This article is an excerpt from our research publication SJ3: The pathway to regenerative business. A Japanese version is available on Note.
The future employee
Companies change, and effect change, through their people.
Whether or not they think of themselves in those terms, employees are an organisation’s most powerful change makers, and an employee-centred approach is what accelerates transformation.
The message is clear: start with people. Because as it turns out, what’s good for your people is good for regenerative business.
Imagine a new graduate looking for their first job. The future is unclear — with climate change, global conflicts, and artificial intelligence among intersecting challenges that could impact their lives and careers.
They are looking for a company they believe in. For a sense of purpose in their work, with support for their wellbeing and growth, not just their financial needs. They’ve yet to prove themselves as change makers, but want to work in an environment where their ideas are valued and they can make a difference.
This means being seen and heard in their organisation.
Traditional vs regenerative
A traditional company is one pathway for these graduates — household names that pay well and are impressive brands on a resume.
When looking at these companies, graduates start to learn how they often reward seniority over performance, overwork teams, and have cultures of exclusion. Values that are misaligned to the expectations of their generation.
During interviews they interact with current employees who are unable to articulate a sense or purpose, place, or community. They’re disinterested in emerging technology, instead focusing on the company heritage and core products.
These companies are seen as huge machines. Expertly built, but impersonal and cold. Essentially business as usual.
Yet people still feel pressure to join these kinds of organisations based on brand name and status.
Contrast this with the regenerative business.
This is a company where employees talk passionately about the culture and impact they are having both inside and outside of work. They feel inspired to work hard, and are comfortable enough to contribute ideas no matter their role, department, or seniority.
Innovation isn’t an afterthought, but part of the core business model, continually designing and redesigning the company as well as its products and services.
Teams and individuals engage in reflective practices, sharing productive feedback that allows them to grow together. And leaders embrace their role as facilitators of this evolving organisation, making society and the planet key stakeholders in the company ecosystem.
This enables the company to adapt over time, growing while still feeling like a community. This notion of community is key, encouraging employee volunteerism and sustainable neighbourhoods where the company is located.
This expands to business partnerships, where competitors are seen as collaborators all working towards systemic change, lifting everyone together.
As a new graduate which company would you choose? And which feels closer to the future of business?
From scarcity to abundance
Businesses that want to empower these future employees and turn them into change makers should focus on the regenerative path.
This will lead to more human organisations that:
- Prioritise individual and collective wellbeing;
- Integrate purpose throughout the company;
- Develop an innovation mindset;
- Embrace their communities, and their identity as a community; and
- Identify systemic leverage points in the organisation and industry.
This isn’t a checklist of unrelated actions — the regenerative business is purposefully pursuing initiatives and actions that are synergistic.
It’s because employees are treated as humans in a community, and that they feel a sense of belonging and psychological safety, that innovation can thrive. It’s because failure is embraced as a path to learning that these companies can adapt, with fresh ideas that tackle real challenges. It’s because they see competitors as collaborators that they can envisage breakthroughs, partnerships, and coalitions.
This all links back to a collective and individual sense of purpose, which in turn fosters wellbeing. The resulting coherence is effectively a positive return on effort: you get more out than you put in.
This is the key point about the regenerative business, and why this new paradigm is so different.
While most companies talk about disruptive innovation and growth, most business is still typified as a zero-sum game, where competitors with finite resources fight for market share. Scarcity is a base assumption, which seems consistent with the decline in natural resources and Japan’s population.
Regenerative thinking is based on the belief that there is more than enough fertile ground when you have a dynamic living system, and that by creating positive conditions where this system can express itself, additional fertility is created.
This is how natural systems work, and applying this to business suggests an immense potential for prosperity, for all people and stakeholders.
While it may sound like the regenerative company needs more budgets across more departments to kickstart this change, the coherence of the solutions throughout the organisation means less external input is required, not more. Regenerative models yield more because of the dynamic interactions in the system.
Employees are the catalysts for this regenerative transformation. By starting with employee policies and practices — prioritising human connections within and outside the organisation, and creating the conditions for self-expression and fulfilment — any company can magnify their impact in business, communities, society, and the environment.
The key to this abundance is to be more human. Allow employees to be themselves and be part of a community, and a wider living system will grow.
By creating companies like machines, we’ve distanced people from each other. As artificial intelligence and other technologies change the future of work, we need to use this opportunity
to rebuild companies around more human, regenerative models, rather than making the same mistakes.
Being more human makes sense, because what’s good for your people is good for regenerative business.
Regenerative business in Japan
As companies across Japan continue to integrate sustainability into their strategy, the concept of regenerative business can be an even more complex and distant concept.
Any transition comes with resistance, but the risks of inaction — especially when considering climate change and other intersecting challenges — are far outweighed by the benefits of the regenerative business model.
Thinking and acting regeneratively means unlocking new sources of innovation, maximising the human potential of the workforce, aligning around a shared vision, harnessing the power of community, and optimising resources for impact.
It means living up to the full potential of the individual, company, community, and society — something Japanese businesses have intuited from long ago, with this interdependence already being part of the culture.
Drawing on the resilience and ingenuity that have driven Japan’s growth in the past, the regenerative mindset can further boost the country’s ability to thrive where resources appear limited.
This transformation has already begun, and the companies that act now — leading the change — will be the ones who capture the massive potential, shaping the future of business in Japan.
Fabric is a Strategic Design and Sustainability consultancy helping businesses move towards more innovative, sustainable futures. Based in Tokyo, we’ve been consulting with global and local companies since 2004. We have extensive experience bringing together design thinking, sustainability, and human insight to deliver good strategy for clients.
