Degrowth: shifting purpose and employees to a better end.

As climate change becomes more real everyday we need to ask harder questions on the norms of our lifestyles. Many people are starting to see the need for degrowth, but business leaders are questioning how they do that and still add value to their consumer product experience. How do we refocus all those businesses to do better and grow less? It’s a big ask.

While consumerism has become more successful its characteristics have focused around improved features, that are consumer centric, delivered with convenience and speed. Accompanied by persuasive messages compelling the consumer to buy. The consumer experience, which is more curated at onboarding, reinforces of these emotional attributes that drive growth and over consumption.

A balanced consumer lifecycle

If we look at an ideal consumer lifecycle that is sustainable and circular we would see balance in the on-boarding and off-boarding experience. Where the emotional and engaging experience at on-boarding to show product benefits and encourage consumers to purchase, is balanced by emotional encouragement, support from the product producer. Who then bonds with the consumer on efforts to neutralise the negative impact of that consumption. Relieving societies burden of consumerism and shifting responsibility towards the consumer and provider.

A distorted consumer lifecycle

The efforts made over decades to drive growth has meant the on-boarding experience has grown enormously. Distorting a balanced consumer lifecycle. Along with teams, roles and techniques to deliver it. While off-boarding and the end of the consumer lifecycle been overlooked as a place to be responsible or innovate. Leaving a barren emotional wasteland at the end of the consumer experience. This buckles any balance between beginning and end. Often it leaves problems with the consumer and society to sort out. The consumer feeling abandoned and uninstructed. While societies mechanisms for resolving the fall out of consumption have been eroded by political timeframes and competing agendas.

Rebalancing the consumer lifecycle

Degrowth brings up some enormous and fundamental questions for business leaders regarding the shape and role of their organisations – ‘If we aren’t selling and growing, then what are we doing? And what do we do with all these people employed in product development, marketing, and innovation teams if they are not focused on sales and growth?’ We need businesses to shift attention to the off-boarding of the product experience. Those businesses need to think in different timeframes. Extending engagement with the consumer. Where they can be part of the solution.

Examples of this change could see phone companies supporting beyond the first cycle. Many phones can be resold, yet manufactures who sell the device, tend to disengage at the end of the first cycle. Breaking the original consumer/producer relationship and responsibility. Leaving it for the consumer to seek third parties who create new experiences around the following cycles.

Another example could be a holiday company that not only organises the experience of holidaying, but also helps over the following years with off-setting the impact – managing carbon, updating the consumer about progress on planted trees. Keeping the consumer engaged in the experience of the practicalities of mitigation and off-setting. Not just buying some random instant off-setting as part of the purchase experience.

It could even be a clothing company that not only tells the consumer about the ethical sourcing of product materials, but explains where the product waste will end its life, how it will get processed and make sure that people in clothing waste management have good healthcare.

Building experiences at the end of the consumer lifecycle is an opportunity space. A place to refocus teams and build great endings (you can read about Endineering teams and skills here). Degrowth can happen with longer term consumer provider engagement. Instead of growth businesses can add value, loyalty, build brand equity and purpose elsewhere in the consumer lifecycle that helps in neutralising the impact of consumption.