From Niche to Necessity: The Circular Economy's Strategic Moment

Why It Matters

The reframing of circularity as a business imperative signals that firms must redesign operations to secure materials and reduce exposure to supply shocks, or risk higher costs and interrupted production. Early adopters of circular strategies can gain competitive advantage by stabilizing input supply and lowering long-term procurement risk.

Summary

Speakers argue that recent shocks—trade frictions, geopolitics and supply shortages—are no longer episodic disruptions but structural shifts that are restoring economic power to physical assets and supply chains. That return-to-physicality, highlighted by shortages in critical minerals, GPUs and other hardware for data centers, makes resource access a core strategic concern for firms. As trust in globalized supply chains frays, circular-economy approaches—reuse, repair, remanufacturing and material recovery—are moving from a sustainability niche to board-level strategy. The guests say companies are adopting circular models not just for impact but because they offer resilience and clear commercial value amid tightening supply constraints.

Original Description

Trade wars, resource shortages, and the AI-driven scramble for critical minerals are exposing the fragility of our current economy. And for businesses still operating on a linear model, the vulnerabilities are becoming impossible to ignore. The global economy isn’t just being disrupted, it’s being restructured.

In this episode, Seb is joined by Julia Binder, Professor of Transformation at IMD Business School, and Manuel Braun, entrepreneur and co-author of The Circular Business Revolution, to explore why circularity has moved from the sustainability agenda to the boardroom.

They discuss:

Why today's disruptions are structural, not episodic, and what that means for supply chains

How the circular economy offers a direct answer to resource dependency and geopolitical risk

The shift from an impact case to a business case, and how to have that conversation with your CFO

What companies like Hilti are doing differently, and what executives can act on tomorrow

Mentioned in this episode:

IMD circular value creation courses for leaders: https://www.imd.org/sustainability/cvce/creating-value-circular-economy/

Material Advantage: How circular strategies drive business value: https://www.imd.org/ibyimd/innovation/material-advantage-how-circular-strategies-drive-business-value/

Circular Business Revolution book: https://www.imd.org/research-knowledge/books/the-circular-business-revolution/

Startup landscape: https://www.circular-republic.org/insights/circular-startup-landscape-2026

00:00 - 01:07 Intro

01:07 - 05:23 How is the world changing, and what's next?

05:23 - 08:15 How is this reflected in the digital world?

08:15 - 11:02 Does the linear economy lend itself to globalisation?

11:02 - 14:46 Were we ever in a globalised economy?

14:46 - 18:02 Moving from an impact case to a business case

18:02 - 23:36 The competitive advantage of circularity

23:36 - 27:57 What can organisations start doing differently?

27:57 - 28:50 Outro

#podcast #geopolitics #criticalminerals

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