A National Public Radio story this week concerned Ludo Lefebvre, a successful Los Angeles chef who got cold feet after leaving established restaurants to create his own. With two Mobil 5-star ratings on his resume, $2 million in investor support and a weariness from working for bosses, why did Lefebvre change his plans? His gut [...]

In the 1980s I had the privilege of working closely with consultants from McKinsey & Company, strategy partners to many Fortune 1000 firms and global non-profits. McKinsey’s value promise in a nutshell is, “We’ll help you reshape your industry to your advantage.” McKinsey recently released a report on mega-trends that will shape markets. It’s essential [...]

The blogosphere is aflutter with talk on Apple’s recent customer satisfaction issues linked to the new iPhone 4’s antenna design. A quiet whisper turned into thunderous noise once Consumer Reports decided to not recommend the phone because calls are dropped if the antenna is covered while in use (for example, by the user’s hand holding [...]

The best products and businesses solve problems otherwise left unaddressed. Customers and owners win as a result. Vidalias onions provide this week’s example of a business model innovation with the potential to solve an important problem. Any mother can speak eloquently about the challenges of getting her child to eat healthy foods, with vegetables the [...]

Borders Group, the struggling bookseller, has a new Chairman of the Board, Bennett LeBow. LeBow’s a member of Vector Group Ltd., the investor group that recently acquired 15% of Borders (35% if warrants are exercised). According to interim Borders CEO Mike Edwards, LeBow “will play an extremely important role in helping us redefine the Borders [...]

A new Schwab advertising campaign states, “Ask not what you should do for your broker.” What a great way to successfully communicate Schwab ‘s value promise given what’s happened with the “too big to fail” banks – Schwab will always act to benefit its clients. The company has built it’s business model around this value [...]

The loss was set in motion years ago. Still, it was hard to see my favorite airline, Midwest Express, lose the last vestige of its identity today, its name. It’s recent acquirer, Republic Airlines, also owns Frontier airlines. Republic wisely decided it could not afford to invest in two brands and Frontier better defines the [...]

Food and healthcare insurance are but two industries that must wake-up. I love the news. It provides a daily reminder of the need for business model innovation. Healthcare and food are increasingly interconnected, each offering insight into business model innovation best practices. Food that expands market share, not our waistlines. I admire PepsiCo. To make [...]

Milk is bad for children’s bones. Superman became a serial murderer. Shocking, yes? But no less shocking than Toyota, the world-class manufacturing quality expert, recalling millions of cars across its product lines. Three generations after its founder created Toyota on a philosophy that built quality into every step, it turns out that Toyota’s quality has [...]

Today we have a guest post from Steve Paskoff, CEO of ELI. Today is my birthday, so I have asked my client Steve Paskoff, CEO of ELI, Inc. to share some of his wisdom about the importance of leadership behavior in creating a winning business model. ELI offers its clients a foundational learning platform (training [...]