ABOUT

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Regenerating the Common Good

I am working to develop the ideas, frameworks, and institutions needed to help regenerate the Common Good — restoring the relationships between individuals, communities, organizations, nations, and the living world.

How do we rebuild the conditions that allow people, communities, institutions, systems, and the living world to survive and perhaps thrive – in this time of collapse?

My work sits at the intersection of regeneration, business, culture, technology, and social change. I am interested in the transition from extraction to regeneration—from systems that consume value to systems that create, restore, and protect the Common Good.

For me, regeneration is not simply about sustainability. It is about renewal. It is about restoring relationships, rebuilding trust, redistributing agency, protecting the Commons, and creating the conditions for life to thrive.

I believe the great challenge of our time is not about solving individual or institutional problems. It is transforming the systems that create those problems. It’s about redesigning our notion of leadership (our “global” culture is sick and needs radical transformation before we all go extinct!).

Democracy still matters.

My Journey: From Marketing to Regeneration

I began my career in marketing, strategy, and innovation. Over time, I became increasingly interested in a deeper question:

What is the purpose of business in society?

Marketing has always been about more than selling. At its best, marketing is the ability to shape ideas, influence behavior, and mobilize people toward a shared future.

The question I began exploring was:

What if we used the power of marketing to promote regeneration?

This became the foundation of my work.

With Philip Kotler, I explored the role of business in society through Brand Activism: From Purpose to Action (2018)—examining how companies can move beyond traditional corporate responsibility and use their influence to advance social and environmental progress.

This journey continued with REGENERATION: The Future of Community in a Permacrisis World (2023), exploring how communities, organizations, and societies can renew themselves in an era of overlapping crises.

In Wicked Problems: What can we do in this Time of Collapse (2025), we examined the interconnected challenges threatening humanity and the need for new forms of leadership, imagination, and collective action.

Building a Regenerative Movement

I am the co-founder of the Regenerative Marketing Institute (RMI), an organization dedicated to promoting regeneration through education, research, leadership development, and practical frameworks.

RMI exists around a simple idea: Marketing is not about promoting products. Marketing must promote regeneration.

Our work explores how organizations can move beyond sustainability toward regeneration—renewing communities, institutions, economies, and the living world.

I am also the co-founder of several initiatives that explore different dimensions of systemic change:

Wicked7 Project

The Wicked7 Project examines the interconnected crises shaping our future and asks:

What are the forces driving collapse, and what must we transform to create a regenerative future?

ActivistBrands

ActivistBrands explores how businesses can use their influence, resources, and creativity to advance the Common Good.

The question is: How can brands become forces for positive transformation?

FIXCapitalism

FIXCapitalism explores how we can redesign economic systems so that they better serve people, communities, and the planet.

The question is: How do we move from an economy built primarily on extraction toward one built on regeneration?

Together, these initiatives represent different pathways toward a shared goal: creating a future where human systems work in harmony with the living world.

The $300 House

I learned a lot from the $300 House Project. It’s where I first started working on wicked problems.

The Practice of the Common Good

At the center of my work is the idea of the Common Good.

The Common Good is the recognition that individual flourishing depends on collective flourishing. It means creating the conditions where:

  • every person can live with dignity,
  • communities can thrive,
  • organizations can serve a larger purpose,
  • institutions can earn trust,
  • and the living world can regenerate.

The Common Good requires a different model of leadership – regenerative leadership.

We need leaders who can:

  • see systems rather than isolated problems,
  • distribute power rather than concentrate it,
  • build agency rather than dependency,
  • protect the Commons rather than exploit them,
  • regenerate the capitals that sustain life.

This is the foundation of regenerative leadership.

Books

I’m the primary author of several books exploring business, society, and systemic change:

Wicked Problems: What can we do in this Time of Collapse (2025)
co-authored with Philip Kotler, the “father of modern marketing”

REGENERATION: The Future of Community in a Permacrisis World (2023) co-authored with Philip Kotler and Enrico Foglia

Losing Our Democracy (2020)
co-authored with Philip Kotler

Brand Activism: From Purpose to Action (2018)
co-authored with Philip Kotler

Inclusivity: Will America Find Its Soul Again? (2012)
co-authored with Michael Gordon

AND

Abstract Activism: The Art of Christian Sarkar (2017)

Beyond Business as Usual

My work also extends into art and creative expression. Through my art (if you can call it that), I explore the social, political, and ecological questions that shape our world. I believe imagination is not separate from transformation—it is one of the tools that makes transformation possible. Ideas change the world, but only when they inspire people to act.

The Future We Didn’t Choose

We’re living through a defining moment in the history of life on the Planet.

Collapse is NOT normal.

The systems built during the industrial age have created extraordinary achievements, but they have also produced deep inequalities, ecological damage, declining trust, and growing instability.

The next era requires a new imagination. We must move:

  • from extraction to regeneration,
  • from competition alone to cooperation,
  • from domination to stewardship,
  • from short-term thinking to responsibility across generations.
  • from global looting to cosmo-local communities

My work is dedicated to helping build that future.

The future is not something we simply inherit. It is something we create together.

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming >>

EXPERTISE

Christian is a leading authority in several areas:

  • Regeneration Strategy: community/place-based and organizational regeneration (see the Regenerative Marketing Institute)
  • Brand Activism: a growing movement where businesses promote the Common Good
  • Ecosystem Strategy: strategic insights and recommendations to help businesses and institutions tap into the power of ecosystemic influence and growth
  • Double Loop Marketing™: development and implementation of ecosystem-based engagement platforms
  • Thought-Leadership Diffusion: creating and spreading leading ideas in business and academia
  • Creative Problem Solving: developing creative capabilities for the future (for institutions and governments)

CLIENTS

Christian has worked closely with several leading businesses and individuals, including:

  • Business: Deloitte Center for the Edge, Strategyn, Physician Leadership Institute, Center for Transformation and Innovation, Knowledge Kinetics, Return on AI (ROAI) Institute, Penguin Books USA, Oracle, BMC Software, Price Waterhouse Coopers, Sun Microsystems, Red Hat Linux
  • Thought-Leaders: Philip Kotler, John Hagel, John Seely Brown, Stuart Hart, Anthony Ulwick, Tom Davenport, Marshall Goldsmith, Laurence Haughton, Larry Prusak, Vijay Govindarajan
  • Academia: Emory University, Thunderbird, Babson, UCLA, Dartmouth, Michigan, University of Houston, Harvard University, University of Vermont, Northwestern University
  • Start-Ups: Neural ID, Mezeo, Danube, Enterprise Informatics, Compliance Spectrum, Alertlogic, JME Software, Scalable Software, Neon Enterprise Software
  • Entertainment: Steel Pulse
  • Self-Help: The Work of Byron Katie
  • Non-Profit: Enterprise for a Sustainable World, Solar Electric Light Fund, International Fund for Africa, Partners In Health (Hold On [4 Haiti])

TALKS & PRESENTATIONS

“Regenerating Cities” – Panel at the Global Peter Drucker Forum 2023 (download PDF)

Regenerating Ukraine: A discussion with Philip Kotler and MIM’s Vyacheslav Pokotylo
A Great Distraction – you had to be there! (June 9, 2022)
Regeneration: The Future of Community – TEDxAthens (May, 2022)
The Wicked7 Project Kickoff – with Philip Kotler and the Wicked7 Working Group
April 1, 2021
“How Jobs to be Done Can Help Solve the Unmet Needs of Society” (with Anthony Ulwick)
March 31, 2021
Ecosystematic: A Multidimensional Process  to Navigate, Learn and Shape the Future
The Business Ecosystem Alliance
March 24, 2021
Brand Activism: From Purpose to Action (with Philip Kotler)
Web Marketing Festival, 2020 (Italy)
The New Age of Marketing: The Rising World of Ecosystems (with Alok Sinha and Sangram Surve)
Guts, Glory and Story
October 31, 2020
The Wicked7: Solving the World’s Most Urgent Problems (with David Sehyeon Baek)
Asia Productivity Organization
August 2020
5 Keys to Cross System Problem Solving (Panel with Hal Gregersen, Thomas Wedell-Wedellsborg, and Laurent Choain; chair: Sarah Green Carmichael) – Global Peter Drucker Forum 2019
Philanthropy 3.0: Lessons Learned from the $300 House
TEDxGateway (Mumbai), 2013
The $300 House: from blog to reality
Activate 2011, The Guardian (London)

SELECTED ARTICLES

ALSO

INTERVIEWS

MORE STUFF

I’m also the founder of Double Loop Marketing LLC, a strategic consultancy.  As the co-founder (with Philip Kotler) and editor of The Marketing Journal, I scour the world of marketing for new insights and next practices. I also founded Ecosystematic, an ecosystem strategy consultancy.

In 2021 I was named to the Thinkers50 Radar of global management thinkers primarily for my work on brand activism. Learn more at activistbrands.com >>

In 2025 my work on regeneration was recognized by Thinkers50 – along with the Regenerative Marketing Institute.

ART

My art is an important expression of my work – humans were meant to create, not consume. See: www.sarkarart.com

SOCIAL MEDIA >> Bluesky | LinkedIN | Instagram


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