Beyond Circular Thinking: Oscar Di Montigny Introduces the Spherical Economy

The linear economy, take, make, dispose, powered the industrial revolution and scaled global productivity. But it also depleted ecosystems, widened inequality, and left behind a trail of irreversible waste. In response, the circular economy emerged: a system designed to reduce harm by closing the loop, reusing, recycling, and regenerating.

Yet Oscar Di Montigny, author of A New One – Journey to the Last Secret Place, sees this as only a partial solution. While circularity helps us mitigate damage, it still operates within segmented logic, focused on efficiency, not empathy. Oscar believes we must move beyond lines and circles and think in spheres. 

“The world doesn’t operate in lines or loops—it lives and breathes in spheres,” he often says. The Spherical Economy® is not only sustainable, but it is also integrated, inclusive, and inspired by the interconnectedness of life.

Linear Logic: Growth Without Regeneration

The linear model was born in a time when resources seemed infinite. It valued speed, scale, and profit above all else. Companies were rewarded for how fast they could extract, produce, and distribute. Innovation meant doing more, faster, and cheaper.

But this short-term growth came with long-term costs. Ecosystems collapsed. Social inequality grew. The climate crisis accelerated. Linear logic produced winners, but also billions left behind. It gave rise to siloed systems that operated without accountability to the whole.

As Oscar often reflects when describing this model is one of separation—a worldview where business, nature, and humanity exist in isolation. And while it may have been suited to an earlier era,  it is no longer viable in a world that demands conscious interdependence and collective responsibility.

Circular Economy: Closing the Loop

The circular economy arrived as a revolutionary upgrade. It proposed a loop instead of a line. Designers and companies began to think in lifecycles. Waste became a resource. Products were made to last, to be reused, to regenerate.

This was a powerful shift. It brought us concepts like cradle-to-cradle, biomimicry, and regenerative agriculture. It emphasized responsibility, systems thinking, and resilience. Circularity reintroduced consciousness into capitalism.

Yet even circles have limitations. They are closed systems, often focused on function, not feeling. They optimize material flows, but not always human outcomes. As Oscar puts it, a circle may eliminate waste, but does it elevate meaning? Does it center the soul, the story, and the symphony of all life?

Spherical Thinking: Interdependence and Integration

A sphere is different. It is not just circular, it is multidimensional. Every point touches every other. It allows for harmony, complexity, and collective growth. Spherical thinking reflects reality as it is: nonlinear, relational, and alive.

Oscar’s concept of the Spherical Economy® integrates innovation, sustainability, and human security. It recognizes that we don’t live in isolated sectors we live in shared systems. The health of one affects the health of all.

In a spherical model, technology is not just a tool. It’s a trustee. Profit is not a goal it’s a byproduct of purpose. Brands are not built for consumption, but for contribution. It invites companies to design economies that mirror ecosystems: dynamic, adaptable, and deeply interconnected.

Oscar describes this as a move from the mechanical to the musical. From fixed processes to living principles. From function to flow. And it requires leaders who don’t just engineer value, but who embody values.

Designing Economies That Breathe

It’s no longer enough to reduce harm, we must regenerate good. It’s not enough to sustain: we must synchronize with the living systems of humanity, nature, and the soul.

The Spherical Economy® is not just a market model—it is a map for meaning, one that encourages both personal and collective evolution. It is rooted in gratefulness, measured through well-being, and designed for holistic human flourishing.

Oscar Di Montigny, creator of the Humanovability framework, calls is not patching the old but pioneering the new. To move from scarcity thinking to shared abundance. From fragmented outputs to holistic outcomes. From separation to synergy.

“We’ve built economies that extract, and economies that recycle,” says Di Montigny. “Now we must build economies that breathe.”

 Spherical economies. Economies that see the whole, serve the whole, and sustain the whole.