Unleashing Business Potential: The Natural Step to Scalable Business Strategies with Backcasting

Do you have a repeatable and scalable method to build a business strategy for your small business?

Let us give you one.

In today's blog, we're exploring the transformative power of the "Natural Step" framework and its application through the strategic process known as "Backcasting."

Although the roots of backcasting are firmly planted in sustainability and CSR, they can be ever so slightly modified to benefit for-profit-businesses.

We're going to show you what the natural step method is, why it's so functional, and how you can use it for your business.

Understanding The Natural Step

The Natural Step is a sustainability framework that originated in the late 1980s, aiming to help businesses align with ecological principles while maintaining economic success.

Developed by Dr. Karl-Henrik Robèrt, this approach focuses on integrating sustainability into the core of organizational strategy.

The Natural Step framework is built on four core conditions:

1. Systematic Sustainability Principles:

• Ensure that substances from the Earth's crust are not systematically extracted and accumulated.

• Ensure that substances produced by society are not systematically increasing in the environment.

• Ensure that humanity is not systematically undermining the conditions that support life.

1. Substance Principles:

• Eliminate the use of substances that deplete natural resources or harm life-supporting ecosystems.

1. Condition Principles:

• Support systems that enhance the ability of ecosystems to sustain life.

1. Strategic Principles:

• Create conditions for a fair and efficient use of resources in order to meet basic human needs worldwide.

In addition to these four principles, there are 9 key success factors associated with the natural step method, defined below:

1. Leadership with sustainability as a driving force

2. A broad and deep commitment

3. The aim is set for full durability

4. The sustainability ambition is operational and concrete

5. Security that fosters

6. Value creation through sustainable development

7. System perspective and impact

8. Cross-border cooperation

9. Transparency for change

The 2 success factors that we're focused on with the natural step and backcasting method is creating sustainable leadership and transparency.

These 2 success factors can be most clearly extrapolated to creating a business strategy.

Before we dive into how we use the natural step method to create business strategies, let's cover the process that we use to actually create strategies - the Backcasting Method.

Backcasting Methodology

With the Natural Step as a foundation, businesses employ the Backcasting method to envision a sustainable future and then work backward to identify the steps needed to achieve that vision.

Let's take a look at what this method visually looks like.

Backcasting ABCD method

This strategic planning technique allows organizations to set clear, long-term goals based on sustainability principles and then develop actionable strategies to reach those goals.

Let's understand the 4 unique steps, the ABCD steps.

A) Awareness & Defining Success

B) Baseline & Current State

C) Creative Solutions D) Decide on your Priorities.

Step A) Simply think ahead and set a goal for your company. Ask yourself and understand "where do I want to be in 1, 3, or 5 years... What's my big goal for the future?"

In this step you're simply understanding that, based on your operations today, what does success look like in the future.

Step B) In this step, define where your business is today. Understand what state your operations are in, your needs today, the challenges that you face today.

Simply put, define your baseline state of operations.

Step C) Now is the opportunity to develop as many potential creative solutions as possible to move from point B (today) to A (tomorrow).

In this step, it's important to not restrict yourself with things like stakeholders, timelines, costs, resource restraints, and other constraints. Simply make as many potential creative solutions as possible.

Our tip is to get a pack of post-it notes and a whiteboard or blank wall, and simply write as many potential solutions that you can think of with no external or internal constraints.

Step D) In this final step, now it's time to create and set restraints or priorities. Figure out how fast you need a strategy implemented, who will be involved, what the cost restraints are, and what the strategic objectives and goals of your company are.

The goal here, as you see in the image, is to decide the best path forward based on the creative solutions and options that you've created for yourself.

Applying the Natural Step for Scalable Business Strategies

Based on the foundation of the natural step, and the method of the backcasting approach, how does this apply to business strategy?

We've outlined 4 key ways that backcasting and the natural step method can be appleid to creating, evolving, and scaling business strategies.

1. Visionary Goal Setting:

• Natural Step principles can help businesses establish visionary goals, and create a scalable, transparent and sustainable leadership team.

• These goals represent a sustainable future where your business operates harmoniously not only with environment and social sustainability, but also with stakeholders and clients.

1. Identifying Strategic Steps:

• Using the backcasting method, you can take this visionary goal (that may seem unattainable now) and identify the necessary steps and conditions necessary to achieve it.

• This involves a thorough analysis of you're practices today, and an exploration of alternative, more sustainable and scalable approaches.

1. Integration into Operations:

• These steps don't only identify an overall business strategy. They can be integrated into business operations to scale and develop strategies for specific parts of your business.

• For example, you can use this approach to develop production processes, make supply chain management more efficient, help the business adhere to sustainability principles, help businesses identify financial goals and strategies, and create goals for other operational objectives.

1. Continuous Evaluation and Adaptation:

• One of the strengths of backcasting is the ability to change targets (goals), and continually evolve the strategies to hit those targets.

• You can continually assess your progress towards the visionary goal and adjust strategies as needed.

• This iterative process ensures that your business remains adaptable and responsive to changing circumstances.

Benefits of Natural Step and Backcasting

This is a strategy that we've practiced, and we have demonstrated success with time and time again.

Lastly, we want to discuss the benefits of natural step and backcasting.

• Sustainability Integration

• With strong roots in sustainability, this can be an approach that helps businesses become more sustainable, develop CSR goals and guidelines, and help them develop sustainability practices in the business.

• Innovation and Adaptability

• The naturally iterative design and function of these methods together allow for continuous innovation and adaptability in the business.

• Stakeholder Engagement

• Through the steps of the backcasting method, stakeholders, staff, owners, and even clients can be engaged in the decision making process.

• Risk Mitigation

• The process of backcasting allows for decision makers and strategy specialists to identify potential risks in the business, and create mitigation plans around them.

By aligning strategic goals with ecological principles and adopting a forward-thinking approach, organizations can create scalable, effective, and enduring business strategies that benefit both the company and the planet.

If you're trying to develop a business strategy or operational strategy for your small business or growing business, reach out to our team at www.ascbusinessconsulting.com.