The Book: Life Support Business
A Life Support Business is an ongoing pursuit - not a destination. Through the process of researching this book, we’re engaging with leading businesses to understand what it takes to reorient a company around this pursuit and what enables them to progress toward their goals. Life Support Business explores how companies can break free from extractive economic models and reorient themselves toward long-term resilience by embracing innovation, systems thinking, and new value creation models.
At the core of this shift lie three interconnected shifts: Re-imagining, Re-purposing, and Re-configuring. Businesses have the chance to reimagine their role, challenging traditional assumptions about growth and value to envision new possibilities. They can also adapt their purpose—broadening their focus beyond short-term gains to long-term resilience and meaningful contribution in a thriving world. Finally, they can explore ways to reconfigure their operations, supply chains, and business models to bring this vision to life, unlocking new flows of value and positioning themselves for the future.
Innovation plays a critical role in this transformation. To make this shift businesses cannot simply react to regulatory pressure but must actively develop new business models, new economic structures, and new ways to create value. Innovation is not just about technology; it includes organizational change, financial redesign, collaboration across industries, and redefining what success looks like. The book highlights how forward-thinking companies are navigating these changes—not in isolation, but through systemic shifts involving partners, regulators, and entire industries.
To provide structure to these ideas, the book draws on systems thinking, particularly Donella Meadows’ concept of leverage points—places where small changes can create large systemic shifts. However, it goes beyond theory, adapting these insights into practical strategies and real-world case studies. Some businesses are still at the "launch pad" stage, experimenting with new approaches, while others are approaching “exit velocity,” demonstrating momentum toward a radically different way of operating.
This book is for those wrestling with the question: What can businesses actually do? It is for business leaders, innovators, strategists, and policymakers looking for examples of concrete action and a way to move forward despite systemic barriers. Instead of offering one-size-fits-all solutions, it explores different paths businesses are taking.
The urgency for transformation is clear, but so is the opportunity. As business models that degrade life become increasingly unviable, those that support and restore life will define the future. This book offers a way to think about that transition—not as a compliance exercise, but as a fundamental reimagining of what business can be.
