Ecosystems typically have a healthy tension between players that creates a win-win for all parties. Often the players of the system stay in line with the dominant player, but occassionally one player will try to innovate outside of the system — as HP is now doing with Microsoft Vista.
The Windows Vista ecosystem is "showing signs of strain". Story here. HP is now trying to engineer around Vista features to provide a better customer experience.
The Economist just published a fantastic profile of Rolls-Royce (who makes aircraft engines, not just luxury cars) that is well worth reading to learn about how different business model elements can be combined to create a successful company. Some key points to look for: The company made a big bet on a particular underlying technology for jet engines. …
Newly identified problems with fasteners will further delay the Boeing 787 Dreamliner program (full story here at WSJ). What does this story tell us about business models and strategic risk?
A coaching client recently started off a call with “Well, I’ve got this ‘pie in the sky’ idea.” She sounded really flat and dejected. “Pie in the sky” is an expression used to refer to a sham promise or to any prospect of future happiness which is unlikely ever to be realized. The phrase was…
“If your business were an animal, what animal would you be?” A few weeks ago I did an alignment session with an executive team to help them finalize their One Page Business Plans. While the plans were coming together in terms of guiding the business over the next year, I observed some questions and uncertainty…
Most corporate legal work is based on a business model of the billable hour. This model creates huge incentive problems for clients and attorneys. The client wants to minimize hours and the attorney wants to maximize hours. The billable hour model also creates incentive problems inside law firms as attorneys may hoard work that they should…
How many times have you bought an item from a store, only to bring it home and discover that "batteries are not included" or "some assembly required?" I was working with a client last week when the topic of "solutions" came up. The issue was how to move from selling hardware, software, and services as…
