This article uses a workshop, organised by the think tank, Tomorrow's Company, to explore attempts to reimagine the role of business in development. In trying to envisage new ways of working between businesses and INGOs, workshop participants grappled with the tension between abstract thinking and the need to be practical and tangible. The challenges of imagining new ways of working together are highlighted in this article. Ultimately, it is the failure to visualise how change happens in a macro‐setting that is seen as the key stumbling block to progress.