For entrepreneurs, the challenges of building a business are already vast – from market trends and fierce competition to financial risks and constant adaptation – imagine adding another critical layer: creating businesses that thrive financially and prioritise the well-being of people and the planet. This is the world of Enviu, and we thrive in such challenges by embracing the complexity of building ventures that stand for something more than just profit. So how can you – like us – strike a balance between people and the planet when building ventures?
Introduction: Why Balancing Impact and Profit Matters
In a world facing climate change, social inequality, and other pressing challenges, businesses have the opportunity—and responsibility—to drive change. At Enviu, we believe in creating ventures that go beyond profits to address the core of these challenges. But striking this balance isn’t easy; it requires a careful blend of purpose, strategy, and innovation.
This is the journey of Enviu’s venture builders. In the past 20 years, we have entered unknown territories, through programs tackling issues like textile waste and food security, we create solutions that aim to make a long-lasting impact while also standing on solid business ground.
Human-Centered Design: Putting People at the Heart of Impact
Designing for impact means designing for people,” says Pratheek.
Pratheek is a seasoned entrepreneur (and Venture Builder) with 11 years of diverse experience spanning corporate jobs, non-profit landscapes, and the vibrant world of social entrepreneurship.
Human-centered design is a guiding principle at Enviu. For us, this means listening to communities and designing solutions that fit their needs and realities. Pratheek, one of our venture builders, embodies this approach. He spends time on the ground, interacting directly with those affected by the issues he’s working to solve. This practice goes beyond market research; it’s about building empathy and understanding that turn abstract problems into concrete, actionable insights.
When we prioritize human-centred design, our ventures become more than just businesses—they become catalysts for meaningful change.
Pratheek in conversation with the stakeholders at BharatTex 2024
The Balance Between Purpose and Profit
Tharun, on the other hand, is a Venture Builder who is currently building reTex (a venture focused on an innovative recovery ecosystem for institutional waste). He transitioned from a conventional business to an impact-building business. The shift from the tech industry and focusing on profit to working on projects focused on climate change and other pressing global issues has been a transformative journey for him.
Our goal is simple: build financially sustainable businesses that make a real impact.”
Balancing impact with profitability can be a challenge. The pressure to generate revenue can tempt businesses to cut corners on social impact, while a purely idealistic approach might ignore financial reality. At Enviu, we keep purpose and profit aligned by treating impact as a core business strategy.
Tharun explains it best:
“If a business isn’t built to sustain itself financially, its impact will be short-lived. At Enviu, we see profit as fuel for greater impact. Our ventures aren’t just aimed at solving problems—they’re built to sustain and grow, bringing even greater change over time.”
This balance helps us keep our ventures on track, ensuring they’re resilient and impactful.
Thinking Long-Term: Systemic Change Over Short-Term Wins
One of the unique aspects of Enviu’s model is our focus on systemic change. Unlike businesses that look for quick wins, we’re in it for the long haul. Venture Builder knows that real impact means addressing issues at their roots. This approach involves collaborating with stakeholders, from local communities to large corporations, to build ecosystems that support sustainable change.
‘Our goal is clear: to create ventures that not only succeed financially but also make a tangible impact on the most pressing issues.’ says Tharun , Venture Builder, Enviu
Enviu’s ventures are carefully designed through stages, from ideation to scaling, ensuring that we’re creating solutions that can address the root of each problem and drive systemic change. “We are actively involving various stakeholders, including intrapreneurs and other partners, fostering an ecosystem view, which is very exciting,” he quotes.
As you can see, navigating the delicate balance between impact and profit is both challenging and crucial.
Tips for Entrepreneurs: How to Balance Impact and Profit
In the impact space, it’s all about failing fast, embracing feedback, and applying human-centred design principles. Here are some tips on how to keep focus:
- Design for Customers: Create solutions that directly address customers’ pain points. A hands-on approach allows you to gather valuable insights, observe real-world behaviours, and gain a deep understanding of the problems at hand.
- Human-Centred Design: Empathising with stakeholders and gathering feedback through human-centred design principles is extremely valuable. This process cannot be confined to an office setting; it requires being on the ground, immersing oneself in the real-world context, and actively engaging with the people you aim to work with.
- Primary Research Matters: Conduct empirical data gathering through direct engagement and on-the-ground research. This empirical evidence serves as a solid foundation for your decision-making process, enabling you to make informed choices about which ventures to pursue, how to design and refine your solutions, and how to effectively address the unique needs of each market.
- Focus on Unit Economics: Ensure solutions address critical global issues while standing on solid financial ground. Addressing cost efficiency is crucial before sustainable solutions can be effectively implemented. This approach allows you to create meaningful change while keeping a strong business foundation.
- Embrace Failures and Feedback: Understand that failures are inevitable. Use them as opportunities to learn and iterate and do not hesitate to pivot or abandon an idea if it is not working. Willingly pivot or abandon non-working ideas to avoid wasting resources.
In the end, building businesses for people and the planet is not just a noble aspiration but a call to action. A commitment to shaping a future where profit and purpose coexist harmoniously. This venture-building journey will pave the way for a new paradigm of entrepreneurship – one that transcends boundaries and leaves a lasting impact on the world.
More about Enviu
Want to learn more about our Ventures? Follow us on Linkedin or get in touch with tharun@enviu.org.
