Building Redemptive Businesses that Last

“If we are aiming for redemptive outcomes, then we are building for trajectory, not just velocity.” – Hannah Lau

At last year’s Center for L.I.F.E. Teaching Conference, Philip Yan and Hannah Lau highlighed a crucial gap in business strategy for Christian entrepreneurs. They observe that traditional business canvases, designed for “velocity” (rapid launch and sales), often miss the mark for those building for “trajectory” and “longevity.”

Their key points are:

• Failure Beyond Business Metrics: 90% of startups fail, often due to issues not captured by traditional canvases, such as a lack of clear direction, misaligned values, poor leadership, and unaddressed team culture issues. [4:13]
• The Problem with Traditional Canvases: Existing canvases are built to help a founder launch and sell quickly, not to build a business with lasting, purposeful impact. [4:42]
• A Lack of Redemptive Focus: Traditional tools lack the space to consider how a business can achieve redemptive outcomes or how it brings stakeholders along on its journey. [5:08]

To solve this, Yan and Lau propose the Redemptive Business Canvas, a tool designed to balance profitability with purpose. This unique canvas begins with a “Biblical lament” to ask what has broken God’s heart, using Vision, Mission, and Values as its starting point. It also includes dedicated sections for Systems, Team, and Management, acting as a true compass for a company’s journey. By systematizing the process of building Kingdom businesses, this tool makes redemptive entrepreneurship accessible to a wider audience, ensuring that businesses can achieve both financial sustainability and flourishing for all stakeholders.

Key Action Steps for Entrepreneurs:

1. Shift Your Foundation: Rather than starting with a problem and solution, use the Redemptive Business Canvas to ground your business in your core vision, mission, and values. This ensures you are building for “trajectory” from the very beginning.
2. Balance Profit and Purpose: Actively use the canvas’s “footprint” section to measure not only financial sustainability but also your redemptive impact and the flourishing of your stakeholders.

Key Action Steps for College Professors:

1. Integrate the Canvas into Curriculum: Utilize the Redemptive Business Canvas as a practical framework within entrepreneurial programs, accelerators, or incubators to provide a structured approach to building businesses that are both profitable and purposeful.
2. Use It as an Assessment Tool: The canvas offers a concise, holistic view of an organization’s health, making it an excellent tool for assessing student projects and providing constructive feedback that goes beyond typical business metrics.

Want more? Sign up for our the 2nd Annual L.I.F.E. Teaching Conference on November 6.