Business models for solving billion-person problems

Jay OwenSRI/ESG News, Sustainability News

logo Newsletter February 2017
Highlights from Project Breakthrough
Donald Trump and climate change. Robots and jobs. Facts and “alternative facts”.

Our world today is beset by powerful conflicting forces. Politics marches in one direction while market forces propel us in another. Truth itself is increasingly held hostage. And all the while the “next industrial revolution” gathers speed, disrupting business, society and politics – for good or ill.

At Project Breakthrough, we seek to make sense of this complex world and offer you insight and inspiration to help navigate through these turbulent times. To keep abreast of the latest from Project Breakthrough, you can now also follow us on Twitter @Breakthrough_IO.

Breakthrough Business Models

Volans’ new series of briefings on Project Breakthrough spotlights 6 Breakthrough business model features – Personalisation, Closed-Loop, Asset Sharing, Usage-based Pricing, Collaborative Ecosystem and Agility. Read an introduction to this work on Medium.

The Four Flows of Tomorrow’s Economy

In an increasingly fluid world, value is moving from stocks to flows. Richard Roberts identifies four flows that will be critical in tomorrow’s world: money, data, carbon … and genes.

Let’s Get Digital

Andrew McAfee of MIT says we’ve only seen the warm-up act of the next industrial revolution. So should we be worried about machines stealing our jobs? Not at all, says McAfee.

Water ATMs Making a Splash in India

It may be powered by the sun and managed by the cloud, but Piramal Sarvajal’s decentralised clean-water system isn’t the water cycle you learnt about at school.

It’s Time to Drain the Swwwamp

Trust in facts is critical to sustainable development. We have a responsibility to fight back against those who seek to muddy the waters and undermine experts, argues John Elkington.

News & Events
This evening, Volans features at a London event organised by The Crowd on the theme of “Social X” – a reference to one of four characteristics of Breakthrough business models identified in our 2016 report. Follow the conversation at #CrowdForum – we’ll be tweeing from @Breakthrough_io.

On 31st January, we hosted a salon for a group of London’s leading sustainability practitioners to explore the topic of “Sustainability in the New Populist Era”. Read more

On 11th January, Volans was delighted to partner with the World Resources Institute and the UN Global Compact to convene a 1-day session in Washington, DC on “Breakthroughs in Tomorrow’s Markets”. Read more