Photograph of Kay Plantes

Kay Plantes is an MIT-trained economist, business strategy consultant, columnist and author. Business model innovation, strategic leadership and smart economic policies are her professional passions. A former Madison, WI resident, Kay now resides in San Diego, CA. The views on her blog are not those of her employer, IBM.

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December 28th, 2011

In Amazon vs. Netflix war, Amazon wins the battle for satisfied customers

Competition in a free market economy favors the lowest cost business model as markets mature and price-driven shoppers grow in size. Design a business model that delivers unique benefits, on the other hand, and you must also focus on efficiency. Because customers only pay price premiums for unique benefits, any inefficiency costs come right off [...]


December 21st, 2011

Disrupt your business model before you’re disrupted

A well-known case study by Harvard Business Review documents how Dow Corning elected to disrupt its own silicon business rather than allow competitors to steal market share by offering lower price points. The story is worth retelling because Dow Corning’s business model innovation keeps evolving to meet the needs of price-driven customer segments. As the [...]


December 15th, 2011

The good, bad and ugly of ecosystems

  Qualcomm Life, a fully owned subsidiary of Qualcomm that focuses on the wireless healthcare marketplace, is on track to create a well-tuned ecosystem to accelerate the adoption of wireless solutions. Wireless healthcare devices will identify problems in patients with chronic diseases earlier and move care to lower cost locations, thereby lowering the cost of [...]


December 7th, 2011

Marketing plays a key role in strong business models

The market share battlefield and its weaponry changed considerably as our economy transitioned from the Industrial Age to the Information Age. In particular, the growing sophistication of marketers (and IT needed to support them) has been nothing short of breathtaking. The movement from the Industrial Age to the Information Age increased customer power, expanded offerings [...]