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. She resides in Madison, Wisconsin and Oslo, Norway.

Plantes Company

February 4th, 2010

Market disruptions demand business model innovation

The 2008-2009 economic recession changed customer and business behaviors, not unlike how a hurricane reshapes the built and natural environment. If you are not incorporating recession-induced changes into your business model strategy, your market position will weaken.
The Recession Has Changed Consumer Behavior – Forever
A recent in-depth study of consumer attitudes and behaviors by Context-Based [...]


December 9th, 2009

Business Model Evolution

The technology sector is rapidly moving from companies competing as technology specialists to vertically integrated companies competing on solutions. HP acquires EDS and (pending) 3Com Corp. Dell quickly follows with acquisition of Perot Systems. Oracle buys Sun Microsystems (beating out IBM by 10 cents a share). Even Apple, the original vertically integrated company, is deepening [...]


May 22nd, 2009

Value Promise and Profit Potential, Part Two

If you need a differentiated, superior value promise to win customers’ votes, how do you know when your value promise is no longer working and business model innovation is called for?
Make sure you measure repeat purchases, your consideration rates and your win rates. Discover where you’re losing business and why you’re losing business, as losses [...]


April 15th, 2009

Why Business Model Innovation Matters

In November of 2008, Business Week magazine reported that Apple’s cash on hand exceeded Dell’s total market valuation.
These two statistics explain how it happened -
Apple net profit margin = Dell’s net profit margin plus 10 percentage points
Apple operating margin = Dell’s operating margin plus 13 percentage points
There is a vital lesson in the Dell-Apple financial [...]


April 15th, 2009

Business Model Innovation – About My Blog

It’s gotten harder and harder to succeed in business for a long list of reasons that, like gravity, pull leaders into a short-term focus. Our planning deceives us into thinking we’re being strategic when in reality we’re just working at different degrees of tactical. The end result is that we’re too often operationally terrific and [...]