The response to climate change for example, considering the concept of sustainability, is lagging. Meaning, current Regulation is only limited to slowing the impact of climate change down with an aim of not making the current situation any worse. The circular economy (CE) is a systems solution framework that tackles global challenges like climate change, biodiversity loss, waste and pollution and regeneration. The application of CE practices relies upon the deployment of systems thinking, However the effective deployment of systems thinking across the circular economy is only limited to simple ad-hoc interventions. This paper conducts a systematic literature review (SLR) of readiness frameworks that assess the effectiveness of the deployment of circular economic interventions in relation to corporate goals. That includes the effective deployment of systems thinking across the discipline of Asset Management. This SLR differentiates itself from others because it identifies a number of research gaps and proposes a simple concept of a readiness scale that can be used to measure and determine an organisation’s or network of organisation’s circular economic readiness, being the organisational capacity to carry out planned business activities to fulfil business strategy and planned objectives. This includes incorporating emergent values created from the deployment of complex systems thinking practices. As this research is still a work in progress, this paper does not aim to present a full readiness framework; rather, it presents a progressive step towards the development of a simple readiness scale which will serve as the basis for a holistic CE readiness framework.

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The strength of design is that it brings new perspectives - often referred to as ‘out of the box’ thinking. However, an attitudinal and methodological strength need not render the designer humble in systems-based business knowledge that improves the prospect of ideas being carried through to implementation. Systems thinking as a discipline offers designers a way to model and understand how a business works, from its processes and power structures to its people and underlying architecture. This paper proposes an incorporation of key system thinking tools including; Soft Systems Methodology, Business Architecture and Viable Systems Modelling into the design process to develop what we term business empathy. The paper contributes a system thinking perspective to an increasing body of literature regarding design innovation.