29/06/2018 13 Questions to Design a Holistic Business: Creating a “Business for Good”

Applause from CG Christian, Giselle Felix, and 5 others

Claudio D'Ipolitto
Oct 18, 2017 · 8 min read

13 Questions to Design a Holistic Business:

Creating a “Business for Good”
Is it possible to harmonize holistic practice with
entrepreneurial activity?

“A master in the art of living draws no sharp distinction between his work
and his play; his labor and his leisure; his mind and his body; his education
and his recreation. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his
vision of excellence through whatever he is doing, and leaves others to
determine whether he is working or playing. To himself, he always appears
to be doing both.” Lawrence P. Jacks

The Business Design Based on Mindfulness

My Mindful ♥ Business or the business design based on mindfulness
supports the holistic professionals on integrating the technical and

https://medium.com/@claudiodipolitto/13-questions-to-design-a-holistic-enterprise-creating-a-business-for-good-45fe66465225 1/10
29/06/2018 13 Questions to Design a Holistic Business: Creating a “Business for Good”

entrepreneurial dimensions of their holistic practice.

The method addresses the main di culties encountered in recognizing

and managing the “business side” of holistic activity, for example:

• Choose cooperate rather than compete

• Generate a di erentiated value related to what already exists

• Publicize my services by sharing knowledge

• Discover and delight new customers

• Better communicate the value I deliver

• Separate personal and business nances

• Develop a strategic thinking

• Seek economic sustainability in my holistic activity

• Overcoming prejudices about the business world

• Harmonize what I love and do well with what the world needs and
can sustain me.

Two complementary methods

Of the many methods that can address the above questions, we
highlight two that complement each other to help us feel and think or
rethink an enterprise aimed at generating quality of life: the business
canvas of the business model and the Ikigai mandala.

“Don’t Write a Mission Statement, Write a Mantra.”

 Guy Kawasaki

The Business Model Canvas

The business model canvas (Osterwalder, Pigneur 2017) is a simple
model that helps us visualize how various parts of the business
contribute to customer value creation (Figure 1).

https://medium.com/@claudiodipolitto/13-questions-to-design-a-holistic-enterprise-creating-a-business-for-good-45fe66465225 2/10
29/06/2018 13 Questions to Design a Holistic Business: Creating a “Business for Good”

Figure 1. The Business Model Canvas (Osterwalder, Pigneur 2017)

The canvas is a metaphor for “you draw the picture of your business”. It
is formed by 9 blocks. The blocks on the right will represent how needs,
desires, and opportunities of a particular segment of customers will be
met by your value proposition, which can be a product or service. It
also shows how we cultivate relationships with customers and through
which channels we deliver value to them. The left side shows how that
value is built: what activities are performed, with what resources, and
what partners. The bottom part shows what types of revenue are
generated in customer service and what costs are involved in the
production and delivery of the products or services.

Canvas is a snapshot of your “business model,” that is, it pictures a way

of delivering value to a group of customers and, in turn, earning a
living.

Ikigai
The Japanese word Ikigai does not have a direct translation in English,
but it incorporates the idea of achievement in life, being composed of
the terms iki, meaning life and gai, meaning value and merit (Mathews
2010). Essentially, ikigai means “reason for being” and is described, in
the culture of Okinawa, in Japan, as “the reason why you get up in the
morning”. Ikigai comprises both one feeling ful lled and performing a
work that generates well-being for others, as well as being able to see or
know the people served by your work. Every person has her ikigai,
although she is not aware of it. Denial of the ikigai, caused by an
external force, blockages or self-sabotaging can generate a sense of
emptiness or meaninglessness in life. This “raison d’être” is the source
of energy and determination, which leads some people to face

https://medium.com/@claudiodipolitto/13-questions-to-design-a-holistic-enterprise-creating-a-business-for-good-45fe66465225 3/10
29/06/2018 13 Questions to Design a Holistic Business: Creating a “Business for Good”

deprivation and take risks when exploring the pathways to their

personal mission. It is this kind of driving force that moves the Olympic
athlete, the political activist, the disruptive entrepreneur or the
innovative artist, in their saga of doing the unthinkable, against all
possibilities and independent of the opinions of others. For some
people, ikigai may manifest in less heroic activities, making them
experience ful llment while gardening, helping people in need, nding
a home for abandoned animals, publishing a public utility blog, nding
his cream team, learning to play an instrument or creating a
revolutionary project.

Ikigai is represented by a mandala that relates: what we love, what we

do well, what the world needs and what we are paid to do (Figure 2).

Figure 2. The Ikigai Model

So Ikigai combines the individual dimension of what makes my life

worthwhile with the social dimension of what I contribute to the world
and to the community. My ikigai can be centered upon one or more
focuses, either material or existential: family, work, religion, politics,
social projects, business, art, sport, fun, pleasure, and dreams in
general. Ikigai helps us to understand why many people who have

https://medium.com/@claudiodipolitto/13-questions-to-design-a-holistic-enterprise-creating-a-business-for-good-45fe66465225 4/10
29/06/2018 13 Questions to Design a Holistic Business: Creating a “Business for Good”

health, beauty, good work, money and a “good life” su er from the
perception that “something is missing.”

Connecting Ikigai to the Business Model

If ikigai is related to “purpose in life,” the business model is related to
the “purpose of the business.” Both deal with the “raison d’être” of the
entrepreneur as an individual acting in the world and with the “raison
d’être” of the business as an organization generating value.

Respecting their di erent philosophies and cultural origins, both

models lead us to question the “reason for being” of what we do.

“If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also
change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world
change towards him. … We need not wait to see what others do.”
Mahatma Gandhi

Research indicates that “people with a greater sense of purpose live

longer, sleep better, and have a better sex life.” They point out that
“purpose” reduces the risk of stroke and depression … it helps people
to recover from addiction or manage their glucose levels if they are
diabetics” (Schippers 2017).

When designing a business purpose statement, it is recommended to

nd a way to express the impact of the organization on the lives of
clients, students, patients — whoever you are trying to serve (Kenny
2014).

The purpose is related to the why of creating a business, to its reason

for being, to its essence, that then determines the decisions of what and
how to do in practice.

Connecting Ikigai to the Business Canvas helps to align the “purpose of

life” and the “purpose of the business” (Figure 3).

https://medium.com/@claudiodipolitto/13-questions-to-design-a-holistic-enterprise-creating-a-business-for-good-45fe66465225 5/10
29/06/2018 13 Questions to Design a Holistic Business: Creating a “Business for Good”

Figure 3. The life purpose orienting the business purpose

My Mindful Business: Integrating Business

and Mindfulness
Most holistic professionals already work with concepts and techniques
related to what has been called Mindfulness or Full Awareness.
However, many did not have, during their formation, access to
elements that help them think about their holistic practice from the
viewpoint of an activity that must sustains them, in the short and long
term, what in entrepreneurship, is equivalent to thinking on the
business side of their activity.

In addition to the Ikigai and the Business Canvas Model, seen above,
business mentoring employs other tools that help the holistic
professional understand who their customer is, what their needs,
desires, and potentialities are, how to set up a service or product that
combines quality with convenience, how to di erentiate your value
proposition from other existing o ers, how to think about your service
under the impact of new technologies and how to plan the evolution of
your business.

By combining coaching and consulting, the My Mindful ♥ Business

methodology supports the professional holistic to integrate the
therapist with the entrepreneur, since each patient is also a client in
search of a value proposition that meets their needs.

13 Questions and a Process

https://medium.com/@claudiodipolitto/13-questions-to-design-a-holistic-enterprise-creating-a-business-for-good-45fe66465225 6/10
29/06/2018 13 Questions to Design a Holistic Business: Creating a “Business for Good”

The 13 questions to be answered during the mentoring process, based

on the visual models of Ikigai and Canvas are:

1. What do you love (to be, to do, to dream)?

2. What does the world need?

3. What are you good at or can learn?

4. What sustains you or can sustain you?

5. Who are your potential customers and what are their wants, needs
or problems?

6. What value can you generate to meet the aspirations of your

potential customers?

7. How do you relate to them?

8. How do you deliver value in the form of services, products,

experiences?

9. What revenues do your services/products generate and

how/when do you receive them?

10. What activities do you carry out to generate and deliver value to
customers?

11. What resources (inputs, knowledge, e ort) do you employ in these

activities?

12. How much do these activities and resources cost?

13. Which partners can add resources or activities, reducing costs and
complexity?

In fact, these 13 questions are a subset of the many involved in creating

or reinventing any venture.

. . .

By starting the strategic thinking from Ikigai’s point of view, we place

purpose as the central axis of our holistic business journey.

By associating “what we love” with “what the world needs” and “what
we are good at” we discover our mission and can nurture it with our
passion.

https://medium.com/@claudiodipolitto/13-questions-to-design-a-holistic-enterprise-creating-a-business-for-good-45fe66465225 7/10
29/06/2018 13 Questions to Design a Holistic Business: Creating a “Business for Good”

By “seeking our sustenance” applying “what we are good at” to “what

the world needs,” we align our profession with our vocation.

From there, we can use the business canvas to detail how we can
generate that value that the world needs so much.

Our motivation can be summarized by the following:

“Just because life is ultimately meaningless doesn’t stop us searching

for meaning while we are alive. Some seek it in religion, others in a
career, money, family or pure escapism. But all who nd it seem to
stumble across the same thing — a thing psychologists call purpose”
(Burrell, 2017).

Learn more about My Mindful ♥ Business mentoring.

Gratitude.

Namaste

References
Burrell, Teal. A meaning to life: How a sense of purpose can keep
you healthy. New Scientist, Jan 25, 2017

Jacks, Lawrence P. Education Through Recreation. New York (NY):

Harper and Brothers; 1932.

https://medium.com/@claudiodipolitto/13-questions-to-design-a-holistic-enterprise-creating-a-business-for-good-45fe66465225 8/10
29/06/2018 13 Questions to Design a Holistic Business: Creating a “Business for Good”

Kenny, Graham. Your Company’s Purpose Is Not Its Vision, Mission,

or Values. Harvard Business Review, Sep 03, 2014.

Kawasaki, Guy. Don’t Write a Mission Statement, Write a Mantra.

http://ecorner.stanford.edu/videos/1172/Dont-Write-a-Mission-
Statement-Write-a-Mantra

Kawasaki, Guy. Make a Mantra. Guy Kawasaki’s 60 Second StartUp

Series

Mathews, Gordon. Finding and Keeping a Purpose in Life: Well-

Being and Ikigai in Japan and Elsewhere in Gordon Mathews and
Carolina Izquierdo (eds.), Pursuits of Happiness: Well-Being in
Anthropological Perspective, Berghahn Books, 2010.

Osterwalder, Alexander; Pigneur, Yves. Business Model Generation:

Inovação em Modelos de Negócios, Alta Books, 2011.

Schippers, Michaéla. IKIGAI — Re ection on life goals optimizes

performance and happiness, ERIM Inaugural Address Series Research
in Management, Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM),
2017.

Originally published at inovelab.net on August 16, 2017.

https://medium.com/@claudiodipolitto/13-questions-to-design-a-holistic-enterprise-creating-a-business-for-good-45fe66465225 9/10