What is the progress economy?
The progress economy:
fixing the innovation problem
firing up growth
enabling the circular economy
At its heart is an evolved view of value. With value emerging from making progress towards a more desired state(s) – value-through-progress.

We look beyond today’s constraining view of exchanging cash for products that we think hold value (a goods-dominant logic). Building, instead, upon service-dominant logic and our insight of progress being the driver of value (co-) creation.
An actionable (no more innovation theater!) definition of innovation arises:
innovation: creating and executing new – to the entity, industry, market, or world – progress propositions* that offer some combination of:
i) helping progress seekers to make better progress
ii) helping progress seekers to make existing progress better
iii) reducing one, or more, of the six progress hurdles to engaging a progress proposition (lack of resource, adoptability, resistance, misalignment on continuum (enabling <-> relieving), confidence, and effort elsewhere)
whilst maintaining, or improving, the survivability of the progress helper
*supplementary resources, addressing an identified ‘lack of resource’ progress hurdle limiting progress being made or attempts started; comprising i) a proposed set of progress making activities (eg instructions, recipe, process, contract terms, etc) and ii) a progress resource mix – specific to the offering levels of 5 interchangeable skills and knowledge encapsulating resources (employees, systems, goods, physical resources, locations)
And it’s this evolved view of value that the Ellen MacArthur Foundation need when they say: ”one of the biggest challenges…to transition from linear to circular is that it requires…revisiting the very notion of value creation”.
As for firing up growth? To paraphrase Drucker:
the purpose of a progress helper is to attract maximum number of equitable service exchanges* with progress seekers – as such a progress helper has three, and only three, functions:
- marketing – continuous discovery of ever evolving progress sought
- executing – delivery of progress offered
- innovating – continuous innovation of progress offered towards progress sought**
*since service, not value, is the fundamental basis of exchange. Though service exchanges are usually indirect; enabled, and mediated in size and time, by service credits (of which, money, has been a successful implementation – money is not seen as value)
**though not always towards mainstream progress sought – examples here are disruptive innovation and blue ocean strategy
Innovation becomes the regular beat. And from this we identify the need for a progress owner role whilst removing artificial needs for ambidextrous organisations.

The progress economy explains innovation (incremental, radical, business model and more) and disruptive innovation, jobs to be done theory, agile, blue ocean strategy….
So, how are you going to help progress seekers get nearer their progress sought?
case studies
[under development – anything below is likely to be a placeholder / work in progress at the moment…]
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Blue Ocean Strategy
How Blue Ocean Strategy fits into the progress economy.
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Consultancies and the progress economy
Insights on/for consultancies we get from the progress economy
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Disruptive Innovation
Explore how disruptive innovation is seen through the progress economy lens
The four actionable layers
We build the progress economy on solid foundations and broad shoulders.
We’re informed by a foundation layer that includes service-dominant logic. This leads us to a set of fundamental definitions. And onto this we construct the following three layers:
- Strategic – What is progress?
- Operational – How is progress made?
- Determination – Who determines progress, and how?
And it all neatly plugs together, as shown below, to shine a light on how our world operates. Giving us the insights necessary for more systematically innovating, finding growth, and harnessing the circular economy.

Not shown is the foundation layer comprising service-dominant logic and definitions
Strategic layer >>
Operational layer >>
Determination layer >>
Foundation layer >>
The tools
It is within, and across, the four layers of the progress economy that we find a set of tools enabling a systematic hunt for innovation, growth and enabling circular economy thinking.

There’s no more struggling to find actionable insights in vagueness, such as the typical (vague) view that innovation is something new that creates value.
And the progress economy finally explains the why behind many current innovation theories. For example, Blue Ocean Strategy (Kim & Mauborgne), Design thinking, Jobs to be done (both Christensen’s and Ulwick’s views) and disruptive innovation (in Christensen’s true sense).