined by disruption, businesses around the world are undergoing profound transformation. No longer can companies operate with the same assumptions, structures, and models that defined success in the 20th century. The “future business” is emerging as a new breed of organization—adaptive, intelligent, sustainable, and deeply connected to the world around it. Driven by converging forces such as rapid technological innovation, sustainability imperatives, geopolitical realignment, and economic volatility, the nature of business is shifting in fundamental ways.

We are not just seeing marginal improvements but deep rewiring of how companies create value, engage with stakeholders, and evolve. The question is no longer how to optimize the old system, but how to reimagine business from the ground up for an uncertain, fast-moving, and interconnected world.

Having a megatrend mindset

The future is more uncertain and complex. Future businesses must thrive amidst ever greater ambiguity –  more foresight, learning faster, being adaptive, and building resilience into their DNA. However the macro directions of change are clear, fundamentally challenging how businesses work, and where they focus.

Megatrend 1: Converging tech … AI, quantum computing, robotics, and biotech are converging to radically reshape industries. Generative AI could add $2.6 to $4.4 trillion in global economic value annually (McKinsey, 2023). The synthetic biology market alone is projected to grow to $100+ billion by 2030. Automation, smart systems, and deep tech are transforming how value is created—making innovation faster, cheaper, and more scalable. The fusion of AI, biotech, robotics, and quantum computing will create entirely new industries, products, and capabilities.

Megatrend 2: Climate crisis … Environmental risk is now economic risk. Climate change, resource depletion, and consumer expectations are forcing companies to adopt sustainable models. $4.3 trillion in annual climate damages projected by 2050 if global temperatures rise by 2.5°C (Swiss Re, 2021). The global market for clean energy technologies will surpass $1.2 trillion by 2030 (IEA, 2023). The era of extractive capitalism is being challenged. Companies face growing regulatory and market pressure to decarbonize, shift to circular models, and build climate-resilient operations.

Megatrend 3: Societal reorder … An aging population in the Global North, youth bulges in the Global South, and growing urbanisation will reshape labor markets, consumption, and health systems. By 2035, people aged 65+ will outnumber those under 18 in most OECD countries. 68% of the world’s population will live in urban areas by 2050 (UN). Over 90% of global population growth from now to 2050 will occur in Africa and Asia (UN). Businesses must adapt to new generational needs, health demands, urban infrastructure pressures, and talent migration.

Megatrend 4: Economic shifts … The global order is shifting from unipolar to multipolar, with rising powers reshaping trade, alliances, and global governance. By 2030, Asia will account for over 60% of global GDP growth (World Economic Forum). The Global South will comprise more than half of the global middle class by 2035. Over 75% of global manufacturing capacity now lies outside the G7 (World Bank). Economic gravity is shifting, and businesses must rethink supply chains, alliances, and growth strategies around new regional centres of influence.

Megatrend 5: Reinventing work … Technology, automation, and cultural shifts are reshaping the nature of work, skills, and organizational design. 40% of current job skills are expected to change in the next 5 years (WEF Future of Jobs Report, 2023). 85 million jobs may go unfilled by 2030 due to a lack of skilled talent, potentially costing the global economy $8.5 trillion (Korn Ferry). 77% of Gen Z workers say company values are more important than salary (Deloitte, 2023). Organizations must compete for purpose-driven, digitally fluent talent while reimagining leadership, learning, and hybrid work.

Reinventing organisations

Traditional businesses were optimized for efficiency, stability, and scale. Now, companies prioritize agility and resilience over rigid efficiency. They are restructuring to move faster, make decisions closer to the customer, and respond dynamically to change. Transformation used to be episodic; now it’s continuous. Companies must reinvent not just once, but as a habit—strategically and culturally.

The core drivers of business value have shifted to intangible assets—data, software, brands, algorithms, and culture. These are harder to see but more scalable and valuable. There’s a growing focus on sustainability, purpose, and ethics. Leading firms now embed ESG goals into their business model—not as charity, but as a competitive advantage.

Long-term planning is being replaced by real-time sensing, experimentation, and iteration. Businesses are using AI, data analytics, and digital twins to simulate, test, and adapt on the fly. Innovation is no longer confined to R&D labs. Leading firms tap into open innovation, crowd-sourcing, and co-creation with customers and partners.

The focus has moved from selling products to delivering experiences and outcomes. Subscription models, access-based services, and embedded experiences are rising. Businesses are shifting from standalone products to platforms and ecosystems that create and capture value across a broader network of partners, customers, and developers.

• From Backwards to Forwards: Organisations are driven by future opportunities rather than legacy capabilities. They embrace foresight, scenarios and collaborations to anticipate what next, rather do what they’ve always done. DBS Bank in Singapore uses future-focused “strategic war-gaming” to stress-test decisions.
• From Efficiency to Agility: Stable markets found advantage through efficiency and standardisation, while dynamic markets demand agility and resilience. Apple redesigned its supply chains after COVID-19 and geopolitical tensions, prioritising redundancy and regional flexibility.
• From Shareholders to Stakeholders: Business needs to be than a money machine, more a platform for mutual value creation between all stakeholders. Unilever integrates social, environmental, and governance metrics into long-term strategy alongside profit.
• From Hierarchy to Networks: The old command and control structures drove stability and efficiency, but have given way to more decentralised, more collaborative organisation models. GitLab operates as a remote-first, asynchronous, global team with radical transparency.
• From Products to Platforms: Producing physical products and services have been replaced by new business models that are ecosystems of partners, driven by data and technology. Shopify enables millions of merchants through a scalable, API-driven commerce platform.
• From Linear to Circular: As business recognises its role in society and responsibility for the environment, circular and regenerative (give more than take) systems replace old linear value chains. IKEA has committed to becoming fully circular by 2030, including designing all products with reuse and recycling in mind.

In this environment, the most successful businesses are those that treat change not as a threat but as a capability. They build the muscle for transformation—structurally, technologically, and culturally—so that they can evolve faster than the world around them.

Being future-ready

The most future-ready organizations are those that treat reinvention not as an occasional strategy but as a continuous state of being. These companies operate in a state of “permanent beta”—constantly evolving, experimenting, and preparing for the next wave of disruption before it arrives. They understand that long-term success doesn’t come from defending existing models, but from boldly letting go of what made them successful in the past and embracing the uncertainty of what comes next.

The dominant metaphor for this mindset is the S-curve: the lifecycle of growth that begins with experimentation, rises through scaling, and eventually levels off in maturity and decline. Future-ready businesses don’t wait for stagnation. They intentionally jump to the next S-curve—whether through new technologies, products, markets, or business models. In fact, they often disrupt themselves before competitors or external shocks do. This requires strategic foresight, cultural agility, and a tolerance for ambiguity that most traditional organizations struggle to maintain.

Take Microsoft, for example. Its transformation under Satya Nadella from a software-licensing giant into a cloud-first, AI-driven platform company was not a defensive move, but a proactive reinvention. It cannibalized its own legacy products, bet early on open-source and cloud technologies, and reimagined its purpose around empowering others. Similarly, Netflix moved from DVD rentals to streaming—and then again to original content—each time destroying a still-profitable business to make room for the next.

These organizations don’t view change as a threat—they see it as fuel. They embed experimentation into their culture, reward learning over perfection, and build structures that allow for rapid iteration. Amazon’s “Day One” philosophy is a well-known example, a mindset designed to keep the company in startup mode regardless of its size. Leaders of future-ready companies cultivate a culture of curiosity, encouraging teams to test, fail, and adapt without the fear of blame.

Moreover, future-ready companies don’t merely focus on digital tools or efficiency—they reimagine their value in ecosystems. They understand that being adaptable also means being open: to partnerships, new customer needs, and entirely new industries. Tesla isn’t just a car company—it’s a platform for energy, AI, robotics, and infrastructure innovation. DSM is no longer a chemicals firm, but a biosciences pioneer reshaping food, health, and materials.

To operate in permanent beta is to accept that the game is never won. Future-ready organizations embrace uncertainty as the new normal, transformation as the new routine, and learning as the only true competitive advantage. In doing so, they don’t just survive disruption—they create it. They lead not with certainty, but with vision, agility, and a restless drive to build what comes next.

Here are some of the most future-ready businesses globally—companies that are actively transforming, innovating, and positioning themselves for leadership in a rapidly changing world. These organizations stand out for embracing technology, sustainability, adaptability, and purpose:

Patagonia: Purpose as Strategy

Patagonia has long defied traditional business logic, reinvesting profits into environmental activism and regenerative agriculture. In 2022, it went further—its founder Yvon Chouinard transferred ownership to a trust and nonprofit designed to fight climate change. This radical model puts purpose at the core, not just as marketing but as governance. Patagonia proves that the future business can be both deeply principled and profitable.

Schneider Electric: Digitizing Sustainability

Headquartered in France, Schneider Electric reinvented itself from an industrial equipment maker to a global digital energy management and automation firm. It provides smart energy solutions that help other businesses reduce emissions and waste. Through IoT platforms, AI analytics, and services, Schneider blends sustainability and digitization, offering a template for how legacy firms can reinvent themselves around global needs.

DBS Bank: Startup Culture

Singapore-based DBS Bank transformed from a traditional state-run bank into a digital innovation powerhouse. It adopted agile practices at scale, flattened hierarchies, and empowered cross-functional teams. Its “platform organization” enables it to respond to shifting customer needs with speed and experimentation, making it one of the most tech-savvy banks globally.

Tesla: Energy Ecosystem

Tesla didn’t just build electric vehicles—it built an entirely new system of mobility, energy storage, charging, and AI-enabled autonomy. It merged software and hardware in a way that traditional carmakers struggled to match. Tesla’s vertical integration, open innovation model, and iterative product updates through software are blueprints for future industrial businesses.

ASML: Deep Tech

Dutch company ASML produces the world’s most advanced semiconductor lithography machines—essential to chip manufacturing. ASML is a quintessential “invisible business” powering global innovation. Its ability to lead in a hyper-specialized, capital-intensive, and geopolitically sensitive sector shows how future businesses must navigate complexity while dominating niche ecosystems.

Strategic business design

Such future-ready companies consistently demonstrate a set of core attributes that allow them to adapt, lead, and grow in a world of constant change. These shared traits go beyond sector or size; they reflect how these businesses think, operate, and evolve:

• Strategic Foresight: Future business anticipate change and proactively reshape their business models rather than reacting passively. They use scenario planning, real-time data, and trend analysis to inform decisions. Microsoft, as an example, shifted from a license model to cloud-first, subscription-based services—years ahead of competitors.

• Intelligent Systems: Future businesses are embedding AI not just into products, but into the very fabric of decision-making, forecasting, and customer engagement. Examples include Amazon’s AI-driven supply chain and Salesforce’s AI-enabled CRM tools.

• Agile Architecture: They build modular organizations that can flex, pivot, and scale. This includes using microservices in tech infrastructure and cross-functional squads in organizational design.

• Regenerative Thinking: They don’t just aim to “do less harm” but to “do more good”—whether through circular design, regenerative agriculture, or inclusive employment models.

• Radical Transparency: Trust is currency. Open strategy, published roadmaps, stakeholder reporting, and community co-creation are becoming new norms—seen in companies like Buffer, Notion, and GitLab.

• Continuous Reinvention: Perhaps most critically, they treat change as a constant. Companies like Microsoft, once stagnant, reinvented themselves under new leadership, embracing cloud, open source, and cross-platform ecosystems.

Looking Ahead

The business landscape of the 2030s will look dramatically different. Climate shocks, AI breakthroughs, demographic shifts, and geopolitical fragmentation will challenge every assumption about value, work, growth, and leadership. The companies that thrive will not be those that predicted the future with certainty, but those that designed themselves to evolve.

Future businesses are not defined by industry, size, or geography—but by mindset. They see complexity as opportunity, technology as a partner, and sustainability as strategy. They reject zero-sum thinking, build networks over silos, and lead with purpose rather than compliance.

This is not just a moment of transformation. It’s a redefinition of what business is, what it is for, and what it must become. The future business is already emerging—bold, adaptive, and designed to thrive in the age of relentless change.

We’re bombarded by the hype of AI. It will transform our world, every industry, every task. And it probably will, eventually. But it also feels like not much has changed. Yes we listen to music, navigate maps, and search information differently. But is doesn’t feel like a revolution. Yet.

Technological revolutions rarely arrive all at once.

They unfold in waves, each one reshaping how we work, live, and think. From electricity to the internet to artificial intelligence, transformative technologies follow a pattern of adoption that moves through three distinct paradigms of progress.

These can be seen as successive S-curves of change, where the initial promise evolves into deeper reinvention.

• Doing things efficiently

• Doing things smarter

• Doing things differently

Understanding these three paradigms is essential for leaders, innovators, and societies seeking to harness new technologies not just for marginal gains, but in time for fundamental transformation.

Think about how AI has the potential to transform customer service, for example – initially by making processes faster or cheaper, then by enhancing services through more intelligence or personalisation, but eventually by completely reinventing services and the user experiences.

Or consider banking. Initially AI improved efficiency, automating services, and reducing fraud. Now we see a new generation of products, from embedded payments to peer to completely new services. The real shift will come in the third wave, making banks anticipative, connected, and invisible.

We can see the same three s-curves playing out in every sector, from retail to automotive, finance and entertainment, doctors and lawyers. Maybe slowly at first, but the drama and disruption will definitely come. And yet most companies get stuck on the first wave. Their mindset is fixed, limited by what they know, and seeking to improve the known.

The opportunity is to ride the waves of progress, and ultimately to unlock the new possibilities, to reinvent your business.

How far are you willing to go?

1. Doing Things More Efficiently

“Let’s do what we’ve always done—just faster, cheaper, or with fewer people.”

In the first phase of any major technology adoption, organizations use it to streamline existing processes. The focus is operational efficiency: reduce costs, automate repetitive tasks, and increase productivity. Technology is seen as a tool to optimize the status quo.

Consider artificial intelligence. The earliest commercial applications of AI were centered around automating call centers, tagging images, processing invoices, or assisting with code generation. In each case, the work being done remained largely the same—but now it could be done quicker and with fewer resources.

Historical parallels abound. The arrival of electricity didn’t immediately lead to new kinds of factories—it simply replaced steam engines. It took decades for architects and engineers to redesign factories in ways that leveraged electric power’s full flexibility.

Efficiency is a seductive starting point because it promises fast returns and low risk. But it’s also the least transformative.

Technology is used to optimize existing operations.

• Amazon (early years): Initially applied algorithms and automation to optimize warehouse logistics and online order fulfillment—doing traditional retail more efficiently at scale.

• Banks & Financial Services: Robotic process automation (RPA) is widely used to handle repetitive tasks like onboarding, compliance checks, or data entry, saving time and labor but not transforming the service itself.

• Legal industry: Tools like e-discovery platforms and contract review software use AI to speed up document analysis—reducing billable hours, but still following the same legal workflows.

2. Doing Things Smarter

“Let’s use technology to improve the quality, experience, and outcomes of what we do.”

Once technology proves its utility, a second paradigm emerges: using it to enhance outcomes, not just reduce inputs. This is about improving quality, personalization, speed, accuracy, and scale in meaningful ways.

With AI, this might mean using large language models not just to draft documents faster, but to generate better insights, recommendations, or creative content. In healthcare, AI shifts from automating administrative tasks to supporting better diagnoses. In education, it moves from grading tests to creating adaptive learning experiences tailored to each student.

At this stage, industries begin to rethink customer value. Products become services. Services become platforms. Decisions become more data-driven. Human-AI collaboration becomes a strength, not a threat.

This second curve usually requires more investment, redesign, and cultural change—but it also starts to deliver deeper competitive advantages. Still, it often works within the current paradigm of how business is structured.

• Spotify: Goes beyond delivering digital music efficiently. Its recommendation engine uses machine learning to personalize listening experiences, improving engagement and satisfaction.

• Tesla: Uses AI not just to manufacture cars more efficiently but to deliver a better product—integrating software updates, self-driving capabilities, and connected services that continuously improve over time.

• Healthcare providers: Mayo Clinic and others use AI to assist with diagnosis, image analysis, and treatment recommendations—resulting in better patient outcomes rather than just administrative savings.

3. Doing Things Differently

“Let’s reimagine what’s possible. Let’s create entirely new ways of solving problems.”

The final paradigm is the most powerful—and the most disruptive. Here, technology enables us to do things we couldn’t do before, in ways that redefine markets, organizations, and even social norms.

This is the territory of reinvention.

AI doesn’t just improve the current supply chain—it creates autonomous, self-optimizing systems. It doesn’t just enhance education—it enables new forms of peer-to-peer learning untethered from institutions. It doesn’t just help us write emails—it changes the nature of communication and creativity itself.

Companies that embrace this third curve become platforms of innovation. They don’t just use technology—they are technology. Think of Uber (redefining transport), Airbnb (redefining hospitality), or OpenAI (redefining human-machine interaction). In each case, the underlying technology unlocked a new business model, a new ecosystem, and a new way of creating value.

To operate on this third curve requires bold leadership, vision, and a willingness to break with tradition. It’s risky—but the rewards are exponential.

• Airbnb: Didn’t just improve hotel booking—it redefined hospitality by enabling people to monetize spare space, shifting the industry from centralized providers to a peer-to-peer network.

• OpenAI & ChatGPT: Rather than just making writing faster, generative AI allows entirely new modes of interaction, creativity, education, and problem-solving—altering how we produce, consume, and think about information.

• Zipline: In Africa and parts of the U.S., Zipline uses drones and AI logistics to deliver medical supplies to remote areas. It’s not just faster—it reimagines access to healthcare, overcoming infrastructure gaps entirely.

• Shopify: Went beyond helping merchants set up websites. It enabled a new generation of entrepreneurs to create entire businesses from anywhere, while integrating payments, logistics, and data in a single platform.

• Decentralized Finance (DeFi): Blockchain technology powers decentralized exchanges, lending, and insurance—removing the need for traditional financial intermediaries altogether.

Navigating the Three Curves

Each paradigm of progress builds on the one before. Organizations often move through them sequentially, but the most adaptive ones intentionally leap ahead—investing not just in operational tools, but in strategic transformation.

Here’s how leaders can think about the journey:

• Efficiency is about survival. If you don’t automate, someone else will.

• Effectiveness is about differentiation. This is where trust, loyalty, and growth emerge.

• Reinvention is about leadership. It’s how you shape the future rather than react to it.

Technology is not a single destination—it’s a shifting landscape of possibilities. Whether you’re a startup founder, a corporate executive, or a policymaker, recognizing these three paradigms of progress will help you unlock not just productivity, but potential.

And yet most companies get stuck in phase one—focusing solely on cost reduction. The real value, however, lies in moving up the curve. By recognizing these three paradigms, companies can better map their digital strategy, avoid incrementalism, and unlock the full transformative power of technology.

Progress isn’t just about doing things faster. It’s about doing them smarter—and ultimately, differently.

In the age of AI and exponential change, the question isn’t whether to adopt new technologies. It’s how far you’re willing to let them take you.

This toolkit is taken from Peter Fisk’s new book The Reinvention Playbook, and are also offered as an executive workshop for business leaders, connecting personal development and preparing to transform their organisations.

In a world defined by relentless change—technological disruption, climate imperatives, geopolitical shocks, and shifting consumer aspirations—business reinvention is no longer optional. The companies that thrive are not simply resilient; they are reinventive. They embrace change as a constant, and build the ability to transform themselves repeatedly and deliberately.

But reinvention is not an abstract aspiration. It requires practical tools—frameworks, mindsets, and methods—that help leaders reimagine markets, business models, organizations, and themselves.

Here we explore the 10 best tools for business reinvention, drawn from research and practice, and illustrated by companies that have reinvented with purpose and performance.

1. Future Ready

Tool: Future Readiness Frameworks, Scenario Stress Tests, Strategic Agility Indices

Before embarking on transformation, companies must ask: how future-ready are we? Tools that assess preparedness allow organisations to benchmark against disruption, resilience, and innovation capabilities.

Tools like the IMD Future Readiness Indicator or frameworks from McKinsey’s Resilience Compass provide structured ways to assess readiness across dimensions such as innovation, digitalization, sustainability, adaptability, and talent.

A readiness assessment surfaces strengths and vulnerabilities. For example, Fujifilm recognized early in the 2000s that its reliance on photographic film would not survive the digital wave. A candid assessment of market trends and internal capabilities drove its bold pivot into healthcare, materials science, and document solutions.

Similarly, Ping An of China, ranked consistently highly: it transformed from a traditional insurer into a sprawling fintech and health-tech ecosystem, building AI, big data, and platform capabilities long before incumbents recognized the shift.

How to use it:

• Conduct scenario stress tests to see how your business model holds up against shifts (e.g., carbon taxes, AI adoption, consumer activism).

• Use benchmarking surveys to measure agility across leadership, digital infrastructure, and culture.

• Identify capability gaps—the difference between where you are and what the future will demand.

Leaders should use readiness tools not only diagnostically but also prescriptively: to chart specific gaps and create action plans. This gives reinvention a fact-based foundation.

2. Change Radar

Tool: Strategic Foresight, Trendspotting, Early-Warning Radar Systems

The best companies don’t just respond to market shifts—they sense them early – and change before they have to. Tools for market sensemaking include horizon scanning, scenario planning, and weak-signal analysis. Rita McGrath’s concept of “seeing around corners” is particularly useful: it trains leaders to spot inflection points—moments when industries change shape.

Consider Disney, which sensed the streaming revolution and moved aggressively with Disney+. Despite cannibalizing parts of its traditional media empire, the move ensured it stayed relevant in the digital-first content economy. Similarly, Ping An anticipated that finance was moving toward ecosystems, not siloed products, and invested early in fintech, health tech, and smart city services.

How to use it:

• Build dedicated foresight teams to scan adjacent industries, emerging technologies, and societal shifts.

• Invest in ethnographic research to uncover unarticulated customer needs.

• Develop a “change radar”—a dashboard of indicators that trigger leadership attention when trends accelerate.

Reinvention requires peripheral vision—seeing sooner and acting faster than rivals. Sensemaking tools help businesses act before they are forced to—driving proactive, not reactive, reinvention.

3. Market Making

Tool: Blue Ocean Strategy, Jobs-to-Be-Done, Market-Making Playbooks

Reinvention often requires creating entirely new market spaces—what W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne call Blue Oceans. Tools like customer journey mapping, jobs-to-be-done frameworks, and non-customer analysis help organizations imagine new demand frontiers.

Mercado Libre is a prime example. Originally an e-commerce marketplace, it created new growth spaces by adding payments (Mercado Pago), logistics (Mercado Envios), and lending. This market-making mindset turned Mercado Libre into Latin America’s leading digital ecosystem, not just an online retailer.

How to use it:

• Identify customer frustrations and unmet aspirations, then design solutions that dissolve old industry borders.

• Map “jobs to be done” in people’s lives—then ask, how can we serve them more fully?

• Pursue adjacency plays: use core strengths to create new demand spaces.

Reinvention is often about expanding the canvas, from serving markets to shaping them. Market-making tools help companies shift from defending old boundaries to imagining new possibilities.

4. Business Model Reinvention

Tool: Business Model Canvas 2.0, Circular Economy Frameworks, AI Value Maps

The Business Model Canvas remains a vital tool, but reinvention today often requires expanding it with lenses like sustainability and AI capabilities. Companies must ask:

• How do we integrate environmental and social value creation?

• How do we embed new technologies into the core of the model?

Ørsted, for instance, transformed its business model from fossil fuels to renewable energy, becoming the world’s largest offshore wind producer. Ping An embedded AI across healthcare and insurance to scale new models of risk management and preventive care. These cases highlight that the next wave of business models are regenerative, data-driven, and ecosystem-oriented.

How to use it:

• Map your existing business model—then ask, how can AI, sustainability, or ecosystems transform each building block?

• Explore circular models (reuse, recycling, sharing) that align with global climate agendas.

• Stress-test models against digital disruption and ESG demands.

Reinvention demands transformational new models of value creation, not just incremental efficiency.

5. Future Portfolios

Tool: Dual Transformation Frameworks, Ambidextrous Organizations

One of the most practical reinvention frameworks is Dual Transformation: Transformation A strengthens the current core, while Transformation B builds the future. The bridge between them is new capabilities.

Fujifilm exemplifies this: Transformation A kept its imaging and printing businesses profitable; Transformation B built new pillars in healthcare and advanced materials. Similarly, Microsoft under Satya Nadella kept Windows and Office profitable while reinventing itself around Azure cloud and AI.

Similarly, you might define two portfolios – exploit and explore. The exploit portfolio brings together all of the initiatives that improve and innovate the current business, while the explore portfolio focuses on the initiatives that invent and innovate the future business. You need to manage both portfolios simultaneously.

How to use it:

• Structure innovation portfolios with distinct metrics for core, adjacent, and transformational bets.

• Build ambidextrous leadership teams, with different incentives and governance for exploit vs. explore.

• Foster “strategic patience”—accepting that new businesses need time to mature.

The dual transformation tool helps leaders avoid the “either/or” trap. Reinvention is about both exploiting today and exploring tomorrow, managed as a portfolio.

6. Burning Ambition

Tool: Making the Case for Change, Transformation Storytelling, Disruption Simulations

One of the hardest parts of reinvention is mobilizing urgency before crisis hits. Tools like Kotter’s change model and storytelling frameworks for “burning platforms” help leaders articulate why transformation is needed now—not later.

Netflix, under Reed Hastings, famously disrupted its own DVD rental business by launching streaming long before physical rentals collapsed. It framed the shift as essential for survival and growth. Pfizer’s rapid pivot during Covid-19 showed the power of urgency. By embracing mRNA technology and partnering with BioNTech, Pfizer transformed its R&D model in record time—mobilizing its entire workforce and ecosystem toward a single mission.

The lesson: leaders must create urgency without waiting for disaster, using tools that combine data, foresight, and narrative power.

How to use it:

• Use simulations to show how disruption could erode your market if no change occurs.

• Craft narratives that emotionally connect employees and stakeholders to the necessity of reinvention.

• Balance the “fear of loss” with the “hope of opportunity.”

Transformation requires a burning ambition, not just a burning platform.

7. Change Alignment

Tool: Culture-Strategy Alignment Maps, Operating Model Redesign, Humanocracy Principles

Reinvention fails when external strategies outpace internal change. Tools like the Operating Model Canvas, McKinsey’s 7S Framework, or alignment maps help ensure that new market strategies align with internal culture, processes, and capabilities.

Ping An’s reinvention was not just about launching fintech products—it built an organizational model where technology capabilities, AI, and ecosystems were integrated into the operating DNA. Similarly, Unilever has aligned its sustainability-driven external strategy with deep cultural change inside the company, embedding purpose and ESG into decision-making.

Haier, the Chinese appliance giant, reinvented itself into a network of entrepreneurial micro-enterprises, aligning its internal model with its external strategy of hyper-customer responsiveness. Netflix, through its “No Rules Rules” culture, aligned radical empowerment with the demands of a fast-changing streaming market.

How to use it:

• Map how your strategy requires cultural and organizational shifts.

• Use operating model redesign tools to break bureaucracy and empower teams.

• Adopt principles of humanocracy—making organizations more human, less bureaucratic.

Reinvention fails when strategy races ahead of culture. Both must transform together. Alignment tools keep reinvention coherent, so the inside matches the outside.

8. Transformation Roadmap

Tool: Transformation Roadmaps, S-Curve Mapping, Capability Maturity Models

Business transformation is rarely a one-off project; it’s a multi-year journey. Tools like transformation roadmaps, agile metrics, and portfolio governance models help structure reinvention in phases.

Disney’s transformation under Bob Iger illustrates this. Over 15 years, Iger reimagined Disney through acquisitions (Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm), digital platforms (Disney+), and cultural renewal. Each phase built on the previous, compounding value creation.

Siemens used a staged transformation roadmap to pivot from industrial conglomerate to digital-industrial leader, focusing sequentially on digital twins, IoT platforms, and smart infrastructure. Each phase built capabilities for the next.

How to use it:

• Design transformation as a staged journey: defend, extend, transcend.

• Map required capabilities and investments at each stage.

• Regularly update the roadmap to reflect evolving external realities.

The roadmap tool ensures reinvention is sequenced, measurable, and adaptive—rather than chaotic. Reinvention is not a sprint. It’s a marathon of S-curves.

9. Value Impact

Tool: Value Creation Scorecards, ESG-Integrated Metrics, Long-Term Incentives

Reinvention is only complete when performance is measured differently. Tools like the Integrated Reporting Framework, ESG scorecards, and long-term value creation metrics (used by the World Economic Forum) help leaders move beyond short-term profit toward holistic impact.

Danone, during its transformation into a health-focused food company, adopted integrated reporting to balance financial, social, and environmental metrics. BlackRock now pressures portfolio companies to show long-term value creation beyond quarterly earnings.

For instance, Mercado Libre reinvented Latin American commerce while also building financial inclusion for millions of underbanked citizens. Its performance is measured not just in GMV growth, but in the new ecosystem of opportunity it has created.

How to use it:

• Redesign performance dashboards to include innovation, sustainability, and inclusion metrics.

• Link executive incentives to long-term reinvention outcomes, not just quarterly EPS.

• Benchmark against peer leaders in value creation (e.g., McKinsey’s Long-Term Value Index).

By adopting new performance tools, companies ensure their reinvention creates enduring impact, not just temporary wins. Reinvention pays off when it creates enduring, transformational value.

10. Reinvent Yourself

Tool: Adaptive Leadership Models, Resilience Training, Personal Reinvention Journeys

Finally, reinvention is deeply personal. Leaders cannot expect organizations to transform if they themselves cling to old mindsets. Tools for self-reinvention—coaching, resilience practices, adaptive leadership models—equip leaders to navigate uncertainty with clarity and courage.

Satya Nadella’s leadership at Microsoft is a case in point. By reinventing himself as a learning-driven, empathetic leader, Nadella unlocked cultural and strategic reinvention across Microsoft—from a combative “know-it-all” culture to a collaborative “learn-it-all” mindset.

Bob Iger’s leadership at Disney, chronicled in The Ride of a Lifetime, shows reinvention leadership in practice: bold acquisitions (Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm), digital transformation (Disney+), and a culture of creativity.

How to use it:

• Embrace lifelong learning, especially in emerging fields like AI, sustainability, and systems thinking.

• Build resilience practices to thrive under ambiguity.

• Model vulnerability and curiosity—creating psychological safety for reinvention.

Reinvention starts with you, and with self-reinvention.

In summary:

Business reinvention is no longer episodic—it’s continuous. The 10 tools outlined here provide a practical playbook for leaders:

• Assess your future readiness.

• Sense markets and time change.

• Create new market spaces.

• Reinvent business models with new agendas.

• Balance exploit and explore.

• Make the case for change.

• Align strategy with culture and organization.

• Map multi-year journeys.

• Reinvent performance metrics.

• Reinvent yourself as a leader.

The examples of Ping An, Fujifilm, Mercado Libre, Disney, Pfizer, and others remind us that reinvention is not only possible, but powerful. It requires courage, foresight, and discipline. More than anything, it requires leaders who embrace reinvention not as a one-time act, but as a way of life.

The New Zealand footballer and his woolly sneakers, the Swiss climate entrepreneurs in remote Iceland, the French energy innovator who creates prosumers, the 87 year old fisherman who stood up to Trump, and the Swedish oat milk pioneer who can’t sing … How can they help you to innovate with more impact, and deliver more sustainable growth?

Challenge as Opportunity

As global challenges mount—climate change, biodiversity loss, inequality, resource scarcity, a new generation of companies is not only responding but thriving.

These sustainability-driven innovators are reframing capitalism, embedding environmental and social goals into the core of their strategy, and leveraging breakthrough concepts like circularity, regenerative design, stakeholder capitalism, and systems thinking.

They represent the vanguard of a new economic era—one in which commercial performance and positive impact are not in conflict but are mutually reinforcing.

Sustainability is no longer a compliance exercise or marketing trend. It is a core driver of innovation, competitiveness, and resilience. The most advanced sustainable innovators are those who view environmental and social challenges not as constraints, but as opportunities to innovate products and services, grow in new ways, and reimagine value creation.

They are leading the way toward an economy that is not only profitable, but also just, regenerative, and future-fit.

As pressures mount from investors, regulators, consumers, and the planet itself, more companies will be forced to follow this path. The future will belong to those who can align their business models with the well-being of people and the planet—and turn that alignment into enduring advantage.

Net Zero to Net Positive

Sustainability in business has long been framed by concepts like CSR, ESG, net zero, and circularity. While these remain critical, the next wave of innovation demands that companies go far beyond managing risk or reducing harm. Today’s leading businesses are embracing bold, transformative approaches that position sustainability as a powerful driver of innovation and growth, unlocking entirely new possibilities.

One of the most exciting shifts is the move toward regenerative economics and business models. Rather than simply minimizing environmental impact, companies are designing systems that actively restore natural capital and rebuild communities. This regenerative mindset pushes businesses to innovate products and supply chains that regenerate soil health, replenish biodiversity, and revive local economies—turning sustainability into a net positive force.

Conventional sustainability (CSR, ESG, and most “green” and “circular” initiatives) have typically been about causing less damage, making the world less bad, getting to net zero. Now is the time to go beyond those conventions – it’s time to give back more than you take, to make the world better, to create net positive impact. After all, every business should have a purpose as a fundamental premise, about how it creates a world better than if it didn’t exist.

Reinventing business

To truly transform, companies are also adopting systems thinking—understanding the complex interconnections between their business, society, and the environment. This systemic perspective drives cross-sector collaboration, where competitors, NGOs, governments, and communities co-create solutions to challenges no single actor can solve alone. From regenerative ocean farming coalitions to circular electronics ecosystems, this collective approach unlocks scale and impact.

Purpose-driven ecosystem leadership is another emerging trend. Here, companies act as platforms or hubs, orchestrating innovation networks and enabling suppliers, startups, and partners to align around shared sustainability goals. Embedding purpose deeply into governance and culture transforms sustainability from a compliance task into a strategic advantage and growth engine.

Nature-positive innovation is also redefining product development. Companies increasingly draw inspiration from biomimicry and invest in nature-based solutions that provide climate, biodiversity, and social benefits simultaneously. Advances in synthetic biology and biofabrication enable breakthroughs like lab-grown leather and mycelium packaging, disrupting traditional resource-intensive industries.

Digital sustainability and climate tech offer game-changing tools. AI, blockchain, IoT, and digital twins bring unprecedented transparency and precision to carbon tracking, resource efficiency, and supply chain optimization. New frontiers include carbon removal marketplaces and tokenized nature assets, opening fresh pathways to monetize and scale impact.

Embedding sustainability into human experience through behavioral design and well-being further advances impact. Products and services are crafted to nudge sustainable habits, connect people to nature, and support mental health—recognizing that personal and planetary health are intertwined.

Resilience and antifragility gain prominence as companies design systems that don’t just withstand shocks but thrive in disruption. Distributed energy, adaptive governance, and diversified supply chains prepare businesses for uncertainty while fostering long-term stewardship.

Finally, decentralization and democratization give communities, employees, and customers direct roles in sustainability through blockchain-enabled DAOs and crowdsourced innovation—making sustainability a shared, transparent endeavour.

Positive and profitable

Many business leaders have lost confidence in sustainability as a business priority over recent years. This is because most sustainability initiatives were developed separately from the core business model – for compliance, for reputation, and usually as a cost. They fail to deliver profits, and sustainable growth. But these ideas are absolutely not incompatible.

The term net positive, first used by former Unilever CEO Paul Polman, seemed like a distant ambition at the time. Today, with a new generation of companies on the rise, and new technologies to support their radical business models, it has now become far more possible. Climeworks, the direct air capture business, is a great example of this progress.

Business can be a force for good. Social regeneration and inclusive prosperity—moving beyond philanthropy to rebuild social capital and equitably value creation. Innovative business models like cooperatives and profit-sharing foster inclusion, while social metrics on well-being and equity, become as vital as environmental KPIs.

The best “net positive” companies do more for the world, and for their shareholders too. They create products and services that are good for the environment and society, but also better than competitors too. It tastes better, looks better, performs better. This requires more thoughtful innovation. Their brands align with the values of conscious consumers, and their propositions are more desirable and worth paying more for too.

They can grow, although maybe less physically, and deliver profits. Indeed, as investment gurus like BlackRock’s Larry Fink realised, they typically deliver more sustained (and sustainable) value creation. By rethinking how they innovative, how their business models and ecosystems work, and how they deliver mutual value for all stakeholders.

Look at the examples below, Allbirds to NextEra, Schneider Electric to Oatly. And many more.

At the heart of these trends lies transformative leadership and culture change. Leaders who embrace complexity, humility, and empathy cultivate cultures of experimentation and learning—turning sustainability into a continuous journey of innovation and impact.

Allbirds … Reinventing sneakers from wool, trees, and sugarcane

Allbirds, the San Francisco-based footwear company founded in 2016 by Tim Brown and Joey Zwillinger, has emerged as a standout example of how sustainability can be embedded in the DNA of a business—driving innovation, market differentiation, and financial growth. Born from the simple idea of creating a more sustainable shoe, Allbirds has transformed the footwear industry with radical transparency, regenerative materials, and a bold commitment to carbon accountability.

From the outset, Allbirds challenged the norms of an industry plagued by synthetic materials and high carbon footprints. Instead of petroleum-based fabrics, the company focused on natural, renewable alternatives—most notably, merino wool sourced from New Zealand, sugarcane-based EVA (branded as SweetFoam), castor bean oil insoles, and tree fiber uppers from FSC-certified eucalyptus. Each material choice was a deliberate attempt to lower the environmental impact while enhancing performance and comfort.

But Allbirds didn’t stop at sustainable materials—it reimagined the entire business model around carbon-conscious decision-making. In 2019, Allbirds began labeling every product with its carbon footprint, much like nutritional facts on food packaging. This level of transparency set a new standard in consumer goods and pressured competitors to follow suit. By internalizing the true cost of emissions, the company made sustainability a tangible and trackable part of its brand proposition.

Leadership has played a critical role in this transformation. Zwillinger, with a biotech and cleantech background, brought a systems-thinking approach to scaling green innovation. Together with Brown, they have fostered a culture that integrates design, science, and sustainability at every level of decision-making—from product R&D to supply chain logistics.

Allbirds also took the unusual step of open-sourcing its SweetFoam technology, allowing competitors to adopt the carbon-negative innovation in an effort to reduce the overall industry footprint. This move underscores the company’s belief in collaborative impact over competitive secrecy—a principle that has resonated with climate-conscious consumers and investors alike.

As of 2024, Allbirds has expanded into performance running shoes and apparel, while continuing to refine its carbon reduction goals. It became one of the first fashion brands to commit to near-term science-based targets (SBTi) and a net-zero trajectory by 2030. However, growth has not been without its challenges—especially in maintaining profitability during expansion and responding to shifting consumer demand post-COVID. Nevertheless, the company’s focus on innovation and long-term impact has positioned it as a resilient and future-facing brand.

The result is a business that not only delivers stylish, comfortable shoes but also serves as a proof point for how purpose and profit can be mutually reinforcing. Allbirds exemplifies the next generation of climate-native brands—those that view environmental urgency not as a constraint, but as a launchpad for rethinking everything.

Sustainability pillars:

• Using natural materials like merino wool, eucalyptus fiber, and sugarcane-based EVA.

• Developing carbon-negative foam and partnering with Adidas on the lowest-emission sneaker ever made.

• Aligning its entire business with Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs) and SBTi (Science Based Targets initiative).

Allbirds is proof that sustainability can be both stylish and scalable.

More about Allbirds

Climeworks … accelerating decarbonisation through direct air capture

Climeworks, a Swiss startup founded in 2009 by engineers Christoph Gebald and Jan Wurzbacher, has positioned itself at the frontier of climate innovation by building one of the world’s first commercially viable direct air capture (DAC) companies. In a time when decarbonization alone is no longer enough, Climeworks has reimagined what it means to lead in the climate economy—not by reducing emissions, but by removing them from the atmosphere entirely.

The company’s mission is both ambitious and urgent: to empower a climate-positive world by permanently removing CO₂ from the air. Climeworks’ proprietary technology uses modular DAC machines that capture atmospheric CO₂ using specialized filters and low-grade heat. Once captured, the CO₂ can be either stored underground—via partnerships like the one with Carbfix in Iceland—or reused in industrial processes. Unlike traditional offsets, which often come with questions around permanence and verification, Climeworks focuses on verifiable, measurable, and durable carbon removal.

In 2021, Climeworks launched Orca, the world’s largest DAC facility at the time, built in just 15 months in Iceland. Orca permanently stores around 4,000 tons of CO₂ per year underground in basalt rock formations. In 2024, it unveiled Mammoth, its second-generation facility with ten times the capacity, as part of its roadmap to scale carbon removal into the megaton range by the end of the decade.

Climeworks’ innovation is not just technical—it’s strategic. Recognizing that voluntary carbon markets were fragmented and often untrustworthy, the company set out to build an entirely new category of carbon removal, certified by independent standards and embraced by climate-conscious brands. Its early clients included Microsoft, Shopify, Stripe, and Swiss Re—companies that saw carbon removal not just as an offset, but as an investment in future-proofing their operations.

The leadership of Gebald and Wurzbacher has been defined by bold vision and patient capital. Rather than chasing short-term profits, they focused on scaling infrastructure, refining cost curves, and building long-term trust. In 2022, Climeworks raised over $600 million in the largest-ever investment in the DAC sector, a vote of confidence in its scalable model and technological credibility.

Climeworks also invests in public transparency and education, offering individual subscriptions for carbon removal and communicating openly about its methodologies and progress. This “consumer layer” adds visibility to a complex sector and helps normalize the idea of permanent carbon removal in everyday decision-making.

As the climate crisis accelerates, carbon removal is gaining acceptance not as a niche add-on but as a critical pillar in achieving net-zero and eventually net-negative emissions. By leading the commercialization of DAC, Climeworks is helping to define what responsible, science-based climate leadership looks like in the 21st century.

More than a startup, Climeworks is emblematic of the next wave of businesses built around planetary limits, systemic change, and regenerative innovation. It is not merely adapting to environmental challenges—it is shaping the very architecture of a decarbonised future.

Visiting Climeworks in Iceland

Danone … from food giant to a healthy planet, and sustainability champion

Danone, the French multinational food company, has repositioned itself over the last two decades as a pioneer of responsible capitalism—driven by a mission to “bring health through food to as many people as possible.” This strategic reinvention has touched every part of the business, from governance and branding to sourcing and innovation.

Former CEO Emmanuel Faber played a transformative role in turning Danone into a purpose-led enterprise. Under his leadership, Danone adopted a “dual project” model—pursuing both economic and social goals—and in 2020 became the first listed company in France to adopt Entreprise à Mission legal status. This change hardwired environmental and social objectives into the company’s bylaws and oversight mechanisms.

Danone has embedded sustainability into its supply chain, particularly through regenerative agriculture programs for dairy and plant-based ingredients. It is one of the world’s largest B Corp-certified corporations, with over 70% of its global subsidiaries independently certified for social and environmental performance. Its strategy includes reducing greenhouse gas emissions across the value chain and aiming for carbon neutrality by 2050.

The company has expanded its portfolio toward plant-based nutrition (via acquisitions like Alpro and Silk) and medical and early-life nutrition, aligning growth with health outcomes. Despite facing investor pressure that led to Faber’s departure, Danone’s purpose-driven model continues to influence how global food companies define performance—combining nutrition, sustainability, and stakeholder value.

More about Danone

IKEA … designing a circular and climate-positive future for furniture

IKEA, the world’s largest furniture retailer, has undergone a major transformation to integrate sustainability into the heart of its business. Once associated with mass production and disposable products, IKEA is now reengineering its entire value chain—from sourcing to product design to end-of-life recovery—to align with a circular and climate-positive strategy.

Under the leadership of Jesper Brodin, CEO of Ingka Group (which operates most IKEA stores), the company set bold goals: to become climate positive by 2030, using only renewable or recycled materials, and ensuring all products are designed for reuse, refurbishment, or recycling. It has already phased out single-use plastics and is transitioning toward regenerative sourcing for wood and cotton.

IKEA is pioneering circular retail with furniture take-back, repair, and resale programs in multiple markets. It has launched services for leasing furniture and developed modular, disassemblable products to extend product life. The company also invested heavily in renewable energy—installing solar panels on stores and becoming one of the largest corporate buyers of wind and solar globally.

This reinvention has been critical to maintaining relevance with younger, sustainability-conscious consumers while unlocking new revenue streams and efficiencies. IKEA’s vision blends environmental impact with affordability—proving that a circular economy can be accessible and profitable at scale.

Interface … from carpets and flooring tiles, to mission zero and climate take back

Interface, a global flooring manufacturer, is a pioneer in sustainable business reinvention. In the mid-1990s, founder Ray Anderson underwent a personal epiphany after reading The Ecology of Commerce, shifting the company’s trajectory from a conventional carpet tile maker to an environmental leader.

Anderson launched Mission Zero—a commitment to eliminate all negative environmental impact by 2020. Interface overhauled its supply chain, shifted to recycled and bio-based materials, and developed closed-loop recycling for its products. It redesigned carpets to be modular and glue-free, reducing waste and enabling easy replacement.

More recently, Interface launched Climate Take Back, aiming not just to reduce harm but to reverse global warming. The company introduced the first carbon-negative carpet tile, using materials and processes that sequester more carbon than they emit. It also created a roadmap for regenerative design, using biomimicry and cradle-to-cradle principles.

Interface has demonstrated strong financial performance alongside its environmental mission, consistently ranking among the most sustainable companies in the world. Its journey has inspired entire industries to rethink what’s possible in manufacturing.

Its next challenge is “Climate Take Back”, aiming not just to reduce harm but to reverse global warming by:

• Creating carbon-negative carpet tiles.

• Using bio-based and recycled materials.

• Leveraging life cycle thinking and industrial ecology to design regenerative systems.

Interface exemplifies deep systems change through innovation and purpose.

Next Era Energy … from electricity utility to clean energy leader

NextEra Energy, based in Florida, has transformed from a traditional electric utility into the largest producer of wind and solar energy in the world. Its reinvention is a case study in turning regulatory and environmental pressure into innovation and market leadership.

Led by visionary former CEO Jim Robo, and now by John Ketchum, NextEra invested early in renewable energy through its subsidiary NextEra Energy Resources. Instead of resisting change, the company embraced the clean energy transition, pouring billions into wind farms, solar parks, and advanced battery storage systems.

NextEra also modernized its grid infrastructure and began using data and digital tools to improve efficiency and resilience. It shuttered coal plants, committed to net-zero by 2045, and positioned itself as a leader in decarbonizing the U.S. energy system.

The company’s green transformation has been rewarded by markets: NextEra’s market cap has surpassed most of its fossil fuel peers, and it has become a preferred partner for corporations and governments seeking clean energy solutions.

NextEra proves that a fossil-based utility can reinvent itself not only to survive but to thrive in the renewable era, combining environmental leadership with long-term profitability.

Oatly … reimagining milk for the climate-conscious age, and having fun too

Oatly, the Swedish oat milk company, has turned a niche product into a global movement. Founded in the 1990s and relaunched in the 2010s under CEO Toni Petersson, Oatly’s reinvention is based on a provocative, purpose-driven brand and a climate-forward mission: to shift the world away from dairy.

Oatly’s business model directly addresses the environmental impact of livestock agriculture, which is a major source of global greenhouse gas emissions, land use, and water consumption. By offering a plant-based alternative that requires 80% less land, 60% less energy, and 80% fewer emissions than cow’s milk, Oatly presents sustainability as a delicious and mainstream choice.

The company’s packaging and marketing are bold and transparent, often including detailed carbon footprints and advocacy messages. Oatly has also committed to supply chain transparency, regenerative farming, and localizing production to reduce environmental impact.

The brand has scaled rapidly across Europe, the USA and Asia, with a successful IPO in 2021. It now partners with major foodservice brands and retailers, helping plant-based options go mainstream. Oatly’s reinvention of a commodity—milk—demonstrates how sustainability, storytelling, and innovation can create new categories, consumer loyalty, and global growth.

On … Swiss engineering for sporting excellence, great shoes and a better world

Founded in Switzerland in 2010, On Running emerged as a performance footwear disruptor, blending elite athletic engineering with a deep commitment to sustainability. The company’s breakthrough innovation was its patented “CloudTec” cushioning, offering a unique running feel. But what sets On apart is how it has embedded sustainability into its product lifecycle, supply chain, and innovation engine.

Under the leadership of co-founder Caspar Coppetti, On has pursued a bold vision: create high-performance sportswear that leaves the smallest possible environmental footprint. In 2021, On launched the world’s first fully recyclable running shoe, the Cyclon, made from castor beans and available only via a subscription-based circular economy model. Customers return worn shoes for recycling and receive new ones—decoupling revenue from raw material extraction.

On’s sustainability strategy includes using recycled polyester, reducing carbon-intensive materials, and eliminating harmful chemicals. Its partnership with Climeworks—a Swiss carbon capture startup—further underscores its climate-forward thinking. It even used carbon emissions to create a running shoe (Cloudprime) in collaboration with CarbonBuilt and Novoloop.

The result? Rapid growth and IPO success in 2021. On’s revenues have soared past $2 billion, and the brand has won loyal consumers who value both performance and purpose. It has reinvented not only what a running shoe can do—but what a sustainable brand can be.

Patagonia … pioneer of regenerative business, fighting climate change with every cent

Patagonia has long been the gold standard for environmental activism in business. Founded by Yvon Chouinard, the outdoor apparel company has used its business as a platform for change. But in 2022, it redefined corporate sustainability entirely—by giving away the company.

Chouinard transferred ownership to a specially designed trust and nonprofit (Holdfast Collective) that directs all profits not reinvested into the company toward fighting the climate crisis. This radical move capped decades of Patagonia integrating sustainability into every part of its model.

Patagonia’s innovations include the Worn Wear platform (for repair and resale), using recycled and organic materials, and pioneering regenerative organic agriculture. Its supply chain is audited for fair labor practices and environmental impact. The company champions corporate activism—suing the Trump administration to protect national parks, and calling out greenwashing in the industry.

Patagonia has grown into a $1+ billion business, proving that doing good and doing well are not mutually exclusive. It has reinvented outdoor apparel, influenced generations of brands, and challenged traditional models of ownership and value.

Patagonia’s innovations include:

• Regenerative agriculture in its supply chain to draw down carbon and restore ecosystems.

• A thriving Worn Wear program for repairing and reselling gear to extend product life.

• Transparent B Corp practices and a strong advocacy stance on political and environmental issues.

Its model demonstrates how mission-driven capitalism can create lasting brand value and deep customer loyalty.

Schneider Electric … digitalising the future of energy with microgrids and prosumers

Schneider Electric, the French energy and automation giant, has undergone a profound transformation over the last two decades—shifting from a traditional electrical equipment firm to a global leader in sustainability-enabling technology.

Under CEO Jean-Pascal Tricoire, the company aligned its strategy with solving the world’s energy paradox: how to provide more energy to more people, while reducing carbon emissions. Schneider’s digital platform EcoStruxureempowers companies to monitor and reduce energy consumption and emissions in real-time—enabling entire industries to decarbonize.

Internally, Schneider has committed to net-zero across its operations and supply chain by 2050, and already uses 100% renewable electricity in many facilities. The company also helps suppliers meet ESG targets, turning sustainability into a shared ecosystem challenge.

Named the world’s most sustainable corporation by Corporate Knights in 2021, Schneider’s innovations are driving both impact and income: it has consistently delivered strong financial performance and shareholder returns, while helping thousands of companies meet climate goals.

Schneider has reinvented its role—from a utility equipment vendor to a catalyst for sustainable transformation across the global economy.

Core innovations include:

• EcoStruxure, an IoT-enabled platform for real-time energy monitoring and efficiency.

• Services in microgrids, smart grids, and renewable integration.

• Sustainability-as-a-service, helping clients decarbonize operations and supply chains.

Schneider Electric’s “Impact Company” model emphasises resilience, empowerment, and ESG-driven leadership.

Unilever … you can still enjoy great ice-cream, and make the world better at the same time!

Unilever, the Anglo-Dutch consumer goods giant behind brands like Dove, Ben & Jerry’s, and Lifebuoy, has redefined what a global FMCG company can be. Over the past 15 years, it has placed sustainable living at the core of its strategy, driving brand growth and business transformation.

The shift began under former CEO Paul Polman, who launched the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan in 2010. The plan aimed to decouple growth from environmental impact, while improving health and livelihoods for billions. Unilever tackled climate emissions, water use, waste, and sourcing across its value chain.

Today, 80% of Unilever’s agricultural inputs are sustainably sourced, and many of its brands are carbon-labelingproducts. Dove’s campaigns promote real beauty and self-esteem; Lifebuoy improves handwashing habits; and Ben & Jerry’s speaks out on social justice—all while delivering strong margins.

Under current CEO Hein Schumacher, Unilever is focusing even more on climate resilience, circular packaging, and supply chain inclusion. It plans to reach net-zero emissions by 2039 and halve the footprint of its products by 2030.

Unilever’s purpose-led brands are growing faster than others in its portfolio. The company has proven that sustainability is not a cost—but a competitive advantage, enabling reinvention at scale in one of the most resource-intensive industries on the planet.

Unilever’s strategic frameworks include:

• The Sustainable Living Plan, which linked sustainability to innovation and growth.

• “Brands with Purpose”, where brands like Dove and Ben & Jerry’s are used to drive social and environmental impact.

• A deep integration of SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) into product and sourcing strategies.

Despite market volatility, Unilever has consistently outperformed peers in ESG rankings and brand trust.

New metrics of a net positive business

As the world transitions into an era defined by planetary boundaries, social inequality, and digital acceleration, the question is no longer whether companies should be sustainable—but how to measure what truly matters. Traditional corporate responsibility metrics, framed by CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) and ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance), have helped integrate sustainability into business. Yet, they often remain compliance-driven and incremental.

Today, a growing number of companies are aiming not just to reduce harm, but to create net positive impact—to put more into the world than they take out. These are businesses that deliver superior financial performance and systemic societal and environmental progress. To do this credibly, they need new metrics: ones that are strategic, integrated, forward-looking, and regenerative by design.

1. True Value Creation: Profit with Purpose

At the heart of any business performance system lies profit. But in a sustainable and net positive business, profitability is contextualised by how it is earned—with what impact on people and the planet. Contemporary metrics look not only at shareholder returns but multi-capital value creation.

• Integrated Value Metrics: These combine financial, manufactured, natural, human, social, and intellectual capital to assess how businesses create or erode value across systems.

• Value-to-Society Accounting: Pioneered by companies like Novo Nordisk and SAP, this approach monetises positive and negative externalities to reflect the company’s real contribution (or cost) to society.

• Profit per Impact Unit: Forward-thinking firms begin to express profit not just in dollars but relative to the positive impact delivered—e.g., profit per tonne of carbon avoided or per low-income customer served.

2. Net Environmental Contribution: Beyond Carbon

Most companies now measure their carbon footprint, but a net positive organisation seeks to go further: to become nature-positive and climate-regenerative. This requires a broader and more ambitious set of metrics.

• Carbon Handprint vs Footprint: The handprint measures the positive carbon impact of products or services (e.g. emissions avoided by using a clean-tech product) and is increasingly used alongside footprint.

• Science-Based Targets (SBTi) + Beyond Value Chain Mitigation: Companies like Microsoft and Ørsted now set SBTs that include Scope 3 emissions and commit to removing more carbon than they emit—factoring in nature-based solutions, removals, and restoration.

• Biodiversity Net Gain: Leading firms like Holcim and Nestlé have adopted biodiversity metrics, such as hectares of habitat restored, or improvements in species richness on company-managed land.

3. Circularity and Regenerative Flows

Circular economy metrics go beyond recycling rates. They assess how effectively companies decouple growth from resource extraction, redesign systems for reuse, and regenerate ecosystems.

• Material Circularity Indicator (MCI): Developed by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, it quantifies how restorative the material flows of a product or company are.

• Circular Revenue Ratio: Measures the share of revenue derived from circular business models—products-as-a-service, resale, remanufacturing, etc.

• Water Positivity: Companies like PepsiCo and Google aim to return more water to the environment than they withdraw, with metrics on replenishment volumes and watershed restoration impact.

4. Social Impact and Equity Outcomes

Contemporary social metrics go far beyond headcount and charitable donations. Net positive companies measure the depth, scale, and sustainability of their impact on human lives, especially among underserved communities.

• Decent Work Index: Tracks not just jobs created but their quality—wages, rights, progression, and security. Used by groups like Unilever and Accenture.

• Social Return on Investment (SROI): Converts social outcomes into financial value to assess how effectively a company creates impact for each dollar spent.

• Access and Inclusion Metrics: How many people get access to essential products and services—clean energy, education, healthcare—especially in low-income or marginalised areas? d.light and Safaricom use these metrics to track impact at scale.

5. Wellbeing and Human Flourishing

Employee experience is no longer measured only by engagement scores. A regenerative business recognises people as whole humans, and tracks wellbeing, growth, and purpose as part of organisational health.

• Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS): Captures how likely employees are to recommend the company—used as a proxy for loyalty and morale.

• Psychological Safety Index: Gauges whether people feel safe to speak up, take risks, and innovate—key to adaptive, inclusive cultures.

• Purpose Activation Score: Measures how well individual employees connect their work to the broader purpose of the company—a concept applied by companies like Danone and Lush.

6. Governance for Regeneration

Strong ESG governance is critical—but in net positive companies, governance is more than compliance. It actively steers the business toward long-term value creation and stakeholder balance.

• Stakeholder Engagement Index: Tracks how systematically and transparently the company involves stakeholders—customers, suppliers, communities—in shaping decisions.

• ESG-Linked Compensation: The proportion of executive and board pay linked to ESG and net positive outcomes. Schneider Electric, DSM, and Intel integrate such metrics.

• Purpose Compliance: In countries like France, companies with “Entreprise à Mission” status must report how effectively they deliver on their legally embedded purpose.

7. Transformation and Innovation Capacity

A sustainable organisation isn’t one that simply avoids harm—it’s one that adapts and leads change. That requires investment in innovation, agility, and the ability to scale transformative ideas.

• Impact Innovation Ratio: Percentage of R&D or capital invested in sustainable, regenerative, or inclusive innovation—e.g., low-carbon tech, inclusive fintech.

• Transition Readiness Score: Measures how aligned a company’s assets, culture, and capabilities are to a sustainable future—pioneered in ESG risk frameworks like Transition Pathway Initiative (TPI).

• Speed of Scaling Positive Impact: How fast can the company scale solutions that address climate, health, or social equity challenges?

8. Reputation and Trust as Strategic Assets

Trust and reputation are among the most valuable yet intangible assets of any company. Net positive organisations earn trust through action and accountability.

• Trust Index: Often measured via global reputation surveys (like Edelman Trust Barometer), or customer trust scores.

• Transparency Scores: From public disclosures, third-party ESG ratings, and real-time dashboards—used by companies like Patagonia and Tesla to signal openness.

• Net Trust Gap: The difference between what stakeholders expect and what the company delivers across key environmental and social dimensions.

Examples of metrics in companies

• Interface, the carpet manufacturer, measures its “Climate Take Back” progress via carbon-negative product sales, gigaton-scale carbon reduction targets, and employee sustainability engagement metrics.

• IKEA tracks the circularity of its entire product portfolio, sets science-based climate and forest-positive goals, and uses wellbeing indicators across its global workforce.

• Climeworks, a Swiss carbon capture firm, quantifies its positive climate impact by the tonnes of CO₂ permanently removed—not offset—and has third-party verification in place.

The shift to a net positive business is also a shift in mindset. It redefines success—not as being less bad, but as being actively good. It values long-term over short-term, systems thinking over silos, and deep purpose over shallow PR. And crucially, it builds new metrics to make these ambitions real.

The new performance frontier asks bold questions:

• Are we helping the world thrive, or just survive?

• Are we solving problems we helped create—or preventing them in the first place?

• Are we creating value for all stakeholders—not just shareholders?

In answering these, the best companies are not only building better futures—they are measuring them, managing them, and proving that profit and purpose are not trade-offs, but a route to more holistic success.

Exploring more

Net positive companies—those that aim to give more to the world than they take—can be among the most profitable and value-creating because they align their growth with solving social and environmental challenges. Rather than seeing sustainability as a cost, these companies treat it as a source of competitive advantage, innovation, and long-term resilience.

Achieving net positive impact often requires deep business reinvention: rethinking core strategies, reimagining products and services to deliver environmental or social benefits, and designing new business models that generate value through regeneration, circularity, or shared prosperity.

This transformation demands bold leadership—leaders willing to challenge short-term thinking, set ambitious goals, and embed purpose across the organization. Companies like NextEra, Patagonia, and Schneider Electric show that when sustainability drives innovation and is integral to strategy, it can unlock new markets, reduce risk, attract top talent, and build strong, trusted brands. In today’s economy, doing more good isn’t just ethical—it’s a smart, future-focused way to grow.

• Sustainable Futures Project by Peter Fisk
• World’s Most Sustainable Innovators by Peter Fisk
• People Planet Profit: Guide to Sustainable Innovation by Peter Fisk

From AI labs in London to climate pioneers in Zurich, Europe’s cities host a wealth of innovation. Each city offers a unique perspective on solving global challenges — from how we move, eat, bank, and live to how we explore space or communicate across languages.

Europe’s rich innovation heritage stretches back centuries, from the Renaissance to the Industrial Revolution, and has been shaped by a unique blend of scientific curiosity, cultural diversity, and deep philosophical inquiry. Its long history of invention — from Galileo and Gutenberg to Pasteur and Tesla — reflects a tradition of challenging established norms and imagining new possibilities. Europe’s patchwork of nations, languages, and ideas has fostered a culture of cross-border collaboration and creative problem-solving.

This legacy continues today, particularly in the realm of sustainable innovation, where historical values of craftsmanship, social welfare, and environmental stewardship intersect with cutting-edge technologies. As Europe grapples with climate change, energy transition, and circular economy goals, its commitment to responsible progress is inspiring a new wave of innovations — from green hydrogen and vertical farming to eco-design and regenerative business models — rooted in a vision of a more resilient, equitable, and sustainable future.

Over the last 6 months, I’ve worked in 15 European cities – coaching business leaders and supporting innovation teams, inspiring keynotes and educational workshops. Travel is also a way to discover so much more, and for me, that means seeking out the most interesting companies (typically start-ups, but not always!) lurking in each city.

So here is my travel log around Europe’s capitals, discovering the entrepreneurs and innovators shaping Europe’s future:

London … DeepMind

Once the heart of a global empire, today London is a sprawling metropolis known for its culture, finance, and innovation. Landmarks like the Tower of London and the Shard showcase its journey from royal power to modern skyline. London is also where I live, and I recently delivered the FT/Headspring Summer Lecture, launching my new Megatrends 2035 report.

London has become a hotbed for artificial intelligence, and DeepMind stands at its summit. Founded in 2010 and acquired by Google in 2014, DeepMind develops general-purpose AI with transformative potential. Its most famous breakthrough — AlphaGo — defeated the world’s Go champion, while AlphaFold cracked the protein folding problem, revolutionising biology. DeepMind’s London HQ remains its creative epicentre, blending neuroscience, computer science, and ethics to push the limits of machine learning in health, energy, and science.

Other innovators: Improbable (virtual worlds), ZOE (personalised nutrition), Wayve (autonomous vehicles).

Paris … Mistral AI

Paris, the City of Light, is known for its art, cuisine, and architectural grandeur. I was in Paris to work with the OECD and various other international organisations like IMF and ECB, helping them drive innovation inside their organisations, and with the businesses they seek to inspire. From the Eiffel Tower to the tech-driven Station F, Paris is reinventing itself as a European AI hub.

Mistral AI is leading the Parisian AI revolution. Founded in 2023 by former Meta and Google DeepMind engineers, the company is developing open-source large language models (LLMs) that rival closed American counterparts. Its Mixtral model shocked the tech world with high performance and transparency. Mistral is betting on Europe’s regulatory-first ethos to drive innovation responsibly — making cutting-edge AI accessible, sovereign, and secure.

Other innovators: Doctolib (telehealth), Back Market (refurbished tech), Ynsect (insect protein).

Amsterdam … Adyen

Once a maritime trading powerhouse, Amsterdam today is a hub of design, cycling, and digital business. The city blends historic canals with cutting-edge tech. Amsterdam is also a city of entrepreneurs and innovators, and I was here to support them with a keynote on future business models, particularly driven by AI.

Amsterdam’s fintech scene, in particular, is thriving, and Adyen is its crown jewel. The global payment platform powers seamless transactions for companies like Uber, Spotify, and eBay. What makes Adyen innovative is its single-platform architecture that handles everything from point-of-sale to online payments, risk management, and real-time analytics. By eliminating fragmented systems, Adyen empowers businesses to scale effortlessly, while staying agile in the fast-moving world of digital commerce.

Other innovators: Framer (no-code design), Mosa Meat (cultivated meat), Bunq (green banking).

Copenhagen … Too Good To Go

Copenhagen is a city of hygge, cycling lanes, and sustainability. With historic sites like Nyhavn and the royal Amalienborg Palace, it blends charm and progress. I spend a lot of time working with Danish companies, and recently launched a new executive learning program, ESP, with all the best new ideas to build a better business.

Copenhagen is home to some of the most purpose-driven startups in Europe, and Too Good To Go exemplifies this ethos. The app connects users to surplus food from restaurants, bakeries, and grocery stores — letting them buy meals that would otherwise go to waste, at a discount. It’s a clever blend of impact and convenience, with over 100 million meals saved so far. By making food rescue easy and rewarding, Too Good To Go is turning sustainability into a mainstream habit.

Other innovators: Lunar (neobanking), Labster (virtual science labs), Seaborg (compact nuclear energy).

Stockholm … Klarna

Stockholm, set across 14 islands, is renowned for its design, music, and tech startups. From ABBA to IKEA, it’s a city of global impact. I was working with Nordea Bank, helping its leaders to navigate a new world, and be inspired by some of the banking innovators locally and from around the world.

Born in Stockholm, Klarna helped define the “Buy Now, Pay Later” model — now used by over 150 million shoppers globally. But Klarna’s innovation goes deeper: it’s building an entire financial ecosystem for consumers, from price comparison and budgeting tools to loyalty rewards and banking services. Klarna’s approach to credit is rooted in transparency and user control — challenging traditional banks with sleek UX, low fees, and real-time payments.

Other innovators: Northvolt (green batteries), Epidemic Sound (music for creators), Normative (carbon accounting).

Helsinki … ICEYE

Helsinki, perched on the Baltic Sea, is a design-forward city with a thriving startup scene. Landmarks like the Oodi Library and Suomenlinna Fortress reflect its past and future.

ICEYE is changing the way we observe Earth. This Helsinki-based company has launched dozens of microsatellites with synthetic aperture radar (SAR) that can capture high-resolution images of the planet, day or night, rain or shine. Its tech is used in flood response, defense, insurance, and environmental monitoring — giving governments and companies near real-time insights. With its agile and affordable space tech, ICEYE is making satellite data more useful and accessible than ever.

Other innovators: Wolt (food delivery), IQM (quantum computing), Varjo (mixed reality headsets).

Tallinn … Bolt

Tallinn, with its medieval old town and digital infrastructure, is a pioneer in e-governance and startup culture. I’ve been visiting the Baltics for many years, and Tallinn, with its recent enetrepreneurial history of companies like Skype is definitely the most tech advanced. Just look at the incredible e-Estonia journey of the last decade or more, making Estonia the world’s most advanced digital nation.

Tallinn’s Bolt started as an Uber competitor — but today, it’s much more. From ride-hailing and e-scooters to grocery delivery and car sharing, Bolt has evolved into a full-blown super-app for urban mobility. Its key innovation lies in localisation and sustainability — operating with lower fees, faster service, and greener fleets than global rivals. Bolt’s vision is a cleaner, more convenient future of transport, built on tech, not traffic.

Other innovators: Veriff (identity verification), Pactum (AI negotiation), Skeleton Technologies (ultracapacitors).

Dublin … Flipdish

Dublin, a city of literary giants and fast-growing tech firms, combines Georgian elegance with startup grit. Dublin has become a tech city, largely attracting US tech giants with its low tax incentives, and acting as a European base for many. I was here talking to Irelend’s business leaders about business reinvention, and how to drive effective transformation.

Dublin’s Flipdish helps restaurants thrive in a world dominated by big delivery apps. It offers white-label digital ordering solutions, allowing eateries to manage orders, marketing, and customer data without surrendering margins or brand identity. Flipdish’s innovation lies in empowerment — giving small and medium businesses the tools to build loyalty and profitability online. As hospitality increasingly goes digital, Flipdish puts local control back on the menu.

Other innovators: LetsGetChecked (health diagnostics), Workhuman (employee recognition), Tines (security automation).

Berlin … Celonis

Berlin, with its creative energy and layered history, has become Germany’s startup capital. Beyond the Brandenburg Gate, a huge number of entrepreneurs are thriving, particularly in digital engineering of different forms. I first visited Berlin just days after the wall came down (and still have many fragments of the wall which lay all around!).

Celonis is a global leader in process mining, a technology that visualises and optimises how work flows across large organisations. By tapping into data from ERP and CRM systems, Celonis identifies inefficiencies, delays, and bottlenecks — then recommends fixes, often automated with AI. Its customers include Siemens, Dell, and Lufthansa. Celonis is turning enterprise data into a strategic weapon, powering faster, cleaner operations in complex industries.

Other innovators: CoachHub (digital coaching), Infarm (urban farming), N26 (digital banking).

Prague … GoodAI

Prague, with its gothic spires and baroque beauty, is also home to future-focused tech. I was here with a venture capital business, working with the leadership team to explore the best opportunities for investment in Central Europe.

While many AI startups chase immediate productisation, Prague’s GoodAI takes the long view. Founded by computer game developer Marek Rosa, the company focuses on building artificial general intelligence (AGI) — machines that learn, reason, and adapt like humans. GoodAI is developing cognitive architectures and cooperative multi-agent simulations, exploring what it means to learn in open-ended environments. It’s a quiet but ambitious lab imagining AI that evolves with purpose.

Other innovators: Productboard (product management), Rossum (document automation), Mews (hotel software).

Vienna … Gustav

Vienna, city of music and imperial history, is also a rising player in the HR tech world. On this occasion I was delivering a keynote for Raiffeisen Bank, exploring what it takes to be an innovative business culturally and organisationally, as leaders and in terms of potential value creation.

In Vienna, Gustav is transforming the way companies source temporary talent. It connects businesses with pre-vetted staffing agencies and freelance recruiters, cutting out middlemen and speeding up hiring. Its platform is powered by AI matching and workflow tools that make external hiring faster, cheaper, and more transparent. Especially for industries with high churn or seasonal needs, Gustav offers a smarter way to manage contingent workforces.

Other innovators: Refurbed (circular tech), PlanRadar (construction SaaS), Mostly AI (synthetic data).

Zurich … Climeworks

Zurich, nestled by the Alps is a hub for banking and engineering. Working with the nearby St Gallen Business School gave me the opportunity to explore the Swiss business world. My largest client is currently Holcim, the Swiss building materials companies seeking to be a leader in decarbonisation.

Zurich is also the home of Climeworks, the world leader in direct air carbon capture, who I first met in Iceland when visiting their new Mammoth facility. Their technology literally pulls CO₂ from the atmosphere, using giant fans and filter systems, then stores it safely underground or reuses it. Climeworks opened the world’s largest DAC plant in Iceland, and is scaling fast. As climate urgency grows, Climeworks offers one of the most promising paths to reversing emissions.

Other innovators: Scandit (computer vision), Sygnum (crypto banking), Numab (biotech).

Rome … Brumbrum

Rome, city of Caesars and cobblestones, is embracing digital reinvention. My Italian clients range from Ferrari, seeking to diversity its business beyond automative as a lifestyle brand, to industrial companies like Coesia, creating smart factories.

Rome’s Brumbrum is bringing the digital-first experience to used car buying. Customers can browse inspected, warrantied vehicles, finance them, and have them delivered — all online. Brumbrum uses dynamic pricing, 360° imagery, and end-to-end logistics to simplify what was once a stressful process. In a country where car ownership is cultural, Brumbrum is reshaping the market for convenience, trust, and tech.

Other innovators: Telespazio (space services), Greenrail (recycled rail infrastructure), BeSafe (travel insurance tech).

Madrid … Wallbox

Madrid, with its grand boulevards and electric vibe, is probably where I spend most of my working life. I love the central Retiro park for morning runs, but then head to IE Business School where I lead their senior executive programs.

Wallbox, headquartered in Madrid, builds smart EV chargers for homes and businesses. Its devices do more than charge — they sync with the grid, optimise energy use, and enable vehicle-to-grid (V2G) functionality. Wallbox is pioneering bidirectional charging, where your car can return power to your home or the grid during peak hours. As EV adoption grows, Wallbox is turning every driver into an energy innovator.

Other innovators: Cabify (mobility platform), EcoAlf (sustainable fashion), Jobandtalent (gig work platform).

Lisbon … Unbabel

Lisbon, a sun-drenched city of cobbled alleys and ocean breezes, is now a rising tech star. To be honest I love spending time in nearby Cascais, a short 20 minute train ride along the coast, which is home to surfers and those in search of a relaxed life. It’s also a great location for conferences, which is why Im often there.

Lisbon’s Unbabel combines neural machine translation with human post-editing to deliver fast, high-quality customer support in any language. Its platform integrates with Zendesk and Salesforce to help global brands communicate authentically with local customers. Unbabel’s innovation is in scaling empathy — blending AI speed with human nuance to make customer service both efficient and personal, across borders and time zones.

Other innovators: Sword Health (digital physiotherapy), Codacy (code quality), Pleez (AI menu pricing).

Europe’s future

• London: DeepMind, Octopus Energy, ZOE, Improbable, Wayve

In my first week as a CEO, way back in 2003, I gave my leadership team a book to read (it’s short, you can read it in an evening). It’s a book that had inspired me to think differently – about work, and life – for entrepreneurs, but equally for anyone in business.

“The Monk and the Riddle: The Art of Creating a Life While Making a Living” by Randy Komisar is a short semi-fictional tale, set in Silicon Valley during the frenetic “dotcom” times of the late 1990s.

Komisar is a seasoned entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and Stanford professor. With a Harvard law degree, he was a co-founder of TiVo, was a key player in Apple’s early growth, co-founded and led a series of other companies, then became a leader of VC firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield.

The entrepreneur, and his life plan

The book starts in a meeting with a young entrepreneur named Lenny, who is seeking funding for his startup called Funky Funeral—a company that aims to revolutionise the funeral industry by allowing people to plan their own funerals in fun and quirky ways. Lenny has a well-prepared business plan and is trying to convince Komisar, a venture capitalist and experienced entrepreneur, to back the idea.

Komisar listens politely but senses something off—not in the business model per se, but in Lenny’s motivation. Lenny admits that he doesn’t really care about the funeral business; he’s only doing it because he thinks it will make money quickly, and then he can go do what he really wants with his life. It’s a classic example of what Komisar calls the “Deferred Life Plan.”

The encounter with Lenny is a setup to introduce the book’s central conflict: Should you do what you love now, or delay gratification in hopes of someday living the life you want? Komisar uses the story as a metaphor for a broader conversation about entrepreneurship, life design, and finding fulfillment. He wants the reader to ask “What would you be willing to do even if you knew you might fail?”

As the story unfolds, Lenny begins to confront his own assumptions about success and happiness, ultimately reflecting the core message of the book: that you should design your life around your values, not around an exit strategy.

The monk, and the riddle

So who is “The Monk”?

The monk appears in the book’s prologue as part of a story Komisar tells about traveling in Myanmar (Burma). During a long, dusty ride to a monastery, he meets a Buddhist monk who poses a riddle—not with words, but through presence and perspective. The monk seems to live with deep contentment despite having few possessions and no ambition in the Western sense.

The monk embodies a life of purpose, simplicity, and spiritual clarity, in stark contrast to the Silicon Valley culture of constant striving, planning, and deferred gratification.

And what is “The Riddle”?

The riddle is this: “What would you be willing to do for the rest of your life, even if you knew you would never be financially rewarded for it?” This question is at the heart of the book. It challenges the reader—and Lenny, the fictional entrepreneur Komisar mentors—to think beyond business plans and exit strategies. It asks you to define: What you truly care about, what gives your life meaning, and whether you’re building your life intentionally, or simply following a socially conditioned script.

The monk and his riddle serve as a moral compass for the entire book. As Komisar listens to Lenny pitch his “Funky Funeral” startup, he realizes Lenny is driven by the deferred life plan: make money now, do something meaningful later. Komisar, inspired by his experience with the monk, encourages Lenny to flip the script: do what you love now, and trust that meaning and success will follow—even if they don’t come with a big financial payoff. The riddle becomes a recurring theme, urging both Lenny and the reader to rethink the purpose of work and life.

The monk’s riddle is really Komisar’s way of asking “Are you designing a life or just building a resume?” It’s a call to pursue passion over prestige, purpose over profit, and to avoid the trap of postponing joy and meaning until it’s too late.

What are the takeaways?

Here are my takeaways from the book, relevant to every entrepreneur or business leader:

1. Don’t pursue the “deferred life plan”

“The deferred life plan is when you do what you have to do so you can do what you want to do.”

• Many people fall into the trap of working a job they dislike now with the hope of eventually doing something meaningful “later.”

• Instead consider integrating purpose and passion into your work today rather than postponing fulfillment.

2. Passion and purpose matter more than business plans

• Success in business (and life) isn’t just about clever strategies or perfect business plans—it’s about being passionate about your work.

• If you don’t care deeply about the venture, you’ll burn out before it pays off.

• Investors look for people who are committed, not just ideas.

3. Create a life, not just a career

• The central theme is about aligning your personal values with your professional pursuits.

• Build a life that is meaningful and fulfilling—not just financially lucrative or impressive on paper.

4. The journey is the reward

“The experience of the journey has to be enough, because the outcome is never guaranteed.”

• The path for any entrepreneur or business leader is uncertain, so your motivation must come from enjoying the process, not just chasing a pot of gold at the end.

• If you don’t love the journey itself, the risks may not be worth it.

5. Integrity and authenticity build trust

• In both life and business, being true to yourself, honest with others, and consistent in your values builds the trust you need for success—especially in startups and leadership.

6. Leaders pursue meaning, not just money

• Many of the best entrepreneurs and business leaders are purpose-driven, they seek meaning as well as money from what they do.

• They build companies to solve real problems or make a positive impact, not just to flip them or make a quick return.

7. Luck favours the prepared and passionate

• While chance plays a role in success, those who are truly invested and persistent are more likely to capitalize on opportunities.

• Passion fuels resilience and attracts talent, investors, and momentum.

8. Riddles over resumes

• The “monk” in the title symbolizes mystery and purpose; the “riddle” reflects the ambiguity of life’s choices.

• Embrace the unknown and explore deeper questions about why we do what we do, not just how to achieve it.

“The Monk and the Riddle” is a call to pursue meaningful work, reject empty careerism, and find fulfilment in the journey, not just the destination. It’s about creating a life with purpose while still being entrepreneurial, strategic, and ambitious.

A recent Goldman Sachs survey highlighted the greatest fear of Fortune 500 CEOs … making the wrong decisions about AI.

Where are the biggest opportunities, and threats for my business? How should I embrace it? Who should I turn to for help, and which technologies to go for? What are the essentials, compared to the nice to haves? How can I test it, and mitigate risks? And how do I future proof my investment to ensure that it will stay relevant going forwards?

AI is reasonably seen as a trillion-dollar opportunity, not just for the tech companies creating AI models, but largely for how every kind of business will embrace it, to innovate and reinvent themselves.

Of course we already see AI in our daily lives … from Google Maps to Siri chat, passport face recognition and Netflix recommendations. But it is still a speck compared to its likely size and impact over the next 5-10 years.

Accenture suggests AI could boost global GDP by up to $15.7 trillion by 2035. PwC agrees with that figure, with $6.6 trillion coming from increased productivity, and $9.1 trillion from increased consumption. It suggests China will benefit most, with a 26% GDP boost, compared to North America with a 14.5% GDP boost.

Beyond the tech, beyond the hype

AI is not just another tool in the digital toolbox — it’s a transformative force reshaping how business is imagined, built, and scaled. For forward-thinking leaders, AI offers a once-in-a-generation opportunity to rethink the fundamentals: strategy, business models, products, services, and even leadership itself.

AI is not something to simply delegating to your CTO.

Capturing AI’s full potential requires more than deploying new technologies. It demands a shift in mindset — from efficiency-focused automation to reinvention-focused innovation. Leaders must not only understand AI but see it as a catalyst for bold experimentation. Spend 3-4 hours with ChatGPT asking it – about your future, your industry, your strategy – and you’ll start to appreciate its potential

The AI imperative for strategic reinvention

Traditionally, strategy has been based on periodic analysis, fixed frameworks, and linear planning. AI challenges all of that. With real-time data processing, predictive analytics, and generative capabilities, leaders can now:

• Forecast demand, risk, and opportunity with greater accuracy

• Simulate multiple scenarios to guide adaptive strategy

• Personalize offerings and pricing at scale

• Accelerate go-to-market testing through rapid prototyping and feedback loops

For example, Shell uses AI and machine learning in its strategic planning to optimize energy trading, predictive maintenance, and even forecast energy transitions. By integrating AI into its core strategy function, Shell is not just becoming more efficient — it’s evolving into a data-intelligent energy ecosystem.

Reinventing business models with AI

AI enables entirely new business models that were previously impossible. Leaders can now reimagine value creation and capture by:

• Shifting from product-centric to service-centric models

• Monetizing data and algorithms as assets

• Using AI-driven platforms to orchestrate multi-sided marketplaces

Spotify has built its model on AI recommendation engines. Founder Daniel Ek understands that AI isn’t just a feature — it’s the foundation. From dynamic playlists to hyper-personalized advertising, AI enables Spotify to create “a unique music service for every user,” moving from content distribution to emotional resonance.

Ant Group, the Chinese fintech giant behind Alipay, exemplifies this transformation. Under the leadership of Eric Jing, the company built an AI-driven financial platform that not only serves hundreds of millions of consumers but also provides microloans, insurance, and investment tools — all powered by real-time machine learning. Their AI models assess risk more accurately than traditional financial institutions, opening access to underserved populations and reshaping the economics of financial services.

Accelerating product and service innovation

Airbus applies AI to develop autonomous flight systems and optimize aircraft design. Their “Skywise” platform aggregates operational data from fleets around the world and uses AI to predict maintenance needs, reduce downtime, and identify design improvements — turning aircraft into learning machines.

AI dramatically shortens the innovation cycle. Leaders can now:

• Generate and test product ideas using generative design

• Use customer behavior data to shape new features

• Deploy AI agents to co-create with users in real-time

Consider Procter & Gamble, where AI is embedded across the product innovation pipeline. Using deep learning and computer vision, P&G tests packaging designs, optimizes formulations, and even simulates consumer product interactions before market launch. CEO Jon Moeller has championed an AI-first mindset, making data-driven creativity central to innovation.

Redefining customer engagement with AI

At the heart of AI’s power is personalization at scale. Business leaders can now:

• Build real-time, omnichannel customer experiences

• Use conversational AI to enhance service, sales, and loyalty

• Predict customer needs before they express them

Sephora, under the leadership of CEO Jean-André Rougeot, has emerged as a global leader in AI-powered retail. Its Virtual Artist tool uses augmented reality and computer vision to help customers try on makeup digitally, while AI recommendation engines drive tailored product suggestions. This data-rich engagement strategy has transformed Sephora into a tech-enabled beauty platform.

In India, Reliance Jio, led by Mukesh Ambani, has used AI to provide millions of customers with personalized content, real-time support, and mobile commerce experiences — helping it go from telecom entrant to digital ecosystem leader in record time.

Reinventing the partner and supply ecosystem

AI doesn’t stop at the organization’s boundaries. It enables smarter, more adaptive networks of partners, suppliers, and collaborators. Leaders can use AI to:

• Predict supply chain disruptions and optimize logistics

• Match partners dynamically based on data signals

• Build trust through transparent, AI-audited processes

Maersk, the global shipping giant, applies AI to optimize routes, reduce carbon emissions, and enhance visibility across its supply chain. By combining AI with blockchain and IoT, Maersk creates a responsive logistics network — and positions itself as a digital trade facilitator rather than just a shipping company.

Similarly, Unilever uses AI across its supply chain to manage inventory, predict demand, and even guide sustainable sourcing. CEO Hein Schumacher has continued the AI investments started by his predecessor, with a vision of building intelligent operations that align business growth with environmental responsibility.

The leadership shift

To lead AI-powered reinvention, business leaders must develop a new set of capabilities and behaviors. Here’s what it takes:

1. Digital Literacy at the Top

Leaders don’t need to be coders, but they must understand AI’s potential and limitations. They should be fluent in asking the right questions — about data quality, bias, model transparency, and use-case feasibility. Satya Nadella at Microsoft sets the standard here, championing AI across all business units while staying grounded in responsible AI principles.

2. Experimentation as a Leadership Norm

AI thrives in environments where leaders embrace testing, iteration, and learning. Leaders must create “safe zones” for rapid prototyping and encourage teams to take calculated risks. Ajay Banga, during his time at Mastercard, built innovation hubs around the world where teams explored AI in fraud detection, customer service, and financial inclusion — without fear of failure.

3. Ethics and Governance as Strategy

AI’s rise brings ethical and regulatory risks. Leaders must ensure AI is explainable, fair, and privacy-conscious. Embedding ethics into product design and decision-making is no longer optional. At DBS Bank, CEO Piyush Gupta ensures all AI initiatives undergo ethical reviews and adhere to a “responsible AI framework” — helping the bank retain trust as it digitizes.

4. Cross-functional Collaboration

AI can’t succeed in silos. Leaders must foster collaboration between data scientists, designers, marketers, and business strategists. At Amazon, teams work backward from customer needs, and AI is woven across everything — from Alexa’s NLP to warehouse automation and pricing algorithms. Jeff Bezos created a culture where tech, operations, and business were inseparable.

5. Vision Beyond the Hype

Leaders must cut through buzzwords and ground AI efforts in real business value. AI is not magic — it’s math, data, and execution. Those who succeed treat it as a capability, not a cure-all.

Economic potential of AI

Cathie Wood, of ARK Invest, is a leading thinker on the economic potential of AI in coming years. Her Big Ideas 2025 report envisions AI as a transformative force poised to drive unprecedented economic growth. She forecasts that AI, alongside other emerging technologies, will significantly enhance productivity and reshape the global economy.

She predicts that the USA economy is transitioning into a new era of productivity-led growth, powered by advances in AI, digital assets, and automation. She believes that these technologies will reduce costs, boost output, and help keep inflation under control even as growth resumes.

ARK’s report explores how AI is central to a convergence of five innovation platforms—AI, robotics, energy storage, DNA sequencing, and blockchain—that collectively have the potential to drive exponential economic growth.

Wood estimates that the US GDP could grow by 7.3%, the highest in modern history, as AI, automation, and cryptocurrencies reshape the global economy. She argues that these technological advancements will counter inflationary pressures while enhancing corporate efficiencies, marking the beginning of a long-term bull market.

As an example, in the pharmaceutical industry, companies like Recursion Therapeutics have seen the number of hypotheses a researcher can test increase from 20 per year to 200 per year, with drug development timelines potentially shrinking from 13 years to eight years and costs dropping from $2.4 billion to $600 million per drug.

Reimagining business with AI

AI offers more than productivity gains or incremental improvements. It offers the canvas for reimagining what a business is. But that transformation starts at the top. Leaders must disrupt their own thinking — moving from hierarchy to ecosystems, from static plans to adaptive systems, and from data-rich dashboards to insight-driven action.

The companies leading this revolution aren’t just using AI. They’re becoming AI-native in their strategies, cultures, and identities.

To harness the future, leaders must not only adopt AI — they must lead as if they were reinventing the business from scratch. Because in many ways, they are

Daniel Ek, founder of music streaming platform Spotify, was a great software engineer. But as the business grew, he was challenged by his investors to bring in more experienced and commercially minded business leaders. Ek resisted, and slowly realised that to be CEO, he needed to change himself. New skills, new behaviours, new mindset.

He set about reinventing himself. How could he most effectively lead a growing workforce, how will the business need to restructure as it innovates? What will he need to do commercially, to optimise his business model?

Over recent years the Swedish entrepreneur has morphed into a effective CEO – a bold deal-maker, an ecosystem strategist, and a vocal critic of Apple and platform monopolies. He’s also embraced AI, audio personalisation, and creator tools. His ability to pivot his leadership style and mindset — from coder to cultural architect — mirrors the shifts in Spotify’s own transformation to become a global leading business worth $150 billion.

Leading in a world of relentless change

In a world shaped by relentless technological advancement, shifting consumer expectations, and mounting global complexities, one truth stands clear: the only constant is change. For businesses, riding successive waves of innovation — the so-called “S-curves” — has become essential for survival. But organizations don’t transform themselves. People do. And at the core of any successful transformation lies a deeper, personal journey: the leader must disrupt themselves first.

“Disrupt yourself before the market does,” is no longer just a catchphrase. It is a strategic imperative for leaders who want to stay ahead, remain relevant, and build resilient organisations.

The S-Curves of business, and of leaders

The S-curve is a classic model of innovation and growth. It begins with a slow start (experimentation and learning), accelerates with rapid growth (scaling and adoption), and eventually flattens (maturity and decline) — unless a new S-curve is initiated. Most successful companies have ridden multiple S-curves: IBM from mainframes to AI, Netflix from DVDs to streaming to gaming, and Apple from computers to iPods to the iPhone and beyond.

But what’s less discussed is that leaders themselves follow similar S-curves. Leadership capabilities that were effective in one phase of a company’s journey may become obsolete in the next. A founder who excels at scrappy bootstrapping might struggle with building corporate systems. A CEO skilled in operational efficiency might falter in a time demanding radical reinvention. To stay effective, leaders must be willing to unlearn, relearn, and evolve — over and over again.

When Satya Nadella took over as CEO in 2014, Microsoft was seen as a lumbering giant, missing out on the mobile revolution. Nadella disrupted not just the company’s business model — pivoting from software licensing to cloud computing and SaaS — but also its culture. He embraced empathy, collaboration, and learning. Under his leadership, Microsoft became more open (even partnering with competitors), more agile, and significantly more valuable. Nadella had to shed the defensive, Windows-centric mindset and adopt a growth mindset — first for himself, then for his team, then for the company.

Originally a DVD rental company, Netflix’s founder Reed Hastings disrupted his own successful business model not once but twice — first with the pivot to streaming, then with the leap into content creation. Each transition required letting go of what had worked in the past and being willing to experiment with bold new ideas. Hastings consistently bet on future trends, even when it meant cannibalizing his own business. His leadership S-curve tracked the company’s: visionary, adaptive, and always one step ahead.

Disruption begins with you

Self-disruption is uncomfortable. It requires confronting deeply held beliefs, reexamining past success formulas, and letting go of control. But it’s also liberating. It opens the door to fresh thinking, new approaches, and personal growth.

Whitney Johnson, author of Disrupt Yourself, argues that intentional personal disruption is essential for sustained innovation. She likens it to jumping from one S-curve to another — before the first one flattens out. The personal S-curve, like the business one, begins with a learning phase, accelerates with competence, and plateaus with mastery. True leaders leap to the next curve before they stagnate.

This kind of reinvention is not about abandoning your identity — it’s about continuously reshaping it to meet new realities. It’s not just change for survival; it’s change for significance.

 

Akio Toyoda was CEO of Toyota from 2009 to 2023. He took the reins of a traditional, conservative automaker known for its lean manufacturing, but not for innovation. Recognizing the tectonic shifts in mobility — from electrification to autonomy to software-driven vehicles — Toyoda personally led a cultural shift.

He transformed himself from a manufacturing-focused executive into a tech-savvy mobility visionary. He promoted bold moves, including launching an in-house software division (Woven Planet), developing hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles, and positioning Toyota as a “mobility company” rather than a carmaker. This transformation began with his own willingness to question legacy thinking — a rare trait in Japanese corporate culture.

Perhaps one of the most radical corporate reinventions in history, Zhang Ruimin took Haier from a struggling refrigerator factory in Qingdao to a global IoT and appliance powerhouse. But what stands out most is Zhang’s own personal disruption.

Originally a bureaucratic factory manager, Zhang evolved into a radical management innovator. He repeatedly reinvented Haier’s business model — most notably by introducing the Rendanheyi model, breaking down traditional hierarchies into micro-enterprises where employees act like entrepreneurs. To do this, he had to let go of command-and-control leadership and become a facilitator of self-organizing teams. His transformation helped Haier avoid stagnation and maintain continuous relevance.

How to disrupt yourself?

1. Embrace Humility and a Growth Mindset
Leaders must accept that what got them here won’t get them there. Success is often the enemy of reinvention because it fosters complacency. A growth mindset — the belief that abilities can be developed — is fundamental. This means being open to feedback, admitting what you don’t know, and seeing failure as a source of insight.

2. Learn Continuously and Curiously
Self-disruptive leaders are voracious learners. They read widely, seek out diverse perspectives, experiment with new technologies, and stay alert to weak signals on the horizon. They never stop asking: What am I missing? What’s changing? What must I understand next?

3. Let Go to Move Forward
The biggest barrier to transformation is often attachment — to a role, a way of working, or a sense of control. Leaders must shed old mental models and step into new paradigms. That may mean giving others more autonomy, retiring past assumptions, or redefining their purpose.

4. Surround Yourself with Challengers
Echo chambers are the enemy of change. Great leaders invite dissent, debate, and difference. They hire people who complement their weaknesses and are unafraid to challenge their thinking. These “truth-tellers” are essential to seeing what you cannot yet see.

5. Redefine Success
Self-disruption often requires rethinking what success looks like. It’s not always about power, control, or short-term wins. Sometimes it’s about long-term value, new impact, or even personal fulfillment. Leaders must reorient their compass as the terrain shifts.

Leadership reinvention

The future will not reward stability; it will reward adaptability. In a world of AI, automation, climate disruption, and geopolitical flux, the ability to reinvent is not a luxury — it’s a leadership necessity.

S-curves are not just for companies; they are for people. Leaders who ride their own curves of learning and renewal become more than just survivors. They become visionaries, builders, and catalysts of transformation.

It’s not enough to disrupt your market. First, you must disrupt yourself.

Leaders who successfully reinvent themselves tend to:

• Challenge orthodoxy, including their own past beliefs

• Move from expertise to curiosity, staying open to learning

• Adapt their leadership style to match the company’s new phase

• Embrace risk, even if it means betting against their earlier success

• Anchor themselves in purpose, not just performance

In a world of accelerating change, the leaders who thrive will be those who see reinvention not as a crisis, but as a calling.

To lead in a world of exponential change, you must embrace personal reinvention as a continuous journey. Like great businesses, great leaders jump to new S-curves before the old ones plateau. They shed outdated beliefs, cultivate new capabilities, and lead with curiosity and courage.

The leaders of tomorrow will not be those who cling to the past, but those who are bold enough to reimagine themselves — again and again.

Disrupt yourself. Or be disrupted. The choice is yours.

 

 

Rick Rubin’s The Creative Act is not a conventional “how-to” manual on creativity. Instead, it’s a philosophical meditation on the nature of creativity itself.

Rubin is one of the most influential and unconventional producers in modern music history. His creative philosophy and approach have made him a cultural icon not just in music, but in how people think about creativity itself.

Rubin helped shape the sound of multiple genres – hip hop, rock, country, and even metal – often acting more like a creative therapist than a traditional producer. He has worked with Beastie Boys, LL Cool J, Run-D.M.C., Red Hot Chili Peppers, Johnny Cash, Adele, Kanye West, Slayer, and Linkin Park. He focuses less on technical production and more on helping artists express their truest selves.

He reframes creativity not as a skill but as a way of being—a state of openness, awareness, and alignment with the world. His core idea is that everyone is inherently creative, and the creative act is about tuning in to inspiration rather than forcing output.

Key Themes from The Creative Act:

• The Artist as Receiver: Creativity is not generated, but received. Artists are antennas for ideas that already exist.
• Process Over Product: The journey matters more than the end result. Focus on creating freely without attachment to outcome.
• Minimalism and Silence: Quieting noise—both external and internal—is vital for accessing creativity.
• Authenticity: True creativity comes from honesty, not from following trends or expectations.
• Discipline and Ritual: While inspiration is mysterious, habits and environments that encourage openness are crucial.
• Letting Go of Ego: Creativity thrives when we detach from fear, self-judgment, and the need for approval.

Rubin’s approach is more existential and meditative, compared to the goal-oriented pragmatism of design thinking or lean startup. It aligns more with mindfulness and artistic intuition, while others are often business- or user-centric.

Though Rubin’s ideas come from music, they translate powerfully to organizational creativity and innovation:

Apple: Simplicity as Art

Steve Jobs also valued intuition, simplicity, and aesthetic clarity—ideas Rubin champions. Apple’s early design ethos focused on eliminating clutter, like Rubin’s emphasis on removing noise to let signal emerge.

Patagonia: Creative Integrity

Patagonia creates products aligned with environmental values, resisting trends for short-term gains. Like Rubin, they let core purpose and authenticity drive innovation.

IDEO: Creative Environment

IDEO’s emphasis on non-judgmental brainstorming and fostering a psychologically safe creative space echoes Rubin’s idea of removing fear and ego from the process.

Spotify: Tuning In to Culture

Spotify balances tech innovation with deep sensitivity to user experience and music culture. Their curated playlists and artist partnerships reflect Rubin’s view that resonance and intuition matter more than metrics alone.

Pixar: Trust the Process

Pixar fosters a culture where creativity is not rushed. Directors often take years on a story. Rubin’s belief in unhurried, organic creation is echoed in Pixar’s commitment to process over product.

So what are the practical takeaways for business?

• Prioritize authenticity over analytics when exploring new ideas.
• Create quiet, open spaces where teams can reflect, experiment, and disconnect from reactive work.
• Foster a culture where failure isn’t punished, and success isn’t the only measure.
• Recognize that inspiration can come from unexpected sources—observe the world deeply and often.

• Let go of control—some of the best creative breakthroughs emerge from surrender, not strategy.

Do customers care about banks, or about their wealth? Do they care about insurance, or their protection and peace of mind? Do they care about cars, or travel?

Michelin got it right. The French tyre brand always said it was about the journey, not the rubber. And as a result, it was able to add value in more human, more relevant and inspiring ways – from better maps to the best restaurants.

In a world of rapid change, defining your business by traditional sectors – like banking, retail, telecommunications, or automotive – is increasingly limiting. Conventional categories frame the conversation around products or services, not the outcomes customers truly care about. Businesses that cling to these outdated labels risk irrelevance and missed opportunities for growth and innovation.

A more powerful approach is to reframe markets in customer-centric “market spaces”—sometimes called arenas, domains, opportunity spaces, or experience spaces. This thinking builds on the discovery-based strategy work of Rita McGrath, the jobs to be done thinking of Clay Christensen, the adjacency models of Scott Antony, and blue oceans of Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne.

These “spaces” are defined not by what you sell, but by the human outcomes you enable: the experiences, goals, and aspirations your customers seek. By thinking in terms of spaces rather than sectors, companies can create far more relevance, unlock new value, and identify opportunities that conventional market definitions obscure.

From sectors to spaces

Traditional sectors describe what a company sells. Market spaces describe what people actually want to achieve. The shift may seem subtle, but it has profound strategic implications:

• from Banking or Financial Services … to Wealth, Financial Freedom, Life Planning
• from Insurance … to Risk and Security, Peace of Mind
• from Automotive … to Travel, Mobility, Adventure
• from Telecoms …  to Connection, Communication, Collaboration
• from Food and Drink … Nutrition and Wellbeing, Pleasure and Sharing
• from Retail … to Lifestyle and Experience, Daily Joy, Convenience
• from Healthcare … to Health and Vitality, Thriving and Longevity
• from Fitness and Gyms … to Energy, Performance, Personal Growth
• from Education … to Knowledge and Growth, Future Readiness
• from Technology and Software … to Creativity, Capability, and Enhancement
• from Pet Care … to Companionship, Health and Happiness

This shift in language reframes strategy. Instead of asking, “Which sector do we compete in?”, businesses ask, “Which customer outcomes do we enable, and how can we do it better than anyone else?”

Practical examples of market spaces

Leading companies show how redefining markets in terms of customer outcomes drives growth and differentiation:

• American Express: Reframed from credit cards to the market space of Membership & Experiences, emphasizing belonging, lifestyle, and privileges.

• Nike: Operates in the Human Potential & Performance space, enabling achievement, self-expression, and empowerment.

• Apple: Focuses on Creative Expression, helping people create, connect, and express identity.

• Airbnb: Moves beyond rentals into Belonging / Travel Experience, creating emotional connection, cultural discovery, and memorable experiences.

• Spotify: Competes in Music & Emotional Connection, highlighting the social and emotional value of music, not just streaming.

In each case, the company’s success comes from shifting focus from product categories to the experiences and outcomes that customers value most.

Why customer-centric market spaces matter

• Focus on human outcomes, not products.
  Customers care about results and experiences more than products themselves. By aligning with these outcomes, companies build relevance and loyalty.

• Unlock innovation opportunities.
  Thinking in spaces rather than sectors reveals adjacent opportunities for new products, services, and business models. For instance, a company in the Travel space can innovate across transport modes, experiences, and digital services—not just vehicles or airlines.

• Guide growth and diversification.
  Market spaces help leaders identify areas to expand that naturally extend the value delivered to customers, reducing the risk of pursuing unrelated markets.

• Differentiate your brand.
  Competing in a customer-centric space allows a company to stand out through experiences and outcomes, rather than features or pricing alone.

How to find and shape your space

1. Start with the human goal.

Ask: “What outcome does our customer truly seek?” Consider functional, emotional, and social dimensions of the experience.

• Example: Rather than “How do we sell insurance?” ask, “How do we help people feel secure, confident, and cared for?”

2. Reframe the market in customer language.

Translate industry jargon into spaces that reflect the real-world experience of customers.

• Example: “Telecommunications” → Connection, “Automotive” → Travel, “Banking” → Wealth

3. Map opportunities across the space.

Identify where you can create additional value: products, services, experiences, partnerships, or technology. Seek natural extensions that enhance the customer outcome.

• Example: A company in the Fitness & Performance space could expand into nutrition, mental wellbeing, wearable tech, or coaching services.

4. Innovate around the customer journey.

Examine the full journey customers take to achieve the outcome your space promises. Identify friction points, unmet needs, and moments of emotional impact.

5. Measure relevance and value, not transactions.

Focus on outcomes: engagement, loyalty, satisfaction, and impact. Your success in a space is determined by how well you deliver meaningful experiences.

50+ customer-centric market spaces

Here’s a practical cheat sheet of conventional sectors reframed as customer-centric spaces:

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This list is a practical tool for strategy and innovation, helping teams move from conventional product-focused thinking to customer-outcome-driven market spaces.

Compete in Spaces, not Sectors

Reframing markets from sectors to customer-centric spaces is more than a semantic shift—it’s a strategic imperative. Companies that succeed in spaces:

• Deliver deeper relevance and loyalty by focusing on human outcomes.

• Unlock innovation opportunities across products, services, and ecosystems.

• Gain strategic flexibility to adapt and grow in a dynamic world.

• Differentiate their brand through meaningful experiences rather than products alone.

Market spaces—whether called arenas, opportunity spaces, or experience spaces—allow businesses to anticipate unmet needs, design offerings that resonate, and create meaningful, lasting value. In a world of constant change, the organizations that thrive are those that define themselves not by what they sell, but by the outcomes and experiences they enable for their customers.