Business

The current industry model is broken. Our economy is built on a "take make waste" model that negatively impacts environmental and human systems and is not tenable in the long term. It is time to reinvent. We are gifted with an array of genius examples in nature–mechanisms and ecosystems that have evolved over 3.8 billion years and provide a blueprint for products, processes, and system organization that can be truly effective toward a healthier, resilient future. We propose that companies mimic nature and reinvent themselves around the fundamental science of Biomimicry's seven Life's Principles. This is Management Innovation According to Nature's Genius. » Read more

(Mary Anne Masterson and Jay Nath co-authored this article.)

The San Francisco Mayor's Office of Innovation recently piloted an "unhackathon" which attracted over 80 designers, technologists and business pros, all collaborating quickly and intensively to create viable solutions for the City's taxi distribution and transit communication problems. This process, built on the central tenets of design thinking, proved as successful in innovating city management as it has for private industry. » Read more

All too often, direction setting happens in an ivory tower—cut off from valuable in-the-trenches insight and expertise and out of tune with shifts in the broader environment. What’s more, when strategy is cooked up in an elite enclave, the process of "selling" it to the very people expected to implement it becomes an arduous and uncertain chore. » Read more

Panera Bread launched a new breed of business to attack the growing epidemic of food insecurity in America. The result is Panera Cares—cafes where people eat tasty, nutritious food in an uplifting environment and pay whatever they can afford. There's a full Panera menu, but no prices. The guest, not Panera, sets the price. And yet, each community cafe is self-sustaining. » Read more