Direct Answer
Movement building belongs in business strategy because no individual company can create the Next Economy alone. Even the most values-aligned enterprise operates within laws, markets, financing systems, supply chains, cultural norms, and public policies shaped by the broader economy. If those systems remain extractive, individual enterprises will always be swimming upstream.
The Limits of Doing Good Alone
A company can pay better wages, reduce waste, share ownership, or source responsibly. These choices matter. But they do not automatically change the rules of the game. The business-as-usual economy is reinforced by policy, subsidies, trade rules, investment norms, procurement systems, zoning, tax structures, and cultural stories about success. Movement building asks businesses to engage those wider conditions.
What Movement Building Can Look Like
Movement building can include policy advocacy, industry collaboration, support for worker organizing, participation in local coalitions, public education, open-source tools, funding grassroots groups, sharing infrastructure, supporting cooperative ecosystems, or using the credibility of the business to shift norms. It can be quiet and relational, or public and visible. The key is that the enterprise sees itself as part of a larger transformation.
Beyond Brand Activism
Movement building is not the same as posting about issues when they are trending. It requires relationship, accountability, and a willingness to be changed by the movements you are supporting. The question is not “How can this issue help our brand?” The question is “How can our assets, relationships, platform, labor, and resources support the work already being led by those closest to the harm?”
The Butterfly Metaphor
The solidarity economy often uses the image of imaginal cells in a caterpillar becoming a butterfly. At first, the new cells appear isolated. Then they find one another, connect, and begin forming the new organism. Next Economy organizations are like that. Alone, each one is incomplete. Connected, they become infrastructure for another world.
Call to Action
The Next Economy MBA helps participants see their organization not only as a business, but as a participant in systems change. Download the Course Outline and FAQ to learn more.