Circular Canvas applied to Nouvelle Attitude and La Poste

We have seen the potential of the Circular Canvas in analysing the business models of firms, but what about its application in project management? We’ve chosen to use the example of La Poste and its Nouvelle Attitude partner to illustrate the way in which the Circular Canvas can be used to assess a firm, to uncover opportunities, and to prepare new projects within a company. The Groupe La Poste, which is France’s national postal service company, has a variety of missions and activities, so for the sake of clarity we’ll only be focusing on its postal service arm in France.

La Poste Circular Canvas early 2010s

The mission

“Serve the French people six days a week, to ensure post and parcels are collected and delivered throughout the country”

Key activities

Collection, sorting, transport and delivery of letters & parcels ⇒ Linear supply chain

Partners

Unions, vehicle wholesalers, maintenance network, insurers, intermediary transporters (aircraft carriers, trains), human resources, inclusivity hiring actors

impacts
- Positive – connecting individuals, helping businesses deliver products to customers, employing workers with lower work opportunities (unemployed for a long time, disabled people), strong commitment to gender equality
- Negative – pollution resulting from transport, paperwork & paper waste resulting from sorting
revenues/costs
- Revenues from clients, per delivery
- Costs associated with labour, insurance, fuel consumption, real estate (fulfillment centers, shops)

Resources

Natural resources – Wood (paper, cardboard), fuel (fossil and electric), steel & concrete (buildings), glass (buildings)

Technical resources – Vehicle fleet, sorting lines, warehouses, CRM software

Energy resources – Energy to power vehicles, sorting facilities which sort & store letters and parcels, and to power call centers & databases

impacts
- Positive – smooth organization and communication (sorting lines, warehouses CRM), delivering on its mission to provide universal postal service (human resources, vehicle fleet), company is already factoring in product life-cycle impacts right from the product design phase, its business players in the same area work together to optimise flows and trade or pool raw materials or waste
- Negative – pollution from fuel consumption & sourcing, pollution from energy consumption
revenues/costs – all those resources are priced at market values and none of them generate actual revenues for La Poste, except the human capital (possibility to attract new clients) and the CRM software (reduces drastically the energy and time consumed in communications)

Value proposition

Delivering parcels and letters in the fastest and least expensive way possible

Users and context

Individuals (sending personal letters and packages to other individuals/ sending document forms to institutions), businesses (shipping goods directly to consumers), institutions (serving documents to individuals – notices, subpoenas, certificates, etc.)

impacts
- Positive – helping the complex and interconnected modern society function, creating jobs
- Negative – encouraging the usage of virgin paper & cardboard
revenues/costs
- Diversified revenues stream due to the three different user segments and the variety of operations involved
- Costs from transportation, storage and labour

Next use

No next use of materials from envelopes, boxes, etc.

Distribution

Own distribution system + logistics partners

Impacts
- Positive – no positive impact
- Negative – production of waste + pollution from distribution already mentioned
Revenues/costs
- High costs – paying workers taking care of delivery, shipping costs
- Revenues – as distribution is at the heart of what La Poste is doing, their main revenue is generated from there

Analysis

La Poste’s 2010s business model needs to be analyzed in the context of the time. La Poste identified two challenges which were likely to impact its operations :

The environment and energy transition : in the wake of increasing global warming, growing scarcity of non-renewable resources, and the depletion of our natural ecosystems, french people are now expecting businesses to also provide positive environmental impact, while mitigating for their negative one.
Social inclusion : in the beginning of the 21st century, and especially after the 2008 financial crisis, social exclusion was rising and hitting increasingly diverse subsections of the population. Businesses are now also expected to deliver social value, and contribute to building a more equal society.

The various stakeholders of La Poste – key accounts, local authorities, the State, customers, staff, consumers… – expect the Group to respond to those growing environmental and social trends. Due to its sheer size and the key service the company delivers to the French population, it is duty-bound to become a leader when it comes to integrating environmental and social impact in its overall strategy. Making a profit will have to go hand in hand with maintaining jobs, protecting the environment and satisfying employees and customers.

To address the challenges raised by sustainability issues, the Group will have to:

exploit the full potential of its current logistics
rethink the way it services city centres;
improve the efficiency of its waste management processes
building a more inclusive workforce

As you can tell from the company’s 2010s Circular Canvas, La Poste follows a highly linear business model. The French Postal Service mission centers around bringing one element from one place to another. Plotting the company’s business model enables us to highlight the issue of paper and cardboard waste. The big question then becomes : How can La Poste transform this challenge into an opportunity? How can the solution designed by La Poste both provide positive environmental and social impact?

Noticing that paper was highly used in its operations, La Poste managed to turn this issue into an opportunity, and enter the paper recycling market. La Poste decided to partner with Nouvelle Attitude to use its current logistics network to better integrate circularity in its business model. The following Circular Canvas details the business model of La Poste following its acquisition of Nouvelle Attitude.

La Poste’s Circular Canvas following the acquisition of Nouvelle Attitude

The mission

Bringing regions closer together and supporting environmental transitions through our activity of delivering parcels and letters

Key activities

Collection, sorting and recycling of paper to be then delivered to factories using recycled fiber

Partners

Local employment centers, factories using recycled fiber, unions, vehicle wholesalers, maintenance network, insurers, intermediary transporters (aircraft carriers, trains), human resources, inclusivity hiring actors (Pôle Emploi…)

Impacts
- positive – recycling and reusing paper thus reducing waste; providing more raw materials for factories using recycled fiber, hiring workers from disadvantaged employment groups (either unemployed for a long time, asylum seekers…)
- negative – pollution from transport
Revenues/costs
- Revenues from selling recycled paper to factories
- Costs associated with labour, machinery, warehousing and transport (to be noted the last two were already part of La Poste’s operations) -> but leveraging the current logistical network of La Poste helps decreasing costs

Resources

Natural resources – metals (machinery), steel & concrete (facilities), human resources

Technical resources – machinery, transport vehicles

Energy resources – energy needs for facilities and transport (last one already part of La Poste’s operations), reducing and compensating for 100% of emissions

Impacts
- Positive – sharing some energy resources with the existing structures of La Poste
- Negative – pollution from sourcing of materials, pollution from transport
Revenues/costs – all the resources consume cash

Value proposition

Offering factories a cheap and reliable source of recycled fiber while helping boost employment of unskilled workers & offering a paper-waste management service to companies on top of its current delivery service

Users and context

Diverse range of end purposes, but all users are industrial customers

Impacts
- Positive – helping industries source more responsibly, rising employment in the social environments, getting employees to recycle at work
- Negative – no negative impacts
Revenues/costs
- Revenues from industrial consumers for providing raw materials
- Costs incurred from labour and labour training

Next use

Once La Poste collects business paper and cardboard waste, it brings them to recycling factories such that the paper can be given a “second life”. The recycled fiber, after being turned into a new recyclable product, can be once again recycled for up to 7 times.

Distribution

Own distribution system shared with other branches of La Poste + preexisting logistics partners

Impacts
- Positive – no need to set up new logistics, “ride-sharing” of materials alongside letters and packages
- Negative – GHG emissions from existing transportation, but adding the recycling offering does not increase significantly those emissions
Revenues/costs
- Costs of delivering used papers to recycled factories
- Synergies in cost-sharing

The updated version of the Circular Canvas shows that La Poste was not only able to tackle a considerable environmental challenge, but also that by leveraging its current logistics network, it managed to create a new avenue for revenues.