Let's explore why you should stay focused on building on your initial business model advantages over competitors. Here are the reasons: 1. Building from initial business model advantages adds to knowledge of what customers need and how to provide bette...

I want to pose a few questions that will help you ensure that you are continually improving your business model in the most profitable ways. 1. Where has your current business model made you the first to offer an important stakeholder benefit? You w...

In its first business model, Iron Mountain focused on providing safe, secure storage of electronic records inside a large cave. This was a requirement of many auditing firms for their accounting clients. With lots of space in the cave, it was natural that...

In business model innovation, its important to make an initial success. Then, you need to expand upon that base to build further breakthroughs. TriQuint Semiconductor was formed by combining three companies with complementary technologies in specialty ...

How do you gain critical strategic advantages over competitors? It's easy: Build a better business model and then expand on your initial successes by providing more of what customers cannot get elsewhere. When American Woodmark, a low market share make...

It's helpful to want to build a major business by adding onto the base of your initial breakthrough. But what does that look like in practice? Let's examine the case history of Education Management to better understand the principle involved. While com...

Almost all business people work long hours and are dedicated to their work. Yet some achieve great benefits from their efforts while others are simply holding the line. What are the lessons of this differential success for those who are working on busines...

When I study business model innovation successes, I often notice the theme of developing close relations with important customer and noncustomer stakeholders: 1. For example, Education Management (a trade school in art education) looked to provide a mo...

When I meet entrepreneurs who want to start businesses, they are usually thinking in terms of a size for their operations that won't serve their customers very well. When that happens, a business will achieve only a few percentage points of its potential....

Business leaders and engineers often see the potential for higher performance by solving problems with new technologies. At first, only technical achievements occur. Finally, practical benefits become available. At that point, adventuresome customers b...

Large companies are always selling off operations on which they don't make enough money. It's not unusual for the new buyer to quickly increase the profits, cash flow, and market share. Why is this possible? It's easy to understand this success: Upgrad...

If you are an individual or a small team not yet operating as a business, starting first on business model innovation sounds like it's impossible. The world is full of long-standing companies that seem to be serving virtually every conceivable need. H...

"Get there first with the most . . . ." -- Nathan Bedford Forrest ". . . model to thy inward greatness . . . ." -- Shakespeare Many of the most attractive business model innovations will allow only one company to prosper by following that part...

The way a team plays as a whole determines its success. You may have the greatest bunch of individual stars in the world, but if they don't play together, the club won't be worth a dime. — Babe Ruth Recovering alcoholics have support groups. So do...

An idealist is a man who helps other people to be prosperous. — Henry Ford Through my continuing studies into the nature of rapid improvements, I looked at all kinds of organizations. Having been a fan of Peter Drucker's writing since the early 19...