A quite a while since the previous post, but a break makes just good.
Harvard Business Review (12/2008) had an excellent article called Reinventing Your Business Model by Mark W. Johnson, Clayton M. Christensen, and Henning Kagermann. As the title says, the authors guide reader through the process of reinventing business model. The key steps in that process are
Creating a customer value proposition
A successful company is one that has found a way to create value for customers—that is, a way to help customers get an important job done.
Designing a profit formula
The profit formula is the blueprint that defines how the company creates value for itself while providing value to the customer.
Identifying key resources and processes
The key resources are assets such as the people, technology, products, facilities, equipment, channels, and brand required to deliver the value proposition to the targeted customer.
Successful companies have operational and managerial processes that allow them to deliver value in a way they can successfully repeat and increase in scale.
I find their article very inspiring with practical examples and illustrations. In the past I have found combining critical success factors (here key resources and processes) and value chain analysis as very useful management tool. Reinventing Your Business Model gave new ideas and confirmed some old practices.
You find both the abstract and an interview of Clayton M Christensen from here. At the end of the interview Christensen also comments the challenges of newspapers. Take your time and check the video also.
