Profitable Green Business – Think Service Not Product

Better business, better life, better world… people are starting to talk about a new ‘industrial revolution’. Leigh Baker of www.balance3.com.au recognises the new set of conditions we face as both businessowners and as residents of this planet. As a business coach and member of AWARE, the Association for Waste and Resource Education and also Melbourne’s Business and the Environment (BATE), Leigh speaks and writes clearly, simply and convincingly about how green businesses make profits. She comes highly recommended as a mentor by Jan Stephenson of Agflow Water Systems and is available to talk to business groups.

Great Green Profit – A Free E-Book – Some Key Points

All the talk of crisis means there is demand for new products and services, which means business opportunities. Leigh says,

• step back from the usual focus on the consumer at the end of the production process using less, and
• look at how our overall supply chain works;
• redesign this and we can keep our quality of life, spread it around the planet and do better business on the way.

ALL Products Could Be Either:

• fully and safely compostable; or
• designed to be disassembled and re-manufactured into more high-quality product.
• Even if you sell a service you still use products and so do your customers.

What we currently call ‘recycling’ will one day be recognised as destructive ‘down-cycling’.

The Reality For Us As Consumers Is:

• We use the product, and
• we have buying power only if there is a green alternative,

BUT

for the majority of products we have little control over how things are

• made
• stored
• sold
• delivered.

Competitive Advantage In The 21st Century
In the new ‘regenerative economy’ profits will go to those who can avoid supply chain costs, – waste, damage, fuel, energy, quality, safety, labour – often considered part of business and passed on to consumers.

BUT

WHY pay for them in the first place, asks Leigh? She observes that:

• some large businesses are slow, cumbersome and reactive, BUT
• smaller businesses – the majority of businesses – have the flexibility and potential to adapt and profit from regeneration;
• Key principle – the application of small, local, smart solutions.

What leadership capabilities and what skills will we need to become effective innovators? Will it take 20 years or 5 years? The imperative is to get started NOW.

Businesses Committed To Regenerating Environment/Community Make Good Money

Smart businessowners are looking at their own businesses asking:

• How can I redesign it?
• Where are our new products, services and consumers going to be?

Leigh says:

“In the 21st century…there will be a new economic system where products belong to their manufacturer and the value of their service is leased to the consumer.

When the lease on your hydrogen-powered car expires, you will return it to the manufacturer to be remanufactured into a more efficient, safer, smarter vehicle. All components will be re-used, and the energy used to reprocess them will be fully renewable…

This new type of economics will take vast amounts of waste out of the supply chain and ensure consumers get high-quality services.”

What Does This Mean In Everyday Life?

There are no products only services eg: An international carpet tile company identified that its products provided services of noise reduction, good looks, warmth. They started to lease their product, not just sell it.

They now have a more even, regular cash flow. The carpet tiles belong to them, so they can now design them to be totally suitable for re-manufacture into more carpet tiles of the same quality.

What they’ve potentially invented is manufacturing with no raw materials.

Leadership Is The Critical Success Factor

What sort of leadership? NOT the ‘charismatic saviour-type hero’.

“Great leaders are those who get out of the way of their ego, and focus on creating a champion team to deliver their results. Empowering, inspiring and enabling a team are the key skills – this takes integrity, discipline and passion – it doesn’t need ‘personality’.”

A Bit About About Leigh

Leigh has great ‘quals’ …in addition to her coaching qualifications, she has a Graduate Diploma of eBusiness and Communication, an APICS Certificate in Production and Inventory Management, NLP Master Practitioner qualifications, a Graduate Diploma in Management Systems and a Bachelor of Arts.

In her ‘spare time’ Leigh is seeking a publisher for her ‘long version’ of Great Green Profit and she enjoys singing in an archipelago ‘random selection’ group that has a Swedish instructor!

You can contact Leigh
Mobile: +61 (0)417 124 910
Phone: +61 3 9737 9335 or
Email info@balance3.com.au