Erinch Sahan is an expert on making business work for good and is not to be missed during his Australian tour this October. Tickets are now available for Erinch’s public events in Melbourne and Sydney.
Although Erinch Sahan grew up in Sydney, he has spent decades abroad working across academia, civil society, government and business to bring genuine sustainability and long-term thinking to the business community that can build the economy we could have. He currently works to lead the Joseph Rowntree Foundation in their mission to align their £400 million endowment in support of a just and sustainable future.
Supported by The Next Economy, with help from partners at Paul Ramsay Foundation, WWF Australia, and Greater Melbourne Foundation, Erinch is returning to home soil this October to share his expertise, passion and lessons learned along the way. Ahead of his visit, TNE caught up with him to talk all things business and investment and how we can make sure that the business and investment community is a force for good, rather than ill.
The time for a fresh approach is well and truly here and Erinch is wonderfully positioned to bring this vision to Australia.
What have you missed about Australia since you were last here 14 years ago?
There’s a down-to-earth quality about Australia that I miss. I remember that sense of scepticism towards anything that presents itself as too high-and-mighty or ‘elite’. Some might call it tall poppy syndrome.
To me, this is about Australian culture being about not taking yourself too seriously and scrutinising hierarchies. It’s that sense of egalitarianism that I remember coming through in subtle ways.
I didn’t appreciate this dynamic when I lived in Australia, but do now miss this, along with the beaches, eucalyptus and food culture (particularly across the rich multicultural mosaic of suburbs I remember from across Sydney and Melbourne).
We have been exploring predistribution: the idea that we need fairer market outcomes by design, not just redistribution after the fact. From your vantage point in business design, where do companies have the most leverage to predistribute?
Our economies increasingly reward capital more than they reward labour, even where productivity has grown. As a result, I think we need to redesign for two objectives:
- Structurally better distribution of upside and profit: Workers and communities benefitting as co-owners and co-governors – as partners alongside financial capital
- Operationally better practices: Better wages and working conditions (especially through deeper collaboration with and empowerment of trade unions), and fairer pricing with suppliers and business partners (to enable distributive and regenerative practices across these business partners)
These can create a virtuous cycle, with better designed structures unlocking fairer practices and vice versa. And both together forge deeper partnerships for businesses, drive greater innovation and ultimately lead to more resilient businesses. It is about shared prosperity, purpose beyond extraction of value and true long-termism.
Worker cooperatives and community ownership models keep appearing as examples of businesses that serve place. You’ve seen these up close through the World Fair Trade Organisation (WFTO) and Doughnut Economics Action Lab (DEAL). What are some of the successes you have seen and what makes the difference between a cooperative that genuinely transforms a local economy and one that stays marginal?
Too often cooperatives and other shared ownership models become confined to industries, markets and contexts that have low potential for wealth generation. They are deployed where mainstream capital doesn’t want to flow and operate where margins are slim and commercial viability is an uphill climb.
This is often for good reason, as parts of the economy or market that are ignored by mainstream business and finance can often be vital for a community (e.g. a community shop, a care business that operates where there is high need but low profitability, or a business focused on skilling-up people who need the most support). Or often, these models are used in businesses that are beginning to deliver government services. These are valuable, often essential businesses.
But we need to spread shared ownership models to businesses with high growth prospects too. Imagine if all of Silicon Valley was dominated by businesses owned and governed like Wikipedia? Or if AI was developed through a platform cooperative or steward ownership structure? We could shape the businesses that will shape the world and ensure that the wealth generated is directed in service to life.
There are exciting examples of governments, businesses and investors doing things differently: but they’re often described as ‘niche’ or ‘exceptional’ – we call them ‘Lego wins’ as they’re building blocks of what’s possible. In your experience, what’s holding back the mainstream from adopting these models, and is that barrier shifting?
I find predicting the path to unlock a rapid expansion of distributive and regenerative models is extremely hard, and perhaps impossible.
- Is it through government policy that shifts the playing field – e.g. tax breaks to convert business ownership or procurement to genuinely favour such models?
- Is it through government regulation of the worst kinds of business practices to ‘level the playing field’ – through pricing of ecological and social harms, deep supply chain regulations, banning of practices that give extractive businesses a cost advantage?
- Or is it through pioneering innovations that demonstrate what is possible even in regulatory and financial systems that are stacked against such businesses?
I think the answer is all of the above – everywhere all at once. I think policymakers are emboldened by pioneering action that seems to be gaining momentum in the world of business and finance. It gives them cover against people making the claim that action is anti-business and ‘bad’ for the economy. And pioneers in business and finance are emboldened by a sense that policymakers are interested in a transformation of the economy, and policy-action is around the corner. They don’t want to be left high and dry if they act boldly.
A sense of inevitability is needed to shift structures and cultures. A narrative change. It builds slowly, until it reaches a tipping point of authentic and spreading belief that these ideas are not for the margins, but are beginning to sweep into the mainstream economy.
They are diverse, innovative and designed around the realities of what people need and designed within the realities of this living planet. How all this unfolds, how it is sequenced, and which actions lead to which change… well I don’t know. But I see how all of these trigger each other and put wind in the sails of the deeper narrative shift around how the world of business and finance could be and will be.
Tickets are now available for Erinch’s public events in Melbourne and Sydney.
Melbourne:
📅Date: Tuesday, 6 October 2026
🕰️ Time: Arrive at 5.45pm for 6pm-7.45pm
📍 Location: For Purpose Hub, Level 4/454 Queen St, Melbourne
🌍 Hosted by: The Next Economy and Greater Melbourne Foundation with special guests from Regen Melbourne and Social Traders
🎟 Tickets: RSVP here.
Sydney:
📅 Date: Wednesday,14 October 2026
🕰️ Time: 6-8pm
📍 Location: Blue Gum Hall, Yirranma Place, 262 Liverpool St Darlinghurst
🌍 Hosted by: The Next Economy and Paul Ramsay Foundation
🎟 Tickets: RSVP here
Erinch’s trip is generously supported by WWF, Paul Ramsay Foundation, and Greater Melbourne Foundation.