Business Model Design and Innovation

Business Models with an Impact beyond $

2008-09-28T23:01:00.012+02:00

We are living in exciting times. Some entrepreneurs involved in business model innovation are not only seeking for financial returns, but are also aiming at achieving social, development and environmental returns. In other words, money and fame are not their only motivators. They want to have an impact. What is interesting is that they are aiming at combining financial AND social success. These entrepreneurs try to prove that these two are not necessarily contradictory.

There are are a couple of interesting business models out there that I follow with quite some fascination. Grameen Phone is a telecom company founded by Iqbal Quadir, that has brought connectivity to rural areas in Bangladesh. What is interesting about their business model is that they partnered with the world famous micro finance institution Grameen Bank to exploit synergies.

I also very much like the business model of MyC4, which allows you and me to make loans to small businesses in developing countries. This means that I can diversify my investments away from the unstable global equity markets towards uncorrelated small businesses in developing economies. I make a return on my investment, while helping boost development. Really exciting.

I am very much a believer in the fact that you can do good while doing well. This is not about "giving back", but about creating value while making a difference. Since this is an area that I'm interested in I decided to help run a workshop on the topic in London this coming Thursday. Check out "Disruptive models: The art and science of VISUAL BUSINESS MODEL DESIGN for breakthrough social innovation" if you are curious (or sign-up if you are in London).

See you there!

45 min Keynote Video on Business Model Innovation

2008-09-17T20:14:00.005+02:00

Below a free goody: A video of one of my latest keynote talks in the Netherlands at Media Plaza. 45 minutes on business model innovation. The audience was from the media industry, which is undergoing quite some transition.

Enjoy the video (and sorry for the sound problems...):

Drawing your Business Model: cooperation with XPLANE, the visual thinking company

2008-09-16T23:48:00.008+02:00

I've always been an admirer of the work of XPLANE, the visual thinking company, and its founder Dave Gray. So I'm quite excited to announce that we are now collaborating on visualizing business models. I will speak about the topic at a workshop organized by XPLANE on September 30th in London. The overall theme is "Thinking Visually to Tackle Business Challenges"(flyer).

Find the first XPLANE sketch of how a visualized business model could look like on slideshare:

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: dave xplane)

The XPLANE workshop in London promises to be very interesting. They will apply a creative and innovative approach to problem solving with participants. Personally, I am a firm believer in visual thinking and apply it in all my work. If you want to start learning about this I think the XPLANE event is a good place to start. Workshop goals are:

Understand the meaning and value of visual thinking
Use a creative and innovative method to solve business challenges
Use visual tools to help you generate, evaluate and organise ideas
Learn how to use them to contextualise, prioritise and harness change
Extend these new techniques and methodology to your team

Find out more about the event in their flyer and if you're interested subscribe on eventbrite.

On XPLANE's website you can also find a multitude of examples of their work. Below just one case study (pdf) that illustrates what they do:

Interview at Mediaplaza Event in Netherland

2008-09-14T20:06:00.004+02:00

I'm just back from giving a keynote at a conference in the Netherlands and Ireland. The first one was about new business models in the media industry and the second one was Ireland's big innovation conference that takes place every two years.

Here a video interview with Dutch media-blogger Erwin Blom and below the slides I presented at the conference in the Netherlands (video recording will follow).

150 slides for 45 min. of a packed talk:

Mediaplaza event \'08

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: media industry)

Long Tail Business Models

2008-09-05T23:44:00.002+02:00

In today's blogpost I'm sharing a couple of reflections on long tail business models. It is be part of the upcoming book in a section that illustrates some popular management theories & concepts through the business model canvas.

Enjoy the slides:

Long Tail Business Models

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: innovation design)

you can download the slides on slideshare.net:
http://www.slideshare.net/Alex.Osterwalder/long-tail-business-models-presentation/

What the Web has done for me...

2008-08-20T22:42:00.009+02:00

I thought this anecdote about how the Web has worked for me might be interesting to you, because this year I am starting to fully reap the benefits of the opportunities that the Web offers freelance thinkers and entrepreneurs like myself.

4 years after launching this blog I can now earn a living from the work generated from this site (i.e. workshops, conference talks and advice). More interestingly is, however, that my approach to fostering business model innovation is starting to be used throughout the globe. This might have been less surprising had I written a book with Harvard Business School Press or had I been professor at a business school like Wharton. Yet, neither is the case. The popularity of my work has mainly come from my web activities...

Now I'm not writing all this to brag. After all, the reach of my work is still absolutely small-scale and I still have a long way to go to get anywhere near the impact levels of thinkers like Henry Chesbrough, John Hagel or even gurus like Gary Hamel or C.K. Prahalad. I'm writing this to show that business concepts that stick with users can now reach a global audience without going through the traditional channels like top publishing houses and Ivy League Business Schools.

Here are the ingredients that made the Web work for me:

I write 1-2 posts per week (a bit less at the moment), which is the equivalent of about 2-8 hours time investment
Almost all I think, write and do is available for free on my blog. E.g. most of the slides I present at conferences are available on my blog (with a little time lag).
I pay attention to getting my blog well referenced in Google. Try googling the expression "business model innovation".
I got my work and thinking referenced on Wikipedia.
I posted a video recording of my first well paid speaking engagement online. This led to new speaking engagements because people could see me in front of an audience.

The results are the following:

My blog now has 20'000+ pageviews/month (growing steadily)
780+ blog feed subscribers (RSS) follow my postings
I am starting to get high profile conference invitations (alongside gurus like Henry Chesbrough and Michael Porter)
My business model canvas is being applied in places I would have never dreamed of

Paradoxically, I am now writing a book to reach the next level of impact. However, intuitively I know that the book can only succeed if it embraces the Web in new and innovative ways. It will be quite a challenge to reach the world without the marketing might of renowned publishing house...

Your recommendations and insights are highly welcome...

Up-coming Business Model Innovation Workshops & Events

2008-08-10T14:42:00.017+02:00

The next few weeks and months I will give some open workshops and will be participating in a couple of events. It would be a pleasure to meet you there! Besides that I am doing a series of private events for corporations (don't forget you can hire me ;-)

Open Workshops

24 Sept. 2008: Amsterdam, Netherlands. Venue: ULURU. Business Model Design & Innovation Workshop (sign-up / few seats remaining)
10 Oct. 2008: New York, US. Venue: Center for Architecture (sign-up)
29 Oct. 2008: Amsterdam, Netherlands. Venue: ULURU. Business Model Design & Innovation Workshop (sign-up)
8. Oct. 2008: Toronto, Canada. Venue: Rotman School of Management. Business Model Design & Innovation Workshop (sign-up) & separate 1h conference talk (sign-up)
Nov. 2008: Kigali, Rwanda (to be confirmed).
Nov. 2008: Cape Town, South Africa (to be confirmed).

Talks@Events

10. Sept. 2008: Utrecht, Netherlands: Media Congress (web)
11 Sept. 2008: Dublin, Irleland: Innovation Forum 2008 (web)
16 Oct. 2008: León, Mexico: Innovation Event Tecnológico de Monterrey

Unfortunately, I am not present in Asia in the next couple of months. Maybe a local entrepreneur with a strong network sees this as an opportunity to invite me there...

Slideshare Contest: Why Business Models Matter

2008-08-08T08:59:00.005+02:00

I finally succeeded to submit a powerpoint presentation to the "world's best presentation contest" on slideshare.net, after some initial problems with the submission options (they simply disappeared before the end of the deadline...).

Please have a look at my slides below on "why business model innovation maters". If you like them please click on the link and go vote. Thanks! As a Swiss I believe in your democratic opinion - but vote "thumbs up" anyways ;-)

Business Model Innovation Matters

View SlideShare presentation (tags: osterwalder alex alexander telco)

Visual Thinking Books - References and Reviews

2008-08-04T21:34:00.014+02:00

At the moment I am completely immersed in reading about visual thinking for my upcoming book on business model innovation. Do you wonder what the connection is? Well, the book I'm working on will be very visual and practical, containing only the very necessary text...

Visual tools are an increasing must in the executive toolbox - particularly when you think of all those terrible ppt-decks and never-read-business-plans full of text and numbers.

Let me briefly share some of the literature I have been looking into the last few days:

The Back of the Napkin (Dan Roam). Dan has created a great and practical book on how to use images and sketches in business. The book contains a couple of very interesting concepts and processes that helps you apply visuals to your particular business problems. To get a good preview you can check out the book's website which features some attractive animations to explain key concepts. Verdict: Very useful book!
Marks and Meaning, version zero (Dave Gray). Dave, a friend of mine, is founder and chairman of XPLANE, the leading visual thinking company. He is currently working on a book on visual thinking and has put a pre-release version ("version zero") up for sales on the web. I could almost blindly recommend this book, though I have only ordered the book this evening after a chat with Dave on the Web. By buying the pre-release you will have a chance to comment the book and influence the final version - interesting approach. You can follow Dave's thinking on his communication nation blog and a whole bundle of digital presences.
PresentationZen (Garr Reynolds). Garr tackles one of the most important and imaginable issues in the boardroom: making powerpoint presentations interesting and attractive. A must for every frequent user of powerpoint. Check out Garr's lecture at Google's headquarters to get a freeby of his work. As real digital citizen Garr's thinking can be followed on his website and blog. Verdict: A good resource for ppt-artists.
Beyond Bullet Points (Cliff Atkinson). In his extremely useful book Cliff shows how you can use storyboarding to make sticky powerpoint presentations. As a resident of LA he gets his inspiration from Hollywood's film industry. This book is quite likely to make you change the way you design your ppt-decks. The approach and process outlined is very intuitive and very practical. Verdict: A must if you want to bring some storytelling to your ppt-presentations.
The Storyboard Design Course (Giuseppe Cristiano). A really nice book on storyboard design. This is a professional tool for storyboard designers in the film, advertising and computer games industry. It is an introduction to storyboarding going all the way to camera angles etc. Verdict: You'll have to do the translation for applying it in business yourself (e.g. powerpoint). If you are a movie fan it is a must.

I also bought a couple of books on design (e.g. Universal Principles of Design, Lidwell & Holden & Butler) and Innovation (e.g. The New Age of Innovation - Prahalad & Krishnan, The Game Changer - A.G. Lafley & Ram Charan). More on that later. I guess you're not really interesested in the children's books I bought for my 5-year old son ;-)

Anyways, my wallet is about 400.- USD lighter...

East African Business Summit – Business Model Session

2008-07-20T17:13:00.011+02:00

The last two days I had the great pleasure to speak about business model innovation at the East African Business Summit, a gathering of over 150 CEOs from the region. It is not everyday that I speak alongside Professor Michael Porter and a head of state, President Museveni (hopefully that will become more frequent).

Slides I presented at the event, unfortunately without the animations... (or pdf download):

The most important thing I retain from this event is that East Africa features many remarkable business leaders, whom I had the opportunity to talk to extensively. Remarkable, because these CEOs and entrepreneurs are successfully building and growing businesses in a business environment that lacks the very things many of us can take for granted: sound infrastructures, reliable legal systems and relatively accountable politicians.

Of course I also retain the tremendous interest of the participants in my session on “Competitiveness Through Business Model Innovation”. It is becoming clearer and clearer to me what CEOs and entrepreneurs around the world find interesting in my business model canvas approach to describing business models. Here a couple of points:

The ability to describe the business logic of a company on one page: none of the individual elements of the business model canvas are new to business people. But the simple and yet holistic look at a business on a single page is surprisingly new to most of them.
Customer centricity as a business model kernel: the ability to understand the relationships between customer segments and all other business model building blocks has attracted a lot of attention. Apparently, few other approaches allow for this as straightforwardly as the business model canvas.
The (physical) visualization of the entire business model to foster sounder discussions: In all my workshops I now print out large posters with the 9 building blocks of the business model canvas [link]. Then I get participants to stick post-it notes on these posters to either describe their existing business model or more interestingly, a possible future business model. Experience shows that this process is extremely efficient and also very focused.
An approach that allows to easily think out-of-the-box: It seems that the business model canvas combined with the poster-based approach makes it easy for people to sketch-out and explore new ideas.

The East African Business Summit, which took place in Kampala, Uganda, was a very inspiring event in many ways. As some of you know, I have a very personal relationship to Africa, because my wife who grew up in Switzerland, comes from Guinea Bissau - a tiny country on Africa’s west coast.

For me the Summit was inspiring because it is contributing to changing (East) Africa’s image in the world. It showcased the dynamism and experience of business leaders who are overcoming difficult obstacles every day. The summit shows that East Africa is a place of opportunities, where growth rates are very real despite the various macro issues that hold back foreign direct investment (FDI). If the region can tackle some of the most urgent infrastructure and governance issues there seems to be a sound basis for long-term growth.

One thing I sincerely hope will change rapidly is that the voice of business leaders should be better heard and taken into account more seriously. After all it is the companies that contribute to long-term wealth creation and better living conditions. Unfortunately, the state still seems “almighty” in many East African countries (for various historical reasons). This is not to say that the state doesn’t’ have a role to play – the contrary. Yet, it’s role should be the one of an enabler of wealth creation…

Finally, I would like to thank Michael Mithika of J.M. Mantle for his trust in my competencies and for convincing the Summit conveners to invite me.

Design Thinking & Techniques

2008-07-13T20:19:00.006+02:00

I’m just back from a 2-day business model workshop I gave in Medellin, Colombia, with a local telecommunications company. For the first time I really elaborated a bit more on the design-thinking component of sound business model development. I pointed out that business people must display a particular design attitude and use design techniques in order to come up with good new business models.

The participants of the workshop, mainly from engineering backgrounds, responded really well to this message. They seemed to enjoy the co-creation, visual working on the wall, etc., which I got them to do during the break-out sessions.
Here some of the designer’s technique’s that I highlighted for use in business contexts:

Observation of clients to understand them, identify needs and design a corresponding business model
Co-creation with clients and among multi-disciplinary teams within companies to integrate different perspectives
Brainstorming and ideation to achieve break-throughs and come up with new business models
Visualization to connect concepts, foster joint understanding and run focused meetings
Prototyping to explore several ideas simultaneously and test business models

Initially, I wanted to show the participants the famous IDEO video where they design a new shopping cart in order to illustrate the above design techniques and design attitude. However, since the DVD I had was broken, I had to find some other videos on the Web or from my video library.

After some searching, I finally decided to show two excerpts from “Managing as Designing” from the Weatherhead School of Management. They highlight some interesting thinking on the relationship between design & business. I also showed a very short excerpt (because the whole thing would have scared them) from Philippe Starck’s talk at TED to show that design is not about making “nice” products, but about creating value for the user of a product. Philippe Starck, as many of you certainly now, is a celebrated star designer…

After these thoughts on design I would also like to stress how impressed I was by the workshop participants and the city of Medellin in general. Formerly known as a hub for narco-traffic the city has completely transformed over the past years. There is beautiful architecture everywhere and the economy is booming. Definitely a place I will enjoy to come back to. This is certainly also related to the outstanding hospitality I enjoyed by the persons who invited me.

What is a Business Model?

2008-07-02T16:09:00.004+02:00

Update: Based on the overwhelming interest this post got, I updated and republished the version from 2005

A business model is nothing else than a representation of how an organization makes (or intends to make) money. This can be nicely described through the 9 building blocks illustrated in the graphic below, which we call "business model canvas".

Insight: In addition to this post check out the business model design template

The business model topic is very popular among business people today because in various industries we can see a proliferation of new and innovative business models (i.e. new ways of making money). In several industries new business models are threatening or even replacing established companies and conventional ways of doing business. Just have a look at the music or airline industry.

Hence, the interest in business models comes from two opposing sides:

Established companies have to find new and innovative business models to compete against growing competition and to fend off insurgents

Entrepreneurs want to find new and innovative business models to carve out their space in the marketplace

Within this context the business model concept is a particularly helpful unit of strategic analysis tailored to today's competitive business environment. It helps executives as well as entrepreneurs increase their capacity to manage continuous change and constantly adapt to rapidly changing business environments by injecting new ideas into their business model.

But what actually is a business model?

In management meetings the question of what a business model is (even what “our” business model is) often remains relatively vague. The main reason for this is because business people have an intuitive understanding of business models. Normal, since the business model is about how an organization makes money, which is a manger’s job after all. However, there is often a lack of a more precise and shared understanding of what a business model is. Yet, such a common understanding is required if we want to have high quality discussions of one’s business model and make important business model decisions.

Therefore we have come up with the 9 building block approach to describing business models. It has the characteristics of any other type of model (e.g. in architecture or engineering).

Like other models it is a simplified description and representation of a complex real world object. It describes the original in a way that we understand its essence without having to deal with all its characteristics and complexities. In the same line of thought we can define a business model as a simplified description of how a company does business and makes money without having to go into the complex details of all its strategy, processes, units, rules, hierarchies, workflows, and systems.

Based on an extensive literature research and real-world experience we define a business model as consisting of 9 building blocks that constitute the business model canvas (readers of this blog will realize that this is an updated and slightly adapted version of the model):

The value proposition of what is offered to the market;
The segment(s) of clients that are addressed by the value proposition;
The communication and distribution channels to reach clients and offer them the value proposition;
The relationships established with clients;
The key resources needed to make the business model possible;
The key activities necessary to implement the business model;
The key partners and their motivations to participate in the business model;
The revenue streams generated by the business model (constituting the revenue model);
The cost structure resulting from the business model.

Origins of the term business model

The term business model became popular only in the late 90s, which, personally I think is related to the rapid erosion of prices in the IT and telecom industry. The roots of my assumption lie in Transaction Cost Economics (TCE). Because it became so cheap to process, store and share information across business units and other companies all the way to the customer, many new ways of doing business became possible: Value chains were broken up and reconfigured; Innovative information-rich or -enriched products and services appeared; New distribution channels emerged; More customers were reached.

Ultimately this lead to globalization and increased competition, but, as described above, it also led to new ways of doing business. In other words, today there is a larger variety of how companies can make money: this means new in terms of what they do, how they do it and for whom they do it...

For managers and executives this means that they have a whole new range of possibilities to design their businesses. This results in innovative and competing business models in the same industries. Before, it used to be sufficient to say in what industry you where in, for somebody to understand what your company was doing. All players had more or less the same business model. Today it is not sufficient to choose a lucrative industry, but you must also design a competitive business model. In addition, increased competition and rapid copying of successful business models forces all players to continuously innovate and adapt their business model to gain and/or sustain a competitive edge.

Companies that thoroughly understand their business model and know how the building blocks relate to each other will be able to constantly rethink and redesign these blocks and their relationship to innovate before their business model is copied.

Business Models & Innovation

The term business model is also closely related to innovation. As I mentioned, the business model concept is related to a whole new range of business design opportunities. There are examples of business model innovations in each of the 9 building blocks described. The most obvious is innovating in the value proposition. When mobile phones appeared in the market they offered a different value proposition than fixed line phones. In the early days of the Internet popular indexes like Yahoo! helped people find information on the Web. Regarding target customer segments, low-cost airlines like EasyJet have brought flying to the masses. Dell became really successful by exploring the web as a distribution channel. Gillette has made a fortune by establishing a continuous relationship with customers based on its disposable razors. Apple resurged based on its core capacity of bringing design to computers and electronic gadgets. Cisco became famous for its capacity of configuring activities in new and innovative supply chains. Intel thrived for its capacity to get partners to build on its processing platform. Google tapped in an innovative revenue streams by linking highly specific search results and content with text ads. Wal-Mart became dominant by its ability to slash cost throughout its business model.

For conference or workshop engagements on the topic of business models, please contact me at alex@businessmodeldesign.com and consult my speaker's profile (pdf)

Applying Business Model Thinking

2008-07-01T00:29:00.020+02:00

The last 2 weeks I had a couple of interesting meetings in Amsterdam and Zurich with business people who apply business model thinking in very different domains. These meetings are part of my quest to understand how people use the concept of business models (BM). It was also a pleasure to see how three of the five use my business model canvas (9 building block approach) to fit their professional needs.

What I take away from these meetings is that business model thinking in general is continuing to gain pace and will soon play a more dominant role in business thinking. Here some brief insights into how business model thinking was applied by the persons I met:

Gert Steens (Oblonski): spotting differentiators among BMs

Gert is an experienced investment professional with his own firm who uses the business model canvas to spot differences among companies in the same industry. He uses our structured approach to describing business models as a tool for comparison.

Here is roughly how it works: Gert first sketches out the business model of a company he potentially wants to invest in. Then he sketches out its competitors to compare if there are similarities or differences. It allows him to search for distinct strategic differentiators that give a company a competitive advantage.

I’m sure we will have the pleasure to hear more about Gert’s approach personally in the near future.

Bas van Oosterhout (Capgemini): aligning project porfolios with BMs

Bas is an innovation consultant Capgemini, who applies the business model canvas within an overall approach at his firm. He applies it to help companies align and strengthen their portfolio of projects with their overall business model.

Marcel Jaeggi (BCG): scanning the competitive landscape of BMs

Marcel is a strategy consultant at the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) who is starting to look at business models in private banking for his PhD dissertation. He is aiming at describing the business models of a large number of private banks in order to classify them among groups. This will give Bas a small number of private banking business model types, which he will then assess based on a number of industry trends.

Edward Giesen (IBM): types of BM innovation

Edward is one of the business model thought leaders at IBM. The company emphasizes business model innovation since their 2006 and 2008 Global CEO Study showed how high the topic is on CEOs’ agendas. IBM distinguishes between three types of business model innovations, which are innovation in industry models, in revenue models and in enterprise models. Unfortunately, IBM’s business model innovation process does not seem publicly accessible.

Patrick Stähler: the BM change process

Patrick is an entrepreneur who already wrote about business models 10 years ago when he worked on his PhD dissertation on the topic. Just like myself, Patrick is currently working on a book on business models, which I am sure he will present on this blog. Patrick’s focus will very much be on the change process. In this regard Patrick made a very interesting comment. In our discussion he pointed out that business model innovation is very much about “un-learning”. In order to do things in new ways, we have to be able to forget the old ways of doing things. This applies for the customer side just as much as for the company side.

WANTED: Business Model Innovators

2008-06-27T23:25:00.006+02:00

I would like to conduct a series of short video/phone-interviews with high profile business model innovators for the book project I'm working on. Then I could share them with you through the web...

Please send me some ideas of who I could/should interview. Even better, tell me how I can get in contact with that person (e.g. through your network). I'm looking for business model innovators (not mere innovators ;-) in any possible industry, such as pharma, banking, clothing, ... The requirement is that the person is in top management and his company has a certain size (and visibility)

examples:

Niklas Zennström (or Janus Friis), KaZaA:Skype:Joost
Michael Dell, Dell
Stelios Haji-Ioannou, easyJet
...

I would also be interested in getting your ideas on innovative business model examples in general. Particularly those with a turn-over of over 100 mio USD.

Can you help me out?

Business Model Innovation Book (book structure prototype)

2008-06-18T01:40:00.003+02:00

The reflections on our book on business model innovation are advancing daily. Yves Pigneur, my co-author, and I have come up with a first rough prototype book structure. We will refine our thinking this Friday and we are, of course, curious to hear your feedback.

You can check out the structure in the slidecast below. It gives you an idea where we are heading, though this first draft structure only sketches out the rough outlines.

To listen to and visualize the slidecast, please hit the play button. All the rest is automatic.

| View | Upload your own

I'm looking forward to your first feedbacks...

"The Wall is the Desk of the Future"

2008-06-16T11:44:00.007+02:00

Last Friday I ran a workshop on business model innovation with the management of one of the 5 regions of a top Swiss bank. In the break-out session the bankers split into groups and were supposed to work on huge posters to sketch-out the business model of an innovative bank. That is when I realized how uncommon it still is for executives to think visually and use the wall/poster as a visual thinking aid.

They had lively discussions around their table, but it needed some stimulation from my side to get them to use the posters. I insisted on this because I think visualization of business issues is increasingly a requirement to tackle the complex problems of our time.

Understanding not only the issues, but also the links between issues is a must in today's complex world. Yet, this is very difficult to achieve without a visual aid. That is where the wall is very helpful and gives all participants of a meeting a common reference point... When Dave Gray, CEO of XPLANE, was visiting us in Geneva he said one thing that I don't stop quoting:

"the wall is the desk of the future"

Have a glance at some images I put together in a Power Point presentation illustrating the above quote:

| View | Upload your own

Online Seminar : Introduction to Business Model Design & Innovation

2008-06-05T14:53:00.010+02:00

Date: June 26, 17 :00 CET (Geneva, Berlin, Paris, Madrid)
Price: 150.- USD
Presenter: Dr. Alexander Osterwalder
Duration: 1 hour and question & answer

Are you interested in business models and business model innovation? Do you wonder how this topic will impact you, your company and your competitive environment in the future? Then you should participate in this web seminar. It will introduce you to the fundamentals of business model thinking – a topic that is still too often poorly defined.

In this web seminar you will learn why business model thinking is so important today. You will see how innovative business models are disrupting the airline and music industry. This is likely to challenge you to reflect on the consequences for your own company and industry. To facilitate this reflection we will learn how to use the Business Model Canvas. This approach will allow you to easily sketch out your own and your competitors’ business models. Throughout the web seminar we will use interesting and innovative cases from various industries to get a better grasp on the topic of business model innovation.

Key take-away of the web seminar - you will:

sense why it is indispensable for you to start thinking in terms of business models in today’s competitive landscape
learn how you can describe your own business model based on the intuitive and pragmatic business model canvas
understand what business model innovation is about and how it differs from other types of innovations (e.g. product or process innovation)
learn about interesting and innovative cases of business model innovation

Who should participate?

Managers, entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs, business strategists, consultants, academics, venture capitalists.

Caveat

In this introductory seminar we will not go into depth regarding the business model innovation process inside companies. This particular topic is reserved for a future seminar focusing on just that. Similarly, we will not go into depth as to business model assessment, which is also reserved for a future seminar. However, we strongly recommend that people interested in the special-topic seminars scheduled at a later date, follow the introductory web seminar.

General Information

The web seminar will consist of a one hour lecture by Dr. Alexander Osterwalder based on a set of PowerPoint slides. It will be followed by a question and answer session. Within 24 hours of your online registration and payment you will receive an url by email that will allow you to access the web seminar. You will receive a reminder email the day prior to the event including the url that gives you access to the web seminar. The session will run on the webex platform by Cisco.

Cancellation Policy

For cancellations received more than 48 hours prior to the start of the seminar, we will deduct a US$50 administrative fee and refund or credit the remaining fee. There will be no refund or credit for cancellations received less than 48 hours prior to the start of the online seminar. All cancellations or substitutions must be received in writing.

Best Management Book 2009: "Business Model Innovation" by Osterwalder & Pigneur, produced by ULURU

2008-06-02T21:36:00.012+02:00

The title of this blogpost is probably a bit cocky and it would certainly be completely off the mark if it were just about another management book...

What will be different about this book that Professor Yves Pigneur and I are writing in collaboration with ULURU is the business model. We are launching this book based on an innovative business model, which is quite different from any other management book published to date.

However, before revealing any ideas that we have come up with during our brainstorming sessions, I would like to get some inputs from you. Please help us design a great book by telling us what you would expect from a book by us on the topic of business model innovation. What will make you buy it?

Take this survey to tell us what you would like to see in this book

An important element of this book project will be that you can buy the book in advance, during the writing process to benefit from special features & services (e.g. video-interviews, web seminars, draft book chapters). If you are among the advance buyers you can influence the book content and will be mentioned as contributor.

Interested? Stay posted to find out what the innovative business model for the book is about...

Video Trailer ULURU Workshop on Business Model Innovation

2008-05-26T20:55:00.004+02:00

In April I ran a workshop at the ULURU innovation theater, which was fully booked out with over 20 participants. The team at ULURU made a great trailer of the event which you can enjoy here:

I would also like to use this opportunity to make a pre-announcement of a book project that ULURU and I are planning on the topic of business model innovation. The interesting part: We won't just write a book (there are already so many), but we will design an innovative business model around the book. I think it is the best way to make a case for a book on business model innovation.

In a first phase we are looking for 4 corporate sponsors that are willing to finance the launch of the book. They will get access to a global public of managers and entrepreneurs interested in business model innovation. They will be associated with probably the most innovative management book project to date (including global viral marketing through web videos). Finally, they will get a special workshop on business model innovation designed for them and/or for their clients. All that in return for a modest sponsorship fee that is well below a 1-day/1-page ad in the Financial Times...

More on the book project to come soon... By the way, this blog (once redesigned) will certainly play a major role during the writing phase of the book.

Don't hesitate to post comments if you have ideas or recommendations for the book on business model innovation.