Shall we play a game: Innovating business models

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This is a third installment of a series by Justin. The first, which asked "what do I want to be when I grow up?" was about building a sustainable company. The second, employing the line "collaborate and listen", was on how to engage employees.

As you work toward your sustainability vision and delivering triple-bottom-line results, going through the process is like playing a game. You start at the beginning (by measuring your baseline) and get points for your progress (by making progress toward your goals). How do you pick which game to play? Well, I hope it isn’t Global Thermonuclear War.

The "game" you choose determines the framework for measuring the progress of your triple-bottom-line efforts. It's essentially the business model of your sustainable company. You can start out by defining incremental change in certain parts of your work. B Corporation’s impact assessment is a good starting place. It covers accountability (governance and transparency), employees (benefits, ownership, work environment), consumers (beneficial products or services), community (suppliers, local, diversity, charity/service), environment (facilities, energy usage) and other factors. Also, the Global Reporting Initiative has guidelines that can frame your progress.

Or you could establish a comprehensive approach to the triple bottom line that covers all areas of your operations and is deeply embedded into your mission. Doing that means you run a social enterprise.

In the past, the perception was that you had to be a nonprofit to be mission-based. No longer. The emerging social enterprise movement means that whether you're a nonprofit or for profit, people are starting and running organizations that exist to solve a social and/or environmental need. And with the increasing importance of generating sustained earned income instead of solely relying on foundation grants, the lines have blurred even further between mission-based nonprofits and for profits. Social enterprises are committed to the triple bottom line. New business models include B Corporation, cooperatives, L3Cs, and ESOPs.

An entrepreneurial mindset is key whether you're part of a small team starting an organization, or if you're a intrapreneur working within a larger organization working toward triple bottom line goals. The spirit of an entrepreneur is to come up with ideas to solve a need in society and make it happen by living their passion each and every day with their team. The need has never been greater to answer the call to minimize the impact on the planet, maximize the benefit to society, and generate sustainable profits to create jobs for all.

What game will you choose? What legacy do you want to leave? What’s your passion? There’s never been a better time to start something. The world needs your ideas and ability to get things done to make your dream a reality.

I'll leave you with this quote from William Gibson: "The future is already here — it’s just not evenly distributed."

Justin Yuen is President of FMYI [for my innovation], a collaboration software company with a sustainability commitment.