Our current global economic architecture is based on a Take, Make, Dispose model. This model is increasingly unsustainable with drastic economic, societal and environmental consequences. FoundersLane - a corporate venture builder - has a Climate vertical, which works with organisations to use Platform (Impact) Innovation, Circular Economic Principles, and technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) to enable More efficient operating models; Smart business & living models; Platforms for multi-stakeholder collaboration; Production and the transition towards circular regeneration. Their objective is to help with the transitions towards a world that takes less, makes more and doesn't dispose.
In this session we will focus on the application of circular economic to new venture design. Whether in a start-up, corporate venture builder, corporate, etc. how can one develop new circular business models? This interactive session on integrating circular economic principles into venture building (1h30) will provide:
Introductory presentation: Current threat of our economic model and behaviour, how FoundersLane looks at venture building, High level introduction to circular economy (conceptual and working examples)
Design thinking workshop: In teams of 4-5, attendees will be guided through an adapted design thinking workshop to ideate around designing circularity - teams will be given specific prompts to isolate key environmental problems and design circular business models as solutions.
We will invite a few teams to provide a 1 minute elevator pitch to share their ideas and welcome any other team to share the outcomes after the session.
This event is organized by the Sustainability Club of HBS, and is a pre-event to the Circular Economy Symposium at Harvard on March 6th, 2020.
About the speakers:
Frank van Beuzekom: Frank has an outspoken innovation and venture building background with a focus on Energy & sustainability. He has worked for-, as well as within-, corporates; venture capital funds; start-ups and governmental agencies on three continents. He started to venture himself after finishing two masters in respectively Business; Transnational Entrepreneurship and, International Relations; Transformations and diversification schemes in Energy. He has been part of the venture building activities of Innogy that have been one of the most daring initiatives of any (energy) corporate inhouse. As such he brings with him a broad range of venture building frameworks and perspectives and led ventures in Energy & Cleantech in logistics, hydrogen and batteries.
Adam Mitchell-Heggs: Adam spent almost a decade as a strategy and policy consultant for a leading global consultancy; he worked as a freelance digital and innovation strategy consultant; and as lead of operations for a WEF backed start-up, developing a platform concept for smarter consumer health. Adam is a specialist on the topics of circular economy, UN SDGs, 4th industrial revolution business models, from both an academic and professional context. He is working with academics and think tanks on developing novel thought leadership, practical toolkits, and circular economy business models. He is a contributing author to the Harvard Circular Economy Symposium, focusing on Smart Cities: the use of 4th industrial revolution technologies to enable circular economic business models.
Frank and Adam are Senior Venture Developers at FoundersLane and Co-Founders of the FoundersLane Climate Vertical. They support companies from ideation through to development of sustainable digital ventures (from an economic, environmental, and societal perspective). FoundersLane consists of creative purpose-driven entrepreneurs. As the leading independent corporate company builder, we create disruptive global businesses and powerful platforms that last. And one of the fastest growing co-creation companies in Europe, we do so by means of co creating the digital businesses together with leading global corporations
About the organizer: HBS Sustainability Club
The HBS Sustainability Club prepares MBA candidates to become better stewards of both the natural and built environment. We provide a focused community for students and partners to explore the complexities of global sustainability challenges, gain exposure to emerging business solutions, and pursue professional opportunities. The club educates students on sustainability topics in three different verticals: Natural Environment, Built Environment, and Corporate Environment.