Design Donut

Para Negócios

Guia DEAL para redesenhar negócios por meio da Economia Donut

Workshop de Degustação

​

​

Economia

Donut

Nous Consultoria

Carol Freitas

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_WPzDVpKvw&t=42s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_WPzDVpKvw&t=42s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_WPzDVpKvw&t=42s

Doughnut Design for Business

18

Quick overview

Understand what the Doughnut implies

Holistic - nothing is off the table

People working with or within a business

Prep needed but no technical expertise

1. Regenerative & distributive ambitions
2. Redesign your business

Slide

Parts

7�

25

Objective

For whom

Expertise

Scope

Workshop to explore what Doughnut Economics implies for the deep design of your business.

Taster version.

In person and/or online

2 hours

Duration and variations

In person and/or online

Annexes

1. Canvases, printouts and Miro
2. Prepare and run the workshop
3. Share back to inspire others
4. Acknowledgements, images

54�56�69�75

DEAL’s engagement with business focuses on transforming the deep design of businesses, so that they can become regenerative and distributive in their core operations, and hence help to bring humanity into the Doughnut.

This workshop helps companies to identify their most transformative ideas for becoming regenerative and distributive in their strategies, practices and impacts, and then to identify the design changes needed to make this possible.

This workshop and its methods are continually evolving in response to learning and feedback, and we ask everyone to contribute to this - see Share back to inspire others.

Doughnut Design for Business

About this workshop – the taster version

19

DEAL’s engagement with business focuses on transforming the deep design of businesses, so that they can become regenerative and distributive in their core operations, and hence help to bring humanity into the Doughnut.

This workshop helps companies to identify their most transformative ideas for becoming regenerative and distributive in their strategies, practices and impacts, and then to identify the design changes needed to make this possible.

This workshop and its methods are continually evolving in response to learning and feedback, and we ask everyone to contribute to this - see Share back to inspire others.

Doughnut Design para Negócios

Sobre o Workshop – versão degustação

20

Canvas 1�Transformative ideas

21

Canvas 2�Business design

1

A two-part, 2 hour workshop to produce groundbreaking ideas.

Create the most ambitious and transformative ideas that allow your business to become regenerative and distributive.

Taster workshop: 2 hours (instructions)

Doughnut Design for Business

Regenerative & distributive ambitions

Redesign your business

2

Identify changes in your business design to enable your transformative ideas.

The Doughnut Design for Business workshop requires ambitious and curious facilitators (see Key skills for facilitating this workshop).

If in this role, don’t aim to provide specific advice, but pose challenging questions to encourage transformative innovations. Be ready to showcase and encourage leadership that embodies traits like humility, integrity, courage and self-awareness (see Inner Development Goals, Theory U or Regenerative Leadership for relevant frameworks).

This slide deck contains both parts of the taster workshop, along with guidance on preparing and running the workshop, and on sharing back to inspire others in the annexes.

It also includes key considerations for specific types of participants: start-ups, large companies, family businesses and ethical businesses.

Please also carefully read the following slide on safeguarding the integrity of Doughnut Economics.

A longer core version of this tool is also available.

Before you start

Doughnut Design for Business

Who should run workshops

What this tool contains

22

Dos

1. Do use this tool to facilitate a workshop for businesses, following DEAL’s Guidelines and Principles, including DEAL’s Policy for Business.
2. Do use the entirety of this tool.
3. Do use this tool at the most relevant scale for your business, from subsidiary to the entire business.
4. Do clarify with participants how you will deal with confidentiality and whether the discussions will be shared beyond the workshop.
5. Do share back your learning on the DEAL Community Platform if you’re facilitating a workshop as an organisation in action. This can inspire others and help DEAL improve the tool.
6. Do ensure you’ve met DEAL’s criteria if you’re a consultant wanting to use these tools (see DEAL’s policy for Consultancies and Organisations).

Don’ts

1. Don’t use this tool to provide specific advice to businesses - support and facilitate their journey instead.
2. Don’t publish ‘company Doughnuts’ - focus on sharing back business case studies as stories instead. See case study guidance.
3. Don’t claim alignment between any business and the Doughnut as a result of having done this workshop.
4. Don’t adapt this tool or use only a part of it - its integrity depends on the whole journey (see DEAL’s policy for businesses).

Safeguarding integrity

Weakening integrity

23

Doughnut Design for Business

Regenerative�& distributive ambitions

Doughnut Design for Business

Part 1.

24

Introductory materials

• Video: Intro to redesigning business through Doughnut Economics (facilitators can choose to play this video to cover slides 9-20 & 28-43)
• What Doughnut Economics means for business (section 1)
• Introductory article on Doughnut Enterprise Design

Canvases to use

• Print: Canvas 1 - Transformative ideas
• Online: Canvas 1 on the Miro board

Further resources for participants

• Resources on Steward Ownership
• Post Growth Entrepreneurship & talks

First, you will identify some transformative ideas that would enable your business to be part of a regenerative and distributive future that helps humanity into the Doughnut. These will likely be ambitions your business is not yet pursuing - and they may seem unattainable due to its current design (e.g. investors’ expectations), or due to market pressures or regulatory requirements.

These are indeed the kinds of ambitions we want to identify, by challenging the limits of our imaginations, parameters of the current business model, industry norms, and economic system we work within. Identifying the most transformative ideas at this stage will be key to ensuring that the rest of this workshop is effective for your business.

1. Regenerative & distributive ambitions

Doughnut Design for Business

25

• Concentre-se no design profundo do negócio
• Sem 'donuts da empresa’
• Reivindicações voltadas para o público apenas sobre redesenho de negócios
• Donut e eventos de negócios devem ser baseados na ferramenta
• Orientações adicionais são bem-vindas, mas, por enquanto, não há novas ferramentas relacionadas aos negócios
• Compartilhe aprendizados com o uso da ferramenta
• Proponha estudos de caso de negócios

27

The Doughnut: a compass for 21st century

thriving

O objetivo é não deixar ninguém aquém do essencial à vida, sem ultrapassar os limites planetários.

28

The Doughnut: a compass for 21st century

thriving

The goal is to leave no one falling short on the essentials of life, without overshooting planetary boundaries.

29

The world is far out of balance

Today’s global economy leaves billions of people falling short on life’s essentials, and is overshooting multiple planetary boundaries.

30

O planeta

está em

desequilíbrio

A economia global atual deixa

bilhões de pessoas aquém ao essencial à vida e já ultrapassou

os limites planetários.

​

Businesses designed to prioritise margins and dividends push humanity and the living world far out of balance.

31

How much financial value can we extract from this enterprise?

Negócios projetados para priorizar margens e dividendos levam a humanidade e o mundo para longe do equilíbrio.

32

Quanto valor financeiro podemos extrair desse negócio?

When businesses are focused on extracting maximum financial value, they all too often become degenerative and divisive.

Businesses designed to prioritise margins and dividends push humanity and the living world far out of balance.

33

How much financial value can we extract from this enterprise?

When businesses are focused on extracting maximum financial value, they all too often become degenerative and divisive.

Businesses designed to prioritise margins and dividends push humanity and the living world far out of balance.

34

How much financial value can we extract from this enterprise?

How much financial value can we extract from this enterprise?

How many benefits can we generate in the way we design this enterprise?

Many businesses increasingly want to embrace a social and ecological purpose.

35

How much financial value can we extract from this enterprise?

Quantos benefícios podemos gerar com este negócio?

Muitas empresas querem cada vez mais abraçar um propósito social e ecológico.

That calls for a change in their dynamics - to becoming regenerative and distributive by design.

Let's explore what these principles mean…

37

How much financial value can we extract from this enterprise?

How many benefits can we generate in the way we design this enterprise?

Many businesses increasingly want to embrace a social and ecological purpose.

That calls for a change in their dynamics - to becoming regenerative and distributive by design.

Let's explore what these principles mean…

How much financial value can we extract from this enterprise?

How many benefits can we generate in the way we design this enterprise?

Many businesses increasingly want to embrace a social and ecological purpose.

To change the future, change the dynamics

Regenerative

Working with and within the cycles of the living world

Degenerative

Running down Earth’s life-supporting system

39

Para mudar o futuro, mude a dinâmica

Regenerativo

​

Trabalhando com e

a partir dos ciclos vivos

Degenerativo

Derrubando o sistema de suporte de vida da Terra

descarta

Landscape degradation

Zero deforestation

Landscape restoration

Built-in obsolescence

100% recyclable

Repair & modular design

Sustainable

Degenerative

Regenerative

41

It’s time to go beyond seeking ‘sustainability’.

It is no longer enough to aim to be “100% less bad”, in the words of the designer Bill McDonough.

Given the scale of degradation of the living world, it is now essential to repair, reuse, restore, and regenerate.

Paisagem degradada

Desmatamento Zero

Restauração da paisagem

Obsolescência incorporada

100% reciclável

Reparação & design modular

Sustentável

Degenerativo

Regenerativo

Hora de ir além da visão de sustentabilidade.

Não é suficiente ser “100% não sacola plástica”.

Diante da escala de destruição, é essencial reparar, reutilizar, restaurar e regenerar.

To change the future, change the dynamics

Distributive

Sharing opportunity and value with all who co-create it

Divisive

Capturing opportunity and value in the hands of a few

43

Distributivas

Compartilha oportunidade e valor com todos que cocriam

Divisivas

Captura oportunidade e valor nas mãos de poucos

Para mudar o futuro, mude a dinâmica

Aggressively enforced patents

Technology partnerships

Open source design

Poverty wages

Living wage

Living wage and profit share

Inclusive

Divisive

45

Business must become more than just ‘inclusive’.

It is not enough to provide merely the minimum that people need for a decent life.

The global scale of inequality and marginalisation calls for businesses that are committed to sharing value and opportunity with all who co-create it.

Padrões agressivos são reforçados

Parcerias de tecnologias

Design aberto

Salário precário

Salário digno

Salário digno e participação nos lucros

Inclusivo

Divisivos

O negócio precisa ser mais do que ‘inclusivo’.

Não é suficiente oferecer o mínimo para a subsistência.

A escala global de desigualdade e marginalização exige empresas comprometidas em compartilhar valor e oportunidade com todos que as ajudam em sua cocriação.

Today’s mainstream businesses only adopt regenerative & distributive practices if doing so will maximise their margins & dividends. And that’s rare.

This contrasts with the design of most not-for-profit organisations, which enable regenerative & distributive ideas.

Commons�& communities

Public services

NGOs & �charities

What’s possible with current business design

Business

as usual

designed to maximise margins and dividends

47

Today’s mainstream businesses only adopt regenerative & distributive practices if doing so will maximise their margins & dividends. And that’s rare.

This contrasts with the design of most not-for-profit organisations, which enable regenerative & distributive ideas.

Commons�& communities

Public services

NGOs & �charities

What’s possible with current business design

Business

as usual

designed to maximise margins and dividends

48

Commons�& communities

Public services

NGOs & �charities

Unlocking the scale of action required by business calls for a redesign of business itself.

Such a redesign is essential if business is to be part of a regenerative and distributive future.

Business

as usual

designed to maximise margins and dividends

Business redesigned�to unlock regenerative & distributive�possibilities

49

Povo�& comunidades

Serviço público

ONGs & �instituições de caridade

Desbloquear a escala de ação exigida pelos negócios passa por sua reformulação.

Esse redesenho é essencial para que os negócios façam parte de um futuro regenerativo e distributivo.

Negócio

tradicional

desenhado visando o máximo de lucro

Negócio redesenhado�parar ser regenerativo & distributivo

Making the business case

There are many effective ways to start transforming business.

Setting new targets and metrics

Providing enlightened leadership

Exerting public pressure

51

To reinforce these and drive further ambition, Doughnut Economics focuses on transforming the deep design of business.

Making the business case

There are many effective ways to start transforming business.

Setting new targets and metrics

Providing enlightened leadership

Exerting public pressure

52

To reinforce these and drive further ambition, Doughnut Economics focuses on transforming the deep design of business.

Transformative ideas are too often held back by current thinking and culture.

New possibilities arise from a new mindset.

“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”�– Albert Einstein

What can block transformative ideas?

Rigid financial targets

Outdated processes

Short-term thinking

Culture of hierarchy

What can unlock transformative ideas?

Broad perspectives

Culture of courage

Long-term thinking

Suspending practicality

53

Transformative ideas are too often held back by current thinking and culture.

New possibilities arise from a new mindset.

“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”�– Albert Einstein

What can block transformative ideas?

Rigid financial targets

Outdated processes

Short-term thinking

Culture of hierarchy

What can unlock transformative ideas?

Broad perspectives

Culture of courage

Long-term thinking

Suspending practicality

54

Towards regenerative and distributive business: generating transformative ideas

2

1

Visualise futures

In this first activity, you will explore how your business will belong to a thriving future economy. This will require it to pursue the most ambitious ideas to become regenerative & distributive. Let’s call these transformative ideas.

You can identify these ideas via quiet reflection, or a group discussion. The next slide provides a canvas to capture these ideas.

​

​

55

Visualise a thriving future economy that is regenerative & distributive by design. Your business is part of it.

​

What are your most ambitious ideas for getting there?

​

What will your business start doing & stop doing?

Draw inspiration from many voices:

• the living planet - her forests, rivers, air & soil
• employees, customers, supply-chain workers
• activists, local communities, future generations
• industry leaders, junior colleagues, technical experts

Go beyond what’s currently feasible. �Go where the business has greatest impact.

Towards regenerative and distributive business: generating transformative ideas

2

1

Visualise futures

In this first activity, you will explore how your business will belong to a thriving future economy. This will require it to pursue the most ambitious ideas to become regenerative & distributive. Let’s call these transformative ideas.

You can identify these ideas via quiet reflection, or a group discussion. The next slide provides a canvas to capture these ideas.

​

​

56

Visualise a thriving future economy that is regenerative & distributive by design. Your business is part of it.

​

What are your most ambitious ideas for getting there?

​

What will your business start doing & stop doing?

Draw inspiration from many voices:

• the living planet - her forests, rivers, air & soil
• employees, customers, supply-chain workers
• activists, local communities, future generations
• industry leaders, junior colleagues, technical experts

Go beyond what’s currently feasible. �Go where the business has greatest impact.

Canvas: Transformative ideas

Generate transformative ideas

In this activity, it is critical to consider ideas that don’t currently seem practical or feasible, and focus on where your business has greatest impact.

The previous slide shows ways to identify such ideas, including by drawing inspiration from many voices. Use yellow sticky notes to capture them on this canvas.

1

2

58

Visualise a thriving future economy. Your business is part of it. What are your most ambitious ideas for getting it there?

What will you stop doing?

What will you start doing?

Ideas from employees, customers, supply-chain workers?

Ideas from industry leaders, junior colleagues, technical experts?

​

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

Ideas from the living planet – her forests, rivers, air and soil?

Distributive�by design?

Ideas from activists, local communities, future generations?

Regenerative�by design?

59

Visualise a thriving future economy. Your business is part of it. What are your most ambitious ideas for getting it there?

What will you stop doing?

What will you start doing?

Ideas from employees, customers, supply-chain workers?

Ideas from industry leaders, junior colleagues, technical experts?

​

10 year supplier contracts with social outcomes

Discontinue harmful product lines

Only use life-friendly chemistry

Prices paid to suppliers enable double living wage

Discharged water is cleaner than input

Profit sharing with employees

Near zero margins for essential products

Ideas from the living planet – her forests, rivers, air and soil?

Distributive�by design?

Ideas from activists, local communities, future generations?

Regenerative�by design?

Generate transformative ideas

Example of a consumer goods company

Factories sequester carbon

Canvas: Transformative ideas

Canvas: Transformative ideas

60

Visualise a thriving future economy. Your business is part of it. What are your most ambitious ideas for getting it there?

What will you stop doing?

What will you start doing?

Ideas from employees, customers, supply-chain workers?

Ideas from industry leaders, junior colleagues, technical experts?

​

Pay fair share of tax, don’t minimise

Staff bonus for positive social & eco impacts

Discontinue work with unethical clients

Net positive emissions in 5 years

Open source most impactful models & knowledge

Lower fees for high positive impact

Share revenues with communities

Advocate for strong regulation of client industries

Ideas from the living planet – her forests, rivers, air and soil?

Distributive�by design?

Ideas from activists, local communities, future generations?

Regenerative�by design?

Generate transformative ideas

Example of a�professional services company

Promote business redesign among clients

By visualising a thriving future, you have identified transformative ideas for your business to become regenerative and distributive in its core operations and supply chains, core products and services, so that it will help to bring humanity into the Doughnut. To generate these transformative ideas, you have considered some difficult questions about what you will start and stop doing to belong to a thriving future, and you have drawn inspiration from many voices, including workers and communities, experts and peers, the living planet and her forests, rivers, air and soil. These ideas should be challenging, and beyond what currently seems possible.

You will next look at how the current design of your business holds back such ideas and how that design can evolve to fully enable you to pursue such transformative ideas.

61

Wrap up

Part 2: regenerative & distributive ambitions

Part 2.

Redesign your business

Doughnut Design for Business

62

Introductory materials

• Video: Intro to redesigning business through Doughnut Economics (explains content from slides 9-20 & 28-43)
• Paper: What Doughnut Economics means for business (sections 2, 3 and 4)

Canvases to use

• Print: Canvas 2 - Business Design
• Online: Canvas 2 on the Miro board

Further resources for participants

• Community Ownership
• Innovations in Finance
• Employee Ownership financing
• Fundraising for Cooperative startups
• List of related tools on co-ownership

You have identified a range of ideas and actions that your business could pursue to become regenerative and distributive by design. Now, this final activity helps you identify specific changes to your enterprise design that can best enable you to pursue such ideas and actions. In this way, your company can help to realise a regenerative and distributive economy that can bring humanity into the Doughnut.

63

2. Redesign your business

Doughnut Design for Business

Step 1. Explore business design

Part 3. Know your business design

Doughnut Design for Business

64

We should introduce refillable perfume bottles – but bringing consumers on board needs investment, and the payback period on that capital expenditure is too long.

senior executive,

major beauty brand

head of innovation,

major clothing brand

Most businesses find they are limited by their design.

I’ve been asked to create

a range of regenerative clothing – while being expected to deliver the usual 15% profit margins from the outset. Impossible.

65

Tea industry executive

Paying tea pluckers a living �wage cannot mean paying suppliers more for their tea. The market just won’t reward this. Plantations need to fund it by raising productivity.

Today’s mainstream businesses only adopt regenerative & distributive practices if doing so will maximise their margins & dividends. And that’s rare.

This contrasts with the design of most not-for-profit organisations, which enable regenerative & distributive ideas.

Commons�& communities

Public services

NGOs & �charities

What’s possible with current business design

Business

as usual

designed to maximise margins and dividends

66

Commons�& communities

Public services

NGOs & �charities

Unlocking the scale of action required by business calls for a redesign of business itself.

Such a redesign is essential if business is to be part of a regenerative and distributive future.

Business

as usual

designed to maximise margins and dividends

Business redesigned�to unlock regenerative & distributive�possibilities

67

Making the business case

There are many effective ways to start transforming business.

Setting new targets and metrics

Providing enlightened leadership

Exerting public pressure

68

To reinforce these and drive further ambition, Doughnut Economics focuses on transforming the deep design of business.

How many benefits can we generate through this enterprise?

How much value can we extract through this enterprise?

Driving questions

Different companies are driven by very different questions, which underlie and subtly shape every decision that they make.

How does the deep design of a business determine the focus of a business? Which of these questions is it able to focus on?...

69

Deep within every business are layers of design that profoundly shape what it can be and do in the world: its Purpose, Networks, Governance, Ownership, and Finance.

This is the deep design of business - as inspired by author & theorist Marjorie Kelly.

Let’s explore all five layers.

How many benefits can we generate through this enterprise?

How much value can we extract through this enterprise?

70

Purpose

Why does this business even exist?

What purpose does it serve in the world?

How is that purpose manifest in its operations?

How is that purpose manifest in its products or services?

Profit-driven business, such as fast fashion, aims to make and sell products as cheaply and quickly as possible - often resulting in social and ecological exploitation.

Purpose focused on benefits for people and the living world can be expressed through the founding mission, operations and supply chains, core products and services, and by disrupting and innovating in the industry.

71

Profit driven business

Purpose driven business

Mission statement

Operations & supply chain

Disruptive innovations

Products & services

Purpose

Example

Profit-driven business, such as fast fashion, aims to make and sell products as cheaply and quickly as possible - often causing social and ecological harm in the process.

72

Profit driven business

Purpose driven business

Manos del Uruguay exists to support its extensive network of rural artisans who make its natural wool-based products, and who co-own the business.

Short-term, pressured, commodified relations.

Membership of regressive lobby groups that block change.

Networks

What relationships does the business hold - with its customers, suppliers, staff, governments, communities and partners?

What new connections does it need to create?

What outdated relationships must now be left behind?

Long-term, committed and impact-focused relationships

Joining progressive alliances that promote transformation.

Extractive relationships

Collaborative partnerships

73

Fair Trade

Progressive alliances

Circular industry networks

Fair Tax Mark accredited

Tax avoidance

Commodified relationships

Regressive lobby groups

Networks

Example

Collaborative partnerships

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many global brands cut orders and reduced prices for suppliers. In stark contrast, the food and homewares importer El Puente provided extra financial flexibility, paid upfront, and supported its suppliers - all enabled by its model of multi-stakeholder governance.

74

Short-term, pressured, commodified relations.

Membership of regressive lobby groups that block change.

Extractive relationships

Tax avoidance

Commodified relationships

Regressive lobby groups

Focused on maximising margins and dividends for shareholders and owners. Quarterly reporting drives short-term pressure to deliver growing sales, growing market share, and growing profits.

Governance

Who is on the board, with a voice in decision-making?

What are the company rules and culture?

What are the metrics of success?

How openly are annual accounts reported?

This is enabled by designs such as: multi-stakeholder boards, including employee representation, and giving a voice to nature; full transparency; and rewarding management for social and ecological impacts.

Governance in service of finance

75

Governance in service of purpose

Board representation

Metrics of success

Management incentives

Transparency

Focused on maximising margins and dividends for shareholders and owners. Quarterly reporting drives short-term pressure to deliver growing sales, growing market share, and growing profits.

Governance

Example

​

​

Riversimple, a maker of hydrogen cars, seeks to balance interests through a board with six custodians who represent: the environment, users, neighbours, staff, investors and commercial partners.

Governance in service of finance

76

Governance in service of purpose

Owners pressures the business to focus solely on growing margins and dividends, even if this undermines the business’s focus on social and ecological goals. Only financial interests are represented in the ownership mix.

Ownership

Who owns the business?

What are their interests and expectations?

To what extent can the owners change or undermine the intended purpose of the business?

Many ownership models enable businesses to focus on regenerative and distributive results, including ownership by employees, cooperatives, stewards, communities, multi-stakeholders and impact investors.

Extractive ownership

77

Generative ownership

Steward ownership

Employee ownership

Community ownership

Cooperatives

Private equity

Stock market

Venture capital

Owners pressures the business to focus solely on growing margins and dividends, even if this undermines the business’s focus on social and ecological goals. Only financial interests are represented in the ownership mix.

Ownership

Example

The clothing company Patagonia has adopted a steward ownership model in order to lock in its commitment to protecting and restoring nature. The company set up a trust that controls all shares with voting rights, and an environmental nonprofit collective that controls all shares with dividend rights.

Extractive ownership

78

Generative ownership

Private equity

Stock market

Venture capital

When the quarterly report is king, companies focus on short-term growth in sales, profits and market share. This sets the limits and possibilities for businesses. It can block new ideas and strategies, and prevent much-needed investment in regenerative and distributive strategies.

Finance

Where does finance come from, and what does it demand?

What are the margin and dividend expectations?

What are the rules on reinvestment & profit allocation?

What’s considered a fair return for investors?

There are many ways to ensure that finance serves purpose, such as through: flexible margins; dividend caps; funds for transformative ideas; profit distribution to employees and charities, revenue sharing with communities, and pricing based on impact.

Finance serving financial returns

79

Finance serving purpose

Dividend caps

Revenue sharing

Profit share to charity

Flexible margins

When the quarterly report is king, companies focus on short-term growth in sales, profits and market share. This sets the limits and possibilities for businesses. It can block new ideas and strategies, and prevent much-needed investment in regenerative and distributive strategies.

Finance

Example

The Body Shop and Plastics for Change partnered up to create the world’s first large-scale Fair Trade recycled plastic. Thanks to their holistic perceptions of value, they were able to depart from standard cost and margin expectations in order to commit to the scale of investment needed.

Finance serving financial returns

80

Finance serving purpose

Private company or corporation limited by shares

Do legal forms matter?

Examples of legal forms

Publicly listed company or corporation

* e.g. Community interest company (UK); Low-profit limited liability company (US)

Social enterprise (often with an asset lock and dividend restrictions)*

Cooperative

Benefit corporation

In most jurisdictions, there are a range of legal forms that a business can take, and these can significantly shape the deep design of businesses there. The scope of these legal forms varies across jurisdictions.

In order to pursue their most transformative ideas, some businesses do decide to change their legal forms. But doing so is not an essential step for using this tool: it also invites businesses to explore possibilities for their redesign, whatever their legal form.

81

Purpose

Networks

Governance

Ownership

Finance

Exploring deep design is critical for:

• aligning internal processes with business purpose
• enabling new partnerships and engaging stakeholders
• channelling investment into transformative ideas
• locking-in legacy and protecting mission
• becoming regenerative and distributive by design

Benefits of redesign

82

Step 2. Identify what blocks action, and how redesign can unlock it

Part 3. Know your business design

Doughnut Design for Business

83

Explore business design

With your most transformative ideas in mind, now ask how the design of your business can evolve to unlock your most transformative ideas.

Do use the questions in the next slide as prompts to consider how your business design may evolve.

Note, you don’t need a reflection in every design layer.

​

Canvas: Business design

Which aspects still �block our most transformative ideas?

How can redesign�unlock our most transformative ideas?

Main

blockers

Redesign possibilities

84

Transformative �ideas

Think about what holds back transformative ideas and how design changes can enable them.

The points here can help identify ways in which your current design can block your ability to pursue your most transformative ideas, and ways redesign can unlock them. See more examples in subsequent slides for further ideas.

3

2

1

85

Consider these to explore business design

Is there a gap between stated purpose & day-to-day reality (culture, operations, impacts)?

Are you able to enter very long-term & committed partnerships (e.g. with suppliers)?

�Which stakeholders are represented on your board, and which should be?

Which stakeholders are missing from ownership mix?

How do expectations on margins & returns shape your priorities & possibilities?

What would your purpose be from a Doughnut Economics perspective?

Can you redefine your partnerships in line with your purpose (e.g. long-term contracts, pricing that enables purpose)?

Which stakeholders can be represented on your board to better navigate trade-offs between ecological, social & financial goals?�(e.g. workers, planet)?

Can ownership change to better align with your purpose (e.g. employee or steward ownership, change voting rights among owners?)

How might expectations on margins & dividends be reshaped to unlock your most �transformative ideas?

Consider these to identify how your design might be holding you back

Consider these to identify ways your design can evolve to enable you

Canvas: Business design

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1

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Explore business design

Place the most transformative ideas you earlier generated on top.

To answer the two main questions at the bottom of the canvas: use red sticky notes on the left and blue sticky notes on the right.

Finally, use a green sticky note to share the one action you can take to begin your Doughnut Economics business design journey?

Current design

blockers

Redesign possibilities

Which aspects still block

our most transformative ideas?

Transformative �ideas

How can redesign unlock

our most transformative ideas?

Canvas: Business design

Explore business design

Use sticky note main barriers to identify ways in which your current design blocks or holds back your most transformative ideas.

Use sticky note redesign possibilities to identify ideas to redesign your business to unlock and enable your ideas.

Remember, you don’t need a reflection in every design layer.

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2

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Redesign possibilities

Transformative �ideas

Current design

blockers

Canvas: Business design

Explore business design

Example of a�consumer goods company

Supplier relationships focus on low prices and lack long-term commitment needed for deep partnership.

Only investors represented on the board - no voice of impacted stakeholders.

High margin and dividend goals limit high social and ecological impact actions and exclude projects that achieve lower margins or returns.

Employee ownership <5% of shares, and majority of these only senior management.

Redesign possibilities

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Long term commitment with prices to enable cost of sustainable production.

Employees and main suppliers represented on board.

Margin and capital investment requirements lower for biggest social and ecological ideas.

Start with 2 x observer seats next year, with rotating seat for 5 main suppliers and one for employee rep.

Prices paid to suppliers enable double living wage

Transformative �ideas

Only use life-friendly chemistry

Factories sequester carbon

Current design

blockers

Canvas: Business design

Clients typically unconcerned with sustainability.

Majority of partners believe bringing their personal ethics to leadership is sufficient. No other stakeholder represented in governance.

Junior partners have expectations of high profit share in the future.

Purpose doesn’t address trade-offs - unable to justify losing income to generate more positive impact.

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Redesign possibilities

10 highest impact clients who redesign business for purpose become ‘priority clients’.

Representatives from a human rights & an eco organisation become board members, with voting rights.

30% of profits go to an internal fund to subsidise most impactful clients & projects.

Partner agreement caps profit share for all to increase reinvestment in purpose.

Transformative �ideas

Discontinue work with unethical clients

Lower fees for high positive impact

Advocate for strong regulation of client industries

Current design

blockers

Create internal impact fund, start with 10% of next financial year profits, increase slowly by 5% each year.

Explore business design

Example of a�professional services company

Wrap up

Part 4: Redesign your business

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You have now explored the most transformative ideas that would enable your business to contribute to, and belong in, a regenerative and distributive future - one that helps to bring humanity into the Doughnut. Critically, these transformative ideas involve making changes to the deep design of your business, which you have begun to identify. You have also identified an action you can take to begin your Doughnut Economics business design journey.

As you reflect on how to bring about the changes you have proposed, be sure to retain that entrepreneurial can-do spirit alongside your conviction to transform business so that it responds to the context and challenges of our times. This is an iterative process: keep learning as you go. You can continually update your plan in response to emerging possibilities.��Can business help bring humanity into the Doughnut? It is time to find out.

Doughnut Design for Business

Annex A.�Canvases, printouts and Miro

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Annex A. Canvases, printouts and Miro

Doughnut Design for Business

Click here for all printable canvases.

We recommend printing each canvas at least in A2 size (420 x 594 mm) so participants have enough space to stick notes all over the canvas spaces.

For the Miro board, see Online workshop and Create your canvas.

2. Business design

1. Transformative ideas

Doughnut Design for Business

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Annex B.�Prepare and run the workshop

Key skills for facilitating this workshop

Identifying participants for the workshop

Running a workshop for start-ups

Running a workshop for large companies

Running a workshop for family businesses

Running a workshop for ethical businesses

In-person workshop considerations

Online workshop

Online workshop - create your canvas

Sample workshop planning

Responding to common questions

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Annex B. Prepare and run the workshop

Doughnut Design for Business

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B1.

B2.

B3.

B4.

B5.

B6.

B7.

B8.

B9.

B10.

B11.

• Enthusiasm to explore transformative ideas that challenge the possibilities of today’s business world, and curiosity about how the deep design of businesses can evolve to enable such ideas.
• Awareness of some existing alternative enterprise designs that are relevant to participating businesses (e.g. employee ownership, social enterprise, steward ownership).
• Skills in guiding businesses through the journey of exploration, and being comfortable not to propose specific ideas or solutions.
• Time to prepare and gain some familiarity with the businesses participating (e.g. their industry, legal form, board members, reporting of impacts).
• Comfortable with complexity and with encountering defensiveness or frustration from some participants (such as limitations around what they believe can be changed and around their desire to be provided with practical advice).

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B1. Key skills for facilitating this workshop

Doughnut Design for Business | Annex B. Prepare and run the workshop

If run within a single business, invite:

• People intrigued and excited by the prospect of evolving the deep design of business, in particular its relationship with finance.
• Those with agency over the future design of the business (e.g. in evolution of their board, financial parameters).
• People from outside the C-Suite, those with experience in how senior decisions shape day-to-day operations and generate trade-offs.
• Those with experience of proposing ideas that have been turned down or limited due to financial considerations (e.g. technical experts).
• Those who represent the voices and interests of those most impacted by the decisions of the business.
• Those who bring in the most ambitious ideas and challenging perspectives.

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B2. Identifying participants for the workshop

Doughnut Design for Business | Annex B. Prepare and run the workshop

• Engagement with investors will likely play an important role in what’s possible with business design. Investor engagement may also be preoccupying founders and staff in a start-up. Recognise and engage with this throughout the workshop.
• Prepare by reading up on the role of ‘terms sheets’ for equity investment (e.g. this primer on community-ownership that includes some insights on terms sheets).
• Encourage start-ups to consider simple design options initially. They can tailor their design in a way that is appropriate for their ambitions and challenges, and this can evolve over time.
• Encourage start-ups to identify a few impact priorities, recognising that a broader range of impacts may seem overwhelming to focus on at first.
• Raise questions around ways that their vision may be supported or hindered by early-stage design choices (especially financing).
• Emphasise the opportunity start-ups have to shape their design from the outset (in contrast to established business, where more ambitious design changes may be more difficult).
• Avoid being prescriptive with specific design options.

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B3. Running a workshop for start-ups

Doughnut Design for Business | Annex B. Prepare and run the workshop

• Include some individual participants who have agency over the future design of the business (e.g. in evolution of their board, financial parameters).
• Include also participants from outside the C-Suite, those with experience in how senior decisions shape or constrain day-to-day operations and generate trade-offs.
• Include participants with experience of proposing ideas that have been turned down or limited due to financial considerations (e.g. technical experts).
• Encourage a long-term perspective in shaping the deep design of the business, insisting on a focus on business redesign but allowing longer time horizons.
• Emphasise that more sophisticated design changes can be planned for the future, as the business learns from initial design changes and evolves.

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B4. Running a workshop for large companies

Doughnut Design for Business | Annex B. Prepare and run the workshop

• The values and future legacy of the family is likely to be an important factor. Recognise this openly and include this in discussions.
• The business may be designed around the long-term and values-focused voice of family members, who use this to keep the business committed to a purpose. Recognise the value of this and retain it as one feature, as additional design changes are explored. Take the approach of building towards the family’s underlying goals by reinforcing their efforts (e.g. NGO working on issues the family is passionate about could be represented on the board).
• There may already be significant philanthropic contributions that the family make. Identify ways in which the design of the business and its core operations can reinforce such goals, making the business a vehicle for achieving the positive impact in the world (e.g. through profit reinvestment into the most transformative ideas).
• If there’s a resistance to business redesign, encourage them to experiment with smaller changes in design first, with a view towards bigger changes in the future.

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B5. Running a workshop for family businesses

Doughnut Design for Business | Annex B. Prepare and run the workshop

• The business may be designed around a ‘benevolent founder’, who uses their ownership role to keep the business committed to a purpose. Recognise the value of this and retain it as one feature, as additional design changes are explored. Take the approach of building towards the founder’s underlying goals by reinforcing their efforts (e.g. impacted stakeholders could become co-owners).
• The products and services of the business may themselves be the greatest focus of its mission. If so, encourage designing around this feature but invite them to explore how to align operational impacts too.
• It is likely that they already know what their priority is, so don’t labour the point about reconsidering this priority. Instead, help them to just recognise the broader impacts.
• They may resist design changes, as they are already considered an ethical business with their current design. Encourage them to identify ways in which they can be more ambitious and become one of the defining the businesses of the future.

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B6. Running a workshop for ethical businesses

Doughnut Design for Business | Annex B. Prepare and run the workshop

Some general tips:

• As the facilitator, you will be responsible for introducing the concepts and the activities.
• You will need to print the canvases we’ve provided (see Canvases, printouts and Miro).
• You also need to choose where to put the canvases: on tables, on the floor, on vertical boards, on a window - these are just a few of the approaches that people have tried so far.
• Sticky notes are a good way for people to add comments. You may also prefer to write directly onto the canvases. Whichever way you choose, encourage participants to be succinct and to prioritise ideas. Canvases that contain too much detail could become overwhelming.
• You will need a projector or large screen to present the slides contained in this tool. Recognise that long periods looking at slides could reduce engagement levels. After presenting the slides, you could give time for a more dynamic discussion about the concepts. Doing this in a circle where everyone is standing up can be useful.

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B7. In-person workshop considerations

Doughnut Design for Business | Annex B. Prepare and run the workshop

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B8. Online workshop

Doughnut Design for Business | Annex B. Prepare and run the workshop

To run a workshop online, you will need to use a videoconferencing application such as Zoom or Teams. You will also need to prepare a Miro canvas from the template (see create your canvas) or a similar canvas in another application such as Mural, Padlet or Jamboard.

We strongly recommend that, if you are running a workshop using Miro, you have one facilitator per breakout room who can 1) confidently use Miro, 2) share their screen with breakout room participants, and 3) take notes from the discussion on the Miro canvas itself, for all to see.

It can be a good idea to share the Miro canvas plus the following introductory materials with participants ahead of time, so they can familiarise themselves with the concepts and activities:

• Intro to Doughnut Economics
• Intro to business and the Doughnut

Anyone calling in on their phone won’t be able to see the canvas, so let them know this ahead of time, and let the facilitators know this so they can explain what’s happening.

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B9. Online workshop - create your canvas

Doughnut Design for Business | Annex B. Prepare and run the workshop

We have created a template on Miro which you can use to create your own online canvas. To create the Miro canvas:

1. Follow this link.
2. Click on the title of the board - Taster version - Doughnut Design for Business - in the top left corner, next to the word ‘Miro’.
3. If you are already signed into a Miro account, select ‘Duplicate board’, and the board will then duplicate into your account. If you are not signed into a Miro account, you can create one for free, very easily - this will give you space for up to three free boards.
4. Once a duplicate copy of the board is in your account, you can share it with others. If you have a free account, you can invite others to access and edit the board by email. If you have a paid account, you can create a link and password for anyone to access and edit the board.
5. Once you have your own board you can populate the canvas with relevant examples, questions and pictures to help participants get started in the workshop.

Introduction to the session

Participant introduction

Play DEAL’s introduction to redesigning business through Doughnut Economics video

Part 1. Regenerative & distributive ambitions

Part 2. Redesign your business

Plenary reflections and wrap up

End – Coffee!

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B10. Sample workshop planning (2 hours)

Doughnut Design for Business | Annex B. Prepare and run the workshop

9.00

9:05

9:15

�09:35

10:15

10:45

11:00

5

10

20

​

35

35

15

​

Time

Duration

Part

• The role of legal forms? Legal forms (such as limited companies, non-profit entities) vary across jurisdictions. A business may decide to change its legal form as part of its redesign, but that is not essential to this tool, which invites a process of business redesign, whatever the legal form.
• Connection with certifications? Most certifications assess the policies and practices of businesses. A few cover some aspects of business design, but no certification scheme that we know of yet covers the scope and ambition of the Doughnut Economics approach to business redesign. We very much hope in future that some will!
• Businesses ‘doing the Doughnut’? There is no credible way of assessing whether an individual business is operating ‘within the Doughnut’. The business examples included in this tool are not proposed as ‘Doughnut businesses’.
• Advocating specific business designs? The tool invites businesses to create innovations in their deep design, without advocating any specific designs: there are many possibilities.

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B11. Responding to common questions

Doughnut Design for Business | Annex B. Prepare and run the workshop

Doughnut Design for Business

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Annex C.�Share back to inspire others

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Share back and communicating publicly

Doughnut Design for Business | Annex C. Share back to inspire others

C1. Facilitators summarising reflections

Organisations and consultants using this tool with businesses are asked to follow DEAL's Policy for Consultancies and Organisations. As part of this, we ask them to share back a summary of key reflections from their workshop(s). See slides Facilitators summarising reflections.

C2. Case studies of businesses

DEAL invites submissions of case studies of businesses demonstrating how their deep design blocks and / or enables the most transformative ideas needed to help humanity into the Doughnut. See slide Case studies of businesses.

C3. Businesses communicating publicly

Any business inspired by Doughnut Economics can only publicly associate with it by focusing on its deep design. See slide Businesses communicating publicly.

Who needs to share back?

If you are a consultancy or other organisation providing professional advisory services and you are using this tool with businesses, you are required to register as an ‘Organisation in Action’ on DEAL’s platform and follow DEAL's Policy for Consultancies and Organisations.

If you are a not-for-profit organisation using the tool with businesses, we also ask that you register on DEAL’s platform as an ‘Organisation in Action’ and follow DEAL's Policy for Consultancies and Organisations. This includes sharing back your experience and insights with the rest of the DEAL community, in the spirit of reciprocity and peer-to-peer learning.

If you’re using this for ‘internal reflection’ as a business, it is optional to share back your insights. If you choose to, please connect with us through the DEAL contact form. Note also the dos and don’ts at the start of this tool.

C1. Facilitators summarising reflections (1/2)

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Doughnut Design for Business | Annex C. Share back to inspire others

2

1

1

How to share back?

As an Organisation in Action, you will be listed on DEAL’s platform and be able to post stories. We ask for stories of the workshop that ‘share back’ insights covering key aspects of the workshop, as well as suggested ways in which the tool can improve.

When posting your story on DEAL’s platform as an Organisation in Action, we ask that your story focuses on the following:

• Examples of transformative regenerative and distributive ideas identified in the workshop.
• Examples of the current design of the businesses that block and enable such ideas.
• Examples of ideas for business redesign and how these could enable transformative ideas.
• Challenges and insights that emerged in exploring transformative ideas and business redesign.
• Ways the tool can evolve to better support businesses on the business redesign journey.

Your reflections will need to respect confidentiality expectations of participants.

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C1. Facilitators summarising reflections (2/2)

Doughnut Design for Business | Annex C. Share back to inspire others

2

1

2

DEAL would like to select and share some compelling case studies that demonstrate how the most transformative regenerative and distributive ideas can be unlocked through business design and redesign. We invite businesses to share stories with us that focus on the following:

• the most ambitious regenerative and distributive ideas to pursue
• how the current design of the business currently blocks or enables these ideas
• how a redesign of the business can unlock and enable these ideas.

To submit a case study, please share it through the DEAL contact form, choosing the category 'Tools and Stories' and theme ‘Business and Enterprise’. To retain the integrity and ambition of Doughnut Economics, DEAL itself will post these on the platform, and we ask that case study stories of individual businesses are not posted directly to the DEAL platform.

C2. Case studies of businesses

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Doughnut Design for Business | Annex C. Share back to inspire others

Any business that has been inspired by Doughnut Economics to make or explore substantive changes to its deep design (including by using the Doughnut Design for Business tool) is welcome to communicate publicly about this.

We ask that any communication is limited to Doughnut Economics serving as inspiration for changes in its deep design, through addressing its Purpose, Networks, Governance, Ownership, and Finance. The concepts and images of Doughnut Economics cannot be used for any other public communication by businesses.

We also ask that there are no public facing claims or communication that suggests any business is within the Doughnut, a Doughnut Business, aligned with Doughnut Economics, endorsed by DEAL, or similar.

The above also applies to consultants in their work with business clients.

For the full policy on how Businesses can engage with Doughnut Economics, see DEAL’s policy for businesses and refer to the Dos and Don’ts at the start of this tool.

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Doughnut Design for Business | Annex C. Share back to inspire others

​

C3. Businesses communicating publicly

Doughnut Design for Business

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Annex D.�Acknowledgements, images

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Acknowledgements

This tool was created by

Erinch Sahan, Kate Raworth and Carlota Sanz Ruiz of DEAL, in collaboration with Ruurd Priester.

We would like to thank

All organisations who co-hosted 22 pilot workshops with DEAL in the development of this tool: Centre for Economic Transformation at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (main partner), 200 Million Artisans, Accelerate2030, Also Festival, Basel Area Business & Innovation, Better Business Network, �B Labs France, Bold Foundation Switzerland, Bristol Green Capital Partnership, British Retail Consortium, Change Makers Magazine, Coest, Ecosystem Incubator, Employee Ownership Association, FLO’s Oxford, Good Market, Impact Hub Basel, Impact Hub Kings Cross, Purpose Capital New Zealand, Purpose Economy, Social Enterprise UK, Start-up Foundation Finland, The London School of Economics and Political Science, Ubiquity University.

All who participated in the pilot workshops and who reviewed the drafts of the tool.

Marjorie Kelly for the conceptual inspiration. Iconmonster for the icons used.

Doughnut Design for Business | Annex D. Acknowledgments, images

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Doughnut Design for Business | Annex D. Acknowledgments, images

Images

Doughnut Economics Action Lab (DEAL) is a Community Interest Company registered in the UK, doughnuteconomics.org

​

All content is licensed under the CC-BY-SA 4.0 license 2022.

You are allowed to pass on and share this, and we welcome innovations and alterations*, as long as you credit Doughnut Economics Action Lab (DEAL) and doughnuteconomics.org

​

*Alterations may mean changing the words and images so that they are relevant to your context and audience, including translating some or all of the slides into another language.

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Full attribution text for these diagrams can be found doughnuteconomics.org/license

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Doughnut Design for Business

DEAL’s guide to redesigning businesses through Doughnut Economics – taster workshop

Version 1.0 (March 2023)