The pace and magnitude of disruptive forces crashing against the seawalls of our businesses and personal lives only grow stronger. The power of 1975’s fastest super computer is now captured in a $400 Apple iPhone. A $100 genome will be feasible in the next decade. These and other examples are cited in a 2013 McKinsey&Company report, “Disruptive Technologies: Advances that will transform life, business and the global economy.” Here’s the global consultancy’s list of the most disruptive technologies (out of 100 considered): Mobile Internet Automation of knowledge work The Internet of Things Cloud technology Advanced robotics Autonomous and near-autonomous vehicles Next-generation genomics Energy storage 3D printing Advanced materials Advanced oil and gas exploration and recovery Renewable energy Why did these technologies make the cut? They are advancing rapidly and have broad reach – touching many industries and leading to new products, equipment and…
Prediction: Intuit ad will win the Super Bowl ad competition
Super Bowl XLVIII 2014 advertisements are already generating a lot of buzz in social media and advertising industry media, with more to come during and after this weekend’s game. My pre-game wager for the ad that will have the most impact goes on Intuit. Rather than using millions of dollars to communicate about Intuit, the strategically smart software publisher of QuickBooks and TurboTax is using its investment to help its small business customers. Intuit demonstrates co: collective’s storydoing (versus storytelling) at its best. (Read my earlier review of Ty Montague’s True Story book and storydoing as a strategy.) Intuit ran a contest inviting small businesses to tell their story and get their fan base to vote for them. Businesses were then asked to demonstrate they could handle the bump up in traffic from winning. Twenty companies (out of thousands) made it to the…
You can’t solve a problem without addressing the root cause.
Sarah Ramirez, a Stanford-educated PhD, left her job as an epidemiologist to return to her farming roots so she could help reverse the growing diabetes and obesity crisis she observed in Tulare County. Tulare, profiled in John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath, remains largely populated by farm-workers, many still trapped in poverty She wanted to help combat food insecurity, experienced by over 40% of this California county’s residents, which she observed as contributing to these health problems. In essence, Ramirez and her partners are turning food waste into health improvement gold. With her husband, she started a grass roots organization Be Healthy Tulare in her Pixley, California hometown. Be Healthy Tulare harvests food that would otherwise go to waste in commercial fields because of less-than-perfect appearance or in residential backyards because of too-busy homeowners. In this country, food pantries do a great job of…
A business model turning big data into smart data
Companies are increasingly finding that “Big Data” doesn’t mean “Smart Data.” And that difference is opening up a new business opportunity for software and consulting firms to turn big data into actionable and profitable insight. One of those firms is 18-month-old Zoomph. Founder Ali R. Manouchehri says their platform turns “big data into little data” by enabling marketers to listen, curate, analyze, visualize and syndicate social media content in real time. With Zoomph, clients find the most relevant influencers, engage in real-time polls and create engaging and inspiring visualizations of social media content for their websites, mobile devices and other screens (e.g., football score boards, event displays and lobby screens). Zoomph projects encompass a broad array. On one end is figuring out if social media conversations on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram containing the term “pressure cooker” are about terrorism, bridal gifts or cooking….
Has the drive for efficiency through cost cutting gone too far?
The drive for efficiency has gone too far in my estimation. “But efficiency is always good,” you might protest. True, productivity gains increase incremental profits all else equal. But “all else equal” rarely holds true in practice. Therefore, like all good things pushed too far, gains from incremental efficiency initiatives may not be worth the price paid to secure them. Why is the Efficiency Goddess who brought us big box miracles like Staples, online retailing and record corporate cash balances failing us? Efficiency initiatives usually pay attention only to readily measurable costs, ignoring unintended consequences and opportunity costs. Why do CIOs limit support to only PC-computers? Why do CFOs reduce support staff, forcing administrative work onto revenue-generating managers? Such is the thinking of modern corporate managers: They are brilliant at measuring costs and lousy at measuring professional productivity. Shortsighted trade-offs are magnified as…
The role of Value Propositions in Business Model Strategy
A prospect recently asked, “What is the difference between strategy and value proposition work?” Since “strategy” is used to describe everything from how to stop a 2-year old’s tantrum to how to grow a Fortune 500 business, the question is best posed differently: “What is the role of the value proposition in a company’s strategy work?” A value proposition articulates: a promise of value being delivered to a defined target market, where value is the tangible and intangible benefits less the price the target pays to receive them; why this promise is to be believed; and, the offering that gives rise to the benefits. A value proposition should be defined and regularly reviewed at every level where you also develop a strategy. Remembering to do so will make you a better strategist. At the customer level, great sales reps know how to pitch…
How business models shape customer experience – a tale of two brands
US Airways and Kimpton Hotels both compete in very crowded market spaces where price can make the difference in a consumer’s final selection. But one of them knows how to move beyond price to compete on experience and the other doesn’t. On a recent trip to NYC, I flew on US Air because it contributes to my United frequent flyer status, and stayed at Kimpton’s 70 Park Hotel, because I belong to the loyalty program for this chain of boutique hotels. But with Delta miles and Hilton points, I could easily have made other choices or decided that loyalty points were not worth paying a price premium. Arriving very late at Kimpton’s 70 Park Hotel, the night staff greeted me the way a hostess would greet a dinner guest she was excited to entertain. Hungry after my too-small airplane meal, I discovered…
Business model success demands strategic leadership, societal consciousness and civil cultures
I wonder if the editors of the January-February, 2013 issue of Harvard Business Review connected the dots among their articles. As a reader I did. “The 100 Best CEOs in the World” is the cover story for an issue that also includes the article “Strategic Leadership: The Essential Skills.” Too many CEOs and their C-Suite teams invest too much of their time in operational management. They fail in the role only they can perform: designing a winning portfolio of business models and the hard-to-copy company capabilities, processes, culture, and ecosystems that they leverage. Strategic leadership is all about this work. I am not saying that operational work is unimportant. Indeed, it is vital. No customer will pay your business for inefficiency or quality issues, and competitors will likely use them to seize advantage. But the leadership team’s role is to establish the measurements,…
Alignment builds a winning brand and business model for XIAMETER®
Brand trust is harder to earn in today’s economy? The pressure to cut costs makes delivering day after day on promised benefits more challenging. Social media creates messages that listeners deem more reliable than your own. And retaining meaningful and hard-to-copy differentiation has become more challenging in our copycat global economy. Silicon leader Dow Corning is one company that has managed to build authentic brand trust by clearly communicating its value promise, aligning people, adapting its business models, and letting its culture evolve to support its two brands, Dow Corning® and XIAMETER®. Dow Corning created the XIAMETER brand in 2002 to preserve market share as specialty silicon products commoditized, a savvy example of business model innovation that I wrote about in late 2011. The fully automated (from ordering to fulfillment) business model enables the brand to maintain profitability at the lower price points…
John Deere – Branding and business models at their best
The most powerful brands offer more than a unique, hard-to-copy and relevant value promise embracing both tangible and emotional benefits. They are also about more than the brand’s personality, although I will admit to loving beer brand Dos Equis “most interesting man in the world” personality. The best brands appeal to a shared aspiration that speaks to our deep hopes and dreams. When the organization’s actions authentically reflect this aspiration, you have a magical brand, like John Deere. Yes, the John Deere. The heavy off-highway equipment company serving the construction, farming and other earth-moving markets. Its award-winning communications campaign, You’re On, teaches many brand and business model strategy lessons. Start with Deere’s construction industry homepage, where you’ll see the message “Who says man cannot move a mountain?” as a Deere machine moves earth on a landscape surrounded by mountains. What a welcomed contrast…