Why and how redesign your business model in 2017 ?

Even though companies and public administrations are starting working on new ways of production, consumption and management for a better future, they still face a lot of obstacles and create strategies that are not diversified.

Several organizations speak about eco-conception or recycling efforts, to ensure an upcycling of the matter or of the components at the end of life. Nevertheless at Wiithaa we think that circular economy is beyond those solutions that point out only the result and finally neither take the problem from the origin nor comprehend the complexity of systems. An efficient and virtuous transition is not - only - in these actions.

We are convinced that what we need to eco-design is no longer products and services but business models.


Driven by two philosophies : biomimicry and design thinking, we are convinced that what we need to eco-design is no longer products and services but business models.

In order to grasp all the opportunities offered by the circular economy and ensure the resilience of the activities, we have to design more inclusive, dynamic and sustainable business models.

Let’s go back a few years ago. In 2008, Alexander Osterwalder publishes a book in which he presents a canvas to work on the value proposition, infrastructures, clients and finance of a company or product, in order to bring them into line with profitable financing flows.

He conceptualizes the idea of business model to enable the largest number to use his methodology. Only 9 years later, this tool has been downloaded more than 5 million times and used for the creation or change of several organizations. And we know why: the Business Model Canvas is a powerful tool to understand, analyse, improve, transform… the value proposition of a company.

Nevertheless, this tool is limited because it remains in a linear economy structured in a simple way, that does not consider other interests than profit for the company

This tool answers to profitability objectives within a linear economy, where the resources are not optimized along the all value chain, which represents a real value loss for both the company and its ecosystem.
Facing to this « waste of resources », we understand the economical opportunity offered by the circular economy, but also, the social and environmental interest it suggests.


« A business model defines the ways an organisation creates, delivers and captures value. »

If we take Osterwalder’s definition of business model, we need to develop the word « value » in order to highlight the global and systemic value proposed by the circular economy more than a single economical value.

To illustrate this idea, let’s take the example of Nouvelle Attitute, a subsidiary of the french postal service : La Poste.

In 2011, La Poste, the french postal service, acquires New Attitude, a social entreprise of professional integration, to launch the office paper collection and recycling service : Recy’go. There are two objectives : optimize the return flows by filling the empty trucks on their return journey and diversify their offer with a paper recovery and recycling service.

Through this project, La Poste redesigns its model to develop new partnerships and a holistic offer, with economical, social and environmental benefits. Not only do they ensure their core business by enriching the postal profession, but they now offer a full service of paper waste management that guarantees the durability of it first and principal revenue stream while creating new ones by selling recovered papers to papermakers.
Once the paper is collected, it is sorted out by reintegrated employees to be delivered to the papermakers who recycle it and make new paper to be distributed it again.

Thanks to this new service, La Poste creates a virtuous and resilient loop to benefit to the company growth, its key partners and the environment. The value created is shared and enables to optimize materials and products flows, in the manufacturing and distribution of paper.

La Poste redesigns the whole business model at every step of the paper life cycle, both in terms of resources to capture as well as key activities to develop, in order to answer its « raison d’être »: information transmission.

This solution implies the necessity to review how we cooperate, innovate and think.


As a firm, an association or a local authority, if we aim to solve current issues and innovate in a changing and uncertain world, it is no more appropriate to think of products and services as the cause of these issues, to design lighter or less energy consuming. Indeed, it is the way we have thought and place them - or not - in their system, that threatens the future of our economy and planet.

« Problems cannot be solved with the same mindset that created them.»

To move from a very consuming economy, where organizations are run vertically on a short term and non-inclusive basis, to an economy with new opportunities, we must redesign the business model. By brainstorming together on the best way to capture value and distribute it, while taking into account the externalities from all points of view, we manage to create a positive value proposition that opens up a world of opportunities at every step.

At Wiithaa, we have designed a methodology to help you move into action : the Circulab.

Thanks to playful and team-focus tools, Circulab enables you to map and understand the eco-system of your organization to co-create more resilient solutions, that are by definition, durable. We focus on cooperation more than competition. The tools we offer call upon you to break the silos and open the dialogue through cooperation, within your organization but also your key stakeholders. This approach is compulsory in the circular economy because if we want more performance we need involvement and motivation from all the key actors.


With Circulab, you can create, capture and deliver a global and shared value.

For a circular economy, we need to redesign business models by involving the key stakeholders and further integrate change.


Circulab, a methodology now offered all around the world by more than 35 freelance consultants in 12 countries, enables you to design business models that renew the economy and ecosystem by integrating truly the Company Social Responsability. By transforming your business model thanks to dynamic, strategic and playful tools, you can finally choose to move from a linear economy to a circular economy.

To go further, you can already download the tools or ask for a demo.