Horizons: Strategic vision for circular economy transformation

Tiny figures lost in Piranesi's impossible prison of arches and stairs—architecture so vast and self-referential that individual optimization becomes meaningless.

On the Bubble

Transformative Ends, Incremental Means?

The era of incremental change is rapidly coming to a close

Maintenance

Maintenance Is a First Principle

Why your strategy's relationship with "stuff" determines its limits

Two Renaissance diplomats in rich attire flank a table laden with globes, scientific instruments, a lute, and books — the tools of their multilateral craft.

Diplomacy

From Managers to Diplomats

Managing within a system in decline is a form of denial.

Vincent van Gogh’s The Good Samaritan (after Delacroix), showing a compassionate figure helping a wounded man onto a horse, rendered in expressive brushwork.

On the Bubble

Empathy Is a Strategic Capacity

It enables worldbuilding where time and value are not yet fixed, providing a path to product–market fit before markets, metrics, or demand signals exist.

A painterly parody of Emanuel Leutze’s “Washington Crossing the Delaware,” reimagined with stylized, hand-painted symbols of decay replacing the river’s ice floes as the boat moves forward.

On the Bubble

Leadership in the Time of Enshittification

Why do rigidly managed systems so often end in decay? A closer look at enshittification, linear logic, and why this moment calls for leadership.

A hazy seascape with a distant cargo container ship receding toward the horizon, its form partially dissolved by light and atmosphere.

On the Bubble

The Supply Mirage

Circularity was built for a moment of expected scarcity. What happens when that pressure never fully arrives — and what must change as a result?

Digital illustration of Homer, the ancient Greek poet, gazing toward a radiant circular future city, linking timeless storytelling traditions with a coherent vision of the Circular Century.

Connection

You Don't Need Better Storytellers

Stories begin with choices. Without internal coherence, even the best storytelling can’t help us imagine, or choose, the future we need.

A Van Gogh–style portrait of Joseph Campbell set against swirling cosmic colors in blues, greens, magentas, teals, and citrine yellow, suggesting shifting cosmology and mythic meaning.

Cultural Mythology

Closing the Mythology Gap

When the world changes faster than our stories, organizations lose coherence and momentum. This Letter shows how Joseph Campbell, George Lucas, and Coca-Cola demonstrated the deeper work of cultural renewal — and what it means to become fit for purpose in the Circular Century.

Imagination

Toward Imagination

Scientific management made imagination possible. Then it made imagination impossible.

Neo-Impressionist maritime painting: large sailing ship and small vessel with pirate flag connected by rope in stormy seas. Dramatic citrine yellow light breaks through blue storm clouds.

Self-Disruption

Beyond Organizational Charts: Why Self-Disruption Requires Vision, Culture, and Values

What practitioners miss about Christensen's self-disruption theory—and why it matters for scaling circular innovation

Pop art milkshake with striped straw on yellow table. Window shows sunlit meadow with dome structure and rolling green hills—a circular economy future in yellows, teals, greens.

Jobs To Be Done (JTBD)

From Milkshakes To Meaning

Clay Christensen showed us how to understand consumer preference beyond the A|B test. That key unlocks product-market fit for the Circular Century.

Comic book illustration: pilot in yellow rocket labeled WWHTBT crossing desert chasm with trailing scarf, while pole vaulter in HMW jersey watches from rim

What Would Have To Be True (WWHTBT)

"What Would Have To Be True?"

You cannot A|B test your way to system change. Why circular transformation requires asking 'What Would Have to Be True?' instead of 'How Might We?'

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