About Circudyne
The future being built is one where people find meaning beyond mere possession. Where the objects around us exist in harmony with the world that created them. Where circular solutions feel naturally right—quiet, enduring, intentional.
Enabling circular transformation through cultural storytelling, worldbuilding, and strategy
The future being built is one where people find meaning beyond mere possession. Where the objects around us exist in harmony with the world that created them. Where circular solutions feel naturally right—quiet, enduring, intentional.
This is the future that transformation-minded leaders, aspiring changemakers, and circular economy practitioners are eager to talk about. To collaborate on. To cheer our children toward.
The road to the circular economy runs through brands. When visionary companies with empathy and good taste lead this transformation, they don't just do good—they become iconic. But beyond cultural relevance, they master disciplines, capabilities, and systems that create extraordinary competitive advantages. Just as Lean transformation did for manufacturing, circular economy mastery unlocks new sources of organizational health and opportunities for customer connection. Circular living becomes something people desire. Delightful. Aspirational. Abundant.
But worldbuilding alone isn't enough. The most powerful brands tell stories about their circular vision. Stories that help people feel this future is essential. Not just better. Inevitable.
Circudyne contributes to this transformation by assembling a community of builders through The Circudyne Letter and guiding individual brand journeys through Circudyne Studio.
The Circudyne Letter: Building the Cultural Architecture
The Circudyne Letter serves the growing community of brand leaders, designers, and change-makers who are ready to move from exploring circular possibilities to building circular realities.
There is no playbook for circular economy success. Not yet. Those committed to the transformation must bring the best of today's strategic know-how to this challenge—and move beyond them. As Roger Martin says, "there is no data from the future." So this community has to dream it, design it, and build it. All with intention and good taste.
Each edition offers grist for the mill of progress:
Cultural Insights: How circular thinking suits consumer desires and opens up new market opportunities
Strategic Know-How: The best of current business methodology, adapted for circular transformation
Worldbuilding Tools: Practical approaches for envisioning circular futures that feel compelling and achievable
Story Patterns: The narratives that transform possibility into cultural movement
Builder Spotlights: Brands already creating the delightful circular future
As an instructor on the Circular Economy Masterclass, I've mentored dozens of participants through circular transformation thought and action. The Circudyne Letter builds on these insights to create shared language and vision for the broader community of circular economy builders.
This is how the movement achieves breadth. How it builds the information architecture for transformation.
Circudyne Studio: Guiding Individual Brand Transformation
Circudyne Studio works directly with a select number of visionary brands ready to make circular transformation their competitive advantage.
We serve as provisioner and facilitator. The work isn't done for clients—each brand is guided to do the work themselves. This is deep, personal coaching that requires attention, care, and genuine partnership.
Deep Empathy Discovery: Guidance to uncover what customers are genuinely trying to accomplish, revealing unexpected opportunities for circular innovation.
Future Worldbuilding: Facilitation of the imagination and prototyping of circular experiences so compelling that linear alternatives feel outdated.
Cultural Storytelling: Support in developing narratives that make people feel your circular future is not just possible, but essential.
Implementation Coordination: Partnership in creating pathways that maintain cultural resonance while delivering measurable circular outcomes.
The brands working with Circudyne Studio don't merely participate in the circular economy. They define it. They become iconic. They create solutions of such compelling elegance that people form deep, enduring connections.
This is how individual transformation achieves depth. How materials move with considered grace. How ownership transforms into relationship.
Christian Rishel: The Person Behind Circudyne
Tennis and bike riding keep me active. My dogs and the birds of my garden keep me content. Life on this pale blue dot keeps me grateful.
Philosophy in college taught me first-principles thinking. Diplomacy school taught me to design win-win outcomes. Business school taught me to escape commodity traps.
These skills guided me through leadership roles at Airbus, JetBlue, McKinsey, Google, and several startups. From the beginning, I consistently sought situations where conventional thinking created unnecessary trade-offs. My goal was always to challenge that thinking and find better ways forward.
The pattern emerged at Airbus. I was working with airline clients who refused to credit passenger comfort in their aircraft purchasing decisions. When a colleague and I presented conclusive analysis showing the economic advantage of more comfortable planes, the client replied: "If we can't figure out how to get passengers to pay us for better airplanes, you can't expect us to pay you for one."
Soon after, at JetBlue I had the opportunity to help challenge exactly that perspective. In offering differentiated service and comfortable new planes, we gave customers what they wanted—and were rewarded.
That moment crystallized something essential: businesses often become captive to their operating systems instead of serving customers. They accept static conditions as given. When customer needs evolve, established businesses can freeze up instead of solving the problem.
I saw this same pattern ever since my first encounter with circular economy principles at a conference in 2017. It is often accepted as axiomatic that customers are "conflicted"—wanting sustainable solutions but refusing to compromise on price, quality, or convenience.
Often, they blame customers for this disconnect. To my mind, this is malpractice.
There are ways to resolve this tension. From the start, the circular economy reminded me of Lean principles I'd worked with at McKinsey. Both take systems-level approaches to transformation. Both start with value chain mapping. Lean addresses quality while circularity aims for sustainability, but both claim significant ancillary benefits beyond their primary objectives.
But circular economy faces a challenge Lean didn't: customers don't yet understand the benefits circular solutions offer.
They need to experience them. And because these benefits are nuanced and emotionally appealing, they require immersive, multi-sensory communication that entertains as it educates, like the early World's Fairs did during the industrial revolution.
You can't stimulate customer demand with theory. People need compelling visions they can experience together.
That's where the worldbuilding comes in. And the storytelling. And the cultural strategy.
That's why I created Circudyne.
Join the Community of Builders
Ready to move from exploring circular possibilities to building circular realities?
For cultural insights and frameworks: Subscribe to The Circudyne Letter.
For deep brand transformation: Begin a conversation about Circudyne Studio.
To connect directly: contact us.
True circular solutions aren't adaptations of linear thinking. They require the courage to envision something entirely new.
The road to the circular economy runs through brands like yours. Let's build it together.