Net Zero Business Models

13THE THREE DOMAINS OF SYSTEMS THINKING

“Decarbonization needs to take place across the whole economy and it is something that needs to be done by all of us, not just by oil and gas companies, because everything relates to everything else.” ¹

—Lord John Browne, Chairman, BeyondNetZero

Companies need the right leadership to achieve net zero. The right leadership for a Pathway One company may not be the right leadership for companies in Pathway Two, Pathway Three, or Pathway Four because those Pathways have net zero transition plans with tougher challenges that require more complex strategic leadership capacities. The right leadership has the systems‐thinking capacities appropriate for the chosen Pathway and the skills to lead a commercially successful enterprise.

The transition to a net zero economy requires leadership with three distinct domains of systems thinking: operational, business systems, and global systems. The domains progress through increased levels of complexity for strategic planning that have increasingly complex problems to be solved, strategic decisions to be taken, and more elements, subsystems, and industry ecosystems to be integrated together. The domains progress to transcend and include the systems‐thinking capacities of the prior, less‐complex domains (see Exhibit 13.1).

EXHIBIT 13.1 The three domains of systems thinking Source: FutureZero

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