Can we make the planet a stakeholder? A Conversation with Mirjam Pfenninger

Mirjam sees herself as an incubator preparing caterpillars to become butterflies—holding a safe space where transformation can happen before students are ready to fly. Having grown up close to nature, she's evolved from human-centered design to planet-and-human-centered approaches, and she's not afraid to challenge conventional tools. When the Business Model Canvas wasn't enough, she and her colleagues created the Value Creation Canvas. But perhaps most radically, Mirjam forces her students to include an additional stakeholder in every project: the planet itself. What are the planet's jobs to be done? What are its pains and gains? In this episode, we explore what it means to call students "preneurs"—leaving space for entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs, and commonpreneurs alike—and why having fun as an educator matters just as much as transformation.Key themes: Planet as stakeholder, transformation as metaphor, value creation canvas, preneurship, safe space for chang