Retail makes visible the linear mindset of the current economy, grounded in the operational logic of the supply chains that govern it (extract, produce, and discard). As the engine that keeps the cycle between extracting natural resources and discarding what we produce with them spinning at full speed, retail feeds our obsession with the new: new products, new campaigns, new stores, new technologies, and so on.

This much acceleration fuels the adrenaline that attracts passionate, restless doers, but that same speed breeds demotivation when details aren’t cared for, reflecting a lack of purpose in the industry’s strategic direction. The way we look at technology is a classic example. Retail’s enthusiasm for novelty brings a certain dazzlement with digital technologies, and seeking them out, learning about them, and applying them have, in many cases, become innovation goals in themselves.

Digital technology is a principle intrinsic to every movement and behavior of an era we’ve labeled the “Digital Age,” and it may or may not be tied to a step toward innovation for a retailer. As a means to innovation, technology has purpose when it’s tied to the common goal of every person, professional, and business: the transition from the current economy to regenerative economies, which are about the survival and evolutionary sustainability of all our lives, as human beings who belong to and inhabit nature. Put literally: without life, what’s the point of technology?

ILLUSTRATION OF THE REGENERATION PROGRAM THROUGH THE LENS OF THE PASSION ECONOMY, BY PAULA COSTA: regeneration represents a new era [digital, governed by consciousness], which calls for a new production logic: we are moving from the LINEAR chain (extract, produce, and discard) to the SYSTEMIC chain (non-linear, creative, and REGENERATIVE).

The regenerative economy mindset brings words like “transformation” and “reframing” onto the business agenda, reclaiming the core principle of innovation: the different, and not necessarily the new.

One step toward this movement is, for example, instead of creating a brand-new plan, focusing on evolutionary continuity: revisiting what already exists and questioning what can be improved, revised, dropped, or created from what has already been thought through – since we’re getting close to the big retail event in New York, NRF, how about thinking not only about the new cases and stores, but going back to the ones we’ve heard about in recent years to understand how they’ve been sustained and how they’ve evolved?

“Curiosity generates regeneration, moving us forward, reaching and even surpassing our goals, while a culture driven solely by goals leads to scarcity. The book ‘The Power of Moments’ cites research showing that companies focused on happy, satisfied customers (who represent abundance) achieve higher annual revenue growth than companies focused only on winning back unhappy customers (who represent scarcity)” – that was the insight from Ale Valdivia, co-CEO of Alice Wonders, after reading the introduction to “Japan & Regeneration,” a resource available at the end of this article.

Just as technology gets confused with innovation, many retailers still place sustainability solely within the scope of marketing.

We need to recognize that the change we started noticing through the “ESG” movement, including the transition from linear chains to regenerative chains, doesn’t only affect production or communication; in an integrated way, it also relates to how we consume, work, relate to one another, and more. It’s a change in the way we live and, therefore, in how the economy works.

As an inspiring starting point for this cultural transition, I’ve shared reflections from a recent trip to Japan, looking for references to the era of regenerative economies and to the application of the Passion Economy as an innovation methodology for helping organizations transition into this new era.

I invite you to access the full material here, covering all the topics below, whose titles alone already convey the values that underpin a culture of innovation through the lens of the Passion Economy and the mechanics of regenerative economies:

1. EDUCATION & RESPECT

• Community depends on belonging, and belonging nurtures and is nurtured by ownership
• A Vision of Purpose

2. COMMITMENT

• Constant Learning
• The importance of beauty in everyday life
• Timelessness
• Bonds with and honor for origins and traditions

3. SILENCE

• The ability to focus
• The multiple dimensions of the senses

4. ESCAPE VALVES

• The art of celebrating
• Playfulness and the unreal
• Surprise, fun, and delight
• Tolerance and acceptance of failure and mistakes

5. AWARENESS OF ENDINGS

• Past and future connected to the present
• Vintage culture, resale, and upcycling

6. IMMATERIALITY & SPIRITUALITY

• Reverence for and connection to nature
• Minimalism: less is more

7. RITUALS

• The logic of abundance
• Portals

8. CARE

• Recognizing the role each part plays in the whole
• Everything starts from the inside out
• Hospitality

9. BRAZIL [and our huge potential!]

• We don’t need to travel to move forward!

Paula Costa is a communications professional with an undergraduate degree in Advertising and an MBA in Retail Management from ESPM, plus complementary specializations in market intelligence, research, anthropology, futurism and innovation, and has studied at global institutions such as Hyper Island and Tel Aviv University. Based in Europe, she travels across different countries and attends art, design, technology, innovation, business and retail events, curating behaviors, movements and trends that feed the insights she shares in global innovation groups, as a LinkedIn Creator and supporter of Fashion Revolution Brasil, as well as in graduate and MBA courses at institutions such as ESPM, talks, workshops, mentoring and consulting on trends, strategic intelligence and innovation. Her work is grounded in the vision of the Passion Economy, the subject of the book she co-authored and the focus of the project she co-created, Inquietesi: a Passion Economy lab for the transition to the Digital Age, guided by Consciousness.

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