the insight
From researching 100 years of regenerative living-systems principles, and cross-calibrating with disruptive business re/design, Melissa gained key insights.
Here are the top three.
DESIGN THINKING VALUE AXES
1. Not one but four.
Design thinking is all about value. Creating, delivering and capturing value. Disruptive design is all about unlocking value potential. So how we define value really matters. But Nature unlocks value in very different ways. Nature works off not just one value axis, but four.
All four axes work together interdependently, in relationship. And all four individually and collectively drive towards regeneration. So if you want to play a disruptive regenerative game, you need to be able to sense, seize and scale value potential across all four axes.
Value flow. Value equitability. Value flourishing. Value potentiality.
This four-quadrant design thinking feeds directly into our bio.t™ compass, to build your BQ™. Your biological quotient. Helping you make better strategic decisions in a disruptive regenerative world.
DIAGNOSE . DISCOVER . DESIGN . DEPLOY.
LENS ON DISRUPTIVE DESIGN
2. The chasm of context.
When it comes to disruptive future thinking, and disruptive design, the lens of most strategy & innovation tools gravitate around the immateriality of market, competitor and digi tech trends. And separately, the lens of most Nature conversations gravitate around compliance, and TNFD disclosure reporting.
Customers might be king, but context is queen. Context is not an externality, it’s a strategic multiplier. So any business model re/design needs to be driven first from deeply understanding contextual conditions.
Nature’s adaptive fitness comes from fittedness to context. Nature’s ability to sense and seize opportunity is hardwired to context. Nature’s tech investment in processing speeds, networks and sensors is hardwired to context. Nature’s innovations and evolutionary prowess is hardwired to context.
We might be in the age of artificial intelligence, but at a meta scale, we’re in the age of living intelligence (we always have been). However, the re/connection between current strategy tools and the science of life has not yet been made. The materiality of the living world, and the lived experience is missing from business model re/design thinking. Which is ironic (or intentional), because this is where all the growth opportunity lies.
This insight has meant that each step in the bio.t™ canvas, and each part of the bio.t™ compass helps you up the pathway of contextualising you in the living world. So you are better placed to unlock your disruptive design potential.
VALUE LEVERS
3. The language of leverage.
Disruptive design is built on finding the levers to unlock value potential. Which means understanding leverage. But Nature does leverage very differently to how we’re taught in business school.
Most strategy & innovation tools advocate for a win-lose, zero-sum game of leverage. Based on things like extraction, exploitation, price arbitrage, restricted market access or data mining. This doesn’t just create inequalities, but a massive amount of material waste and energy entropy. It represents a massive loss of value and value potential.
Nature leverages differently. Nature doesn’t lean away from the tension of contextual constraints, but into the tension. Nature finds the levers in the tension. And leverages it (wind, gravity, fluid dynamics, electromagnetic forces, surface tension, symbiotic relationships etc). It’s inherently abundant.
This is why an abundant mindset is critical to transformation. And why re/connecting, in relationship is key, to access the genius of how life in Nature designs. As Buckminster Fuller said “Work with life centered principles & the universe pitches in to help.”
Every step in the bio.t™ canvas, and each part of the bio.t™ compass, explores deep biological patterns of leverage, based on re/connecting in relationship.
WHY DOES THIS MATTER?
Because as global markets price in the materiality of the living world, there isn’t just huge risk. There’s huge opportunity.
But how you strategize, innovation, lead and transform needs to work from a different design thinking playbook. Because how you diagnose, discover, design and deploy value fundamentally changes. It’s not human centered design thinking, it’s Nature’s life-centered design thinking.
THE 3 PROBLEMS THIS INSIGHT HELPS SOLVE
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Most organizations are playing a Nature game driven by TNFD and SBTN governance disclosures. Focused on footprints and emissions, with a compliance cost mindset. But this misses the point.
The ‘natural capital’ bubble is 3x LARGER than the CO2 bubble (Stuchtey et al 2016). If you haven’t connected your business model and strategy to the science of life, then the disruptive impact on your balance sheets and P&Ls is big.
But the BIGGER RISK is you miss seeing the opportunity. The emerging circular bioeconomy is estimated to be worth US$7.6 trillion, with growth of 11.7% (1) and worth US$30 trillion by 2050 (2), a third of global GDP, while positively impacting 9 different Sustainable Development Goals (3).
The European Union’s circular bioeconomy is already US$2.3 trillion, supporting 17 million jobs (4). Other countries, like Aotearoa, New Zealand, with 80% of trade exports reliant on land-based products (5) are only nascent in the transition.
The speed with which businesses adapt and transition to the circular bioeconomy and realise the significant twofold benefits of economic growth and risk resilience, is redefining the playing field for markets and global geopolitics.
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1.HTF Market Intelligence. October 2025. Global circular bioeconomy projects market – global outlook 2020-2033. https://www.htfmarketinsights.com/report/4383907-circular-bioeconomy-projects-market
2.Nature Finance. 2024. The Global Bioeconomy. https://www.naturefinance.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/ENG-TheGlobalBioeconomy_FINAL.pdf
3.Taron, A. and Gebrezgabher, S., 2024. Circular bioeconomy: A pathway to sustainable development in an age of global crisis. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-83753-586-620241007
4.European Commission. 2024. The sustainable and circular bioeconomy in the EU. https://unece.org/sites/default/files/2024-03/S2d_2_The%20sustainable%20and%20circular%20bioeconomy%20in%20the%20EU.pdf .
5.Scion, the New Zealand Bioeconomy Science Institute, 2025. Growing New Zealand’s bioeconomy. https://www.scionresearch.com/about-us/the-forest-industry-and-bioeconomy/the-circular-bioeconomy#:~:text=A%20just%20transition:%20Moving%20from,Stora%20Enso
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Business model innovation (BMI), the process of transforming or redesigning a business model is a compounding problem for bio-circular futures; it sits on top of an existing BMI problem. When it comes to transforming any kind of business model, there are a few big elephants in the room:
ELEPHANT #1 - BMI SUCCESS RATES
70% of business transformations fail to improve performance over time (McKinsey & Co 2021).
88% of transformation innovations fail at achieving their original goal (Bains & Co 2024).
97% of business leaders are not ready to deliver strategic innovation (Boston Consulting Group 2024).
What’s more, those 30% of businesses that do succeed, still leave 1/3 of their potential value untapped (McKinsey & Co 2022).
And the 70% that don’t? Most end in various forms of theatre - restructures, hackathons and process rewrites (5). Digital transformations are now estimated to cost global business an un-fathomable $2.3 trillion dollars in wasted time and effort (6).
ELEPHANT #2 - BMI CAPABILITIES
Behind these statistics sits a lack of critical thinking capabilities:
McKinsey & Co (2022) identify the #1 root cause as a lack of fact-based clarity when defining strategic goals and purpose (7). In other words, value gets lost in the thinking.
Bains & Co (2024) identify the #1 root cause as a lack of dedicated people with strategic thinking capabilities (8).
World Economic Forum (2025) identify the #1 barrier to business transformation as a leadership skills gap in resilience, adaptive agility, and complex systems thinking (9).
ELEPHANT #3 - BMI TOOLS
And behind these capability gaps sits a lack of thinking and practice tools. Research continues to reveal that, despite the many business model canvases that exist, it’s (i) the process of BMI that is the primary challenge in sensing and transforming value (Foss and Saebi 2017, Pieroni et al 2019), with (ii) a lack of contextual ecosystem framing (Zott et al 2024), and (iii) a gap in synthesizing the required capabilities needed to undertake a BMI process (Buruleaunu et al 2025).
In short, there’s a big gap. Plugging this gap is where we play.
We work with you in three, interdependent, ways:
Strategic transformation journey,
Capability building, and
Diagnostic measurement.
In this way, you’re guided step by step through the BMI process from contextual discovery and sense-making through to strategic decision making through to design of your strategy, innovations and business model. No matter where your starting point is.
We give you the thinking models, tech tools and practice steps. And we showcase what’s possible.
WHY WE LOVE THIS GAME
Because the rewards for you are in multiples - 1. Multiple new revenue streams, 2. Multiple new market creating, 3. Demand-led B2B and B2C growth, 4. Scalable growth, 5. De-risking, 6. Lower costs, 7. Capital flows, 8. More profit, and 9. At the highest order of sustainability.
Because it strengthens both your decision making (THINK) and executional performance (DO) - for your ongoing adaptive resilience
Because it applies to any business, across any sector, doing strategy or innovation (not just the biotech disruptors).
Because you don’t have to be a biologist, or even a design thinker, to do this. It only requires an entrepreneurial mindset.
And because frankly, it’s way more fun. It’s why we call it the bright side.
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(1) McKinsey & Company. December 2021. Losing from day one: Why even successful transformations fall short. https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/people-and-organizational-performance/our-insights/successful-transformations
(2) Bains & Company. April 2024. The Three Common Transformation Talent Mistakes and How to Avoid Them https://www.bain.com/insights/the-three-common-transformation-talent-mistakes-and-how-to-avoid-them/
(3) Boston Consulting Group. June 2024. Innovation Systems Need a Reboot. https://www.bcg.com/publications/2024/innovation-systems-need-a-reboot
(4) McKinsey & Company. February 2022. The science behind transformations: Protecting value from day one. https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/people-and-organizational-performance/our-insights/the-organization-blog/the-science-behind-transformations-protecting-value-from-day-one
(5) Harkin, B. 2024. $2.3trillion Wasted Globally in Failed Digital Transformation Programs https://newsroom.taylorandfrancisgroup.com/costly-business-overhauls-are-not-needed-to-embrace-new-digital-technologies-according-to-specialist/
(6) Blank, S. (2019). Why companies do “innovation theater” instead of actual innovation. Harvard Business Review, 7, 2-5. ttps://steveblank.com/category/harvard-business-review/
(7) McKinsey & Company February 2022. The science behind transformations: Protecting value from day one. https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/people-and-organizational-performance/our-insights/the-organization-blog/the-science-behind-transformations-protecting-value-from-day-one
(8) Boston Consulting Group. June 2024. Innovation Systems Need a Reboot. https://www.bcg.com/publications/2024/innovation-systems-need-a-reboot
(9) World Economic Forum 2026. Next Generation Leadership for a World in Transformation: Driving Dialogue and Action https://reports.weforum.org/docs/GFC_White_Paper_on_New_Leadership_Models_for_Future_Generations_2026.pdf
(10) Foss, N.J. and Saebi, T., 2017. Fifteen years of research on business model innovation: how far have we come, and where should we go?. Journal of management, 43(1), pp.200-227. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206316675927
(11) Pieroni MPP, McAloone TC, Pigosso DCA. 2019. Business model innovation for circular economy and sustainability: A review of approaches, Journal of Cleaner Production, Volume 215, Pages 198-216, ISSN 0959-6526, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.01.036.
(12) Zott, C., Amit, R., Giesen, E. 2024. Business Model Innovation Capability: A Game Changer for Sustaining a Firm’s Edge. In: Aagaard, A. (eds) Business Model Innovation. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-57511-2_2
(13) Buruleanu, C. L., Chléirigh, L. N., Bhaird, M. N. a., Curran, T. P., Reinmuth, E., & Bîzoi, M. 2025. Weaving Knowledge, Innovation, and Learning: A Transdisciplinary Pathway to Circular Bioeconomy Through BioBeo. Sustainability, 17(14), 6541. https://doi.org/10.3390/su17146541
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How you think about value is at the core of BMI, design thinking, and dynamic capabilities. You can think of them like 3 circles in a Venn diagram:
Business model innovation is based on how well you create, deliver, and capture value
Dynamic capabilities are based on how well you sense, seize, and transform value
Design thinking is based on how well you discover and design value
All three, when done well, identify not just value, but value potential, and value risk.
THE BIO CIRCULAR CHALLENGE
The circular bioeconomy adds a topspin to value thinking, because it not only requires a reshaping of consumer behaviours, but a reshaping of incumbent value chains and market ecosystems as well.
This requires you to push past the definitional boundaries of value that make up the three value pillars of a business model. In practice, it add a whole new dimension to the BMI process:
To see the flow of value, and the value of flow across open networked systems.
To see and transform emergent potential value of biomass waste streams.
To trade, transact and broker new reciprocal value exchanges in symbiotic win : win relationships, and co-create emergent value, with new business models
To contribute and gift value that enhances the interdependent economic ecosystem as a whole.
THE NATURE ADVANTAGE
This requires a way of thinking, an intelligence, that is (i) contextual, (ii) relational and (iii) transformational.
This is the reason why we look to Nature.
As beyond-human intelligence that’s not artificial, but evolutionary. With 3.8 billion years of living, adaptive R&D, and hardcoded algorithms resilient enough to underwrite the very foundations of life.
Right now cutting-edge businesses are re/designing anything from products, services and platforms to business models, value chains and operations - even ways of working as high performing teams.
They’re transforming themselves, building adaptive resilience, and disrupting the shape of global markets, global industries, and the rules of the global economy.
WEF estimates biomimicry could create US$10 trillion in GDP growth and 395 million new jobs by 2030 (1).
We think this undersells it. Research show there is a 88%+ innovation gap between how biology designs and how humans design (Vincent and Mann 2002).
Our own research shows Nature has evolved clear strategies to work dynamically across business model value axes, that can be cleanly and easily applied to business models, and the process of BMI. In the flow, exchange and transformation of value potential. In the creation, delivery and capture of value. In the sensing, seizing and leveraging of value.
We see ourselves only at the beginning of our disruptive evolutionary journey. Our bio.t METHOD gives you the levers to unlock yours.
Life is rich.
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* this analysis of value is based on a literary review of 78 well cited papers in business journals, too exhaustive to list here. Melissa is currently working on a white paper.
(1) World Economic Forum, July 2020. 395 Million New Jobs by 2030 if Businesses Prioritize Nature. https://www.weforum.org/press/2020/07/395-million-new-jobs-by-2030-if-businesses-prioritize-nature-says-world-economic-forum/
(2) Vincent J., Mann, D. 2002. Systematic technology transfer from biology to engineering. Philosophical transactions. Series A, Mathematical, physical, and engineering sciences. Volume 360, Pages 159-73, https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2001.0923
