Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

Your business is unsustainable in its present form. It doesn’t matter what you make, or sell, or offer. If you continue to embrace “business as usual,” you are doomed.

That was the bottom-line message offered by Alexander Osterwalder, co-author of Business Model Generator, in his Day Two keynote at the Front End of Innovation conference in Boston this week. As I learned in my days at Forrester Research, whether you are writing a research report or giving a speech, there’s nothing like starting off with a little fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD) to get people’s attention.

Osterwalder introduced the crowd to his Business Model Canvas (BMC), which is a tool that allows people to make existing or new business models tangible so they can be discussed. There are 9 components to the BMC: Customer Segments, Customer Relationships, Channels, Value Propositions, Key Activities, Key Resources, Key Partners, Cost Structure, and Revenue Streams....

You won't be persuasive if you haven't done your homework.

...Innovators and intrapreneurs believe that their job is to build the best possible innovations within time and budget constraints. This is demonstrably false and counterproductively naive. Their job is to build the best possible innovations that their managements will enthusiastically, not reluctantly, support. The answer(s) to "What would it take to change your mind?" had better be known before the meeting's first PowerPoint/Keynote slide appears.

There is a powerful and singular exception to this. The CMO may loathe the idea, the new product council may hate your designer's guts, a rival business unit may fear you as an internal threat — but the surest way to "change their minds" is to have a real, powerful and desirable customer or client for your proposed innovation. Nothing is more persuasive and compelling than a customer who's expressed passion, enthusiasm and a willingness to pay for an innovation....

[Michael Schrage shares valuable insight into what it takes to sell-in innovations ~ Jeff]