Two themes that interest me are strategy and innovation and how they are applied to economic development, entrepreneurship and social ventures. Two articles this weekend on these themes were noteworthy.
In "The Hardest Question Any Leader Can Ask" there is a particularly good point on strategy as it relates to business model:
"Business model innovation must be a strategic objective or it won’t happen.
One of my biggest pet peeves is setting strategy one tactic at a time. It drives me crazy to be surrounded by people and organizations that think if they just work hard enough and do more things that a strategic direction and destination will emerge. It seems that most of the world works this way. It is terribly inefficient. How many people and organizations do you know that pedal the bicycle like crazy but never seem to arrive anywhere. They just keep pedaling harder hoping that something will eventually stick. It is exhausting watching them. Why not establish business model innovation as a strategic objective, a specific destination, and work hard on those things that help you get there. It seems so simple. Setting a strategic direction provides a way to know which tactics are aligned and contribute to reaching the destination. The destination may change along the way requiring different tactics, and that is OK, but not having a destination at all is a ticket to nowhere."
In "A 5-point checklist to create lucrative opportunities with disruptive technologies" the author list five ways to disrupt a market and gets it absolutely correct:
- Destroy your product
- Make your product solve meaningful problems
- Make your product insanely simple
- Make your product smart
- Give your product away
Read the article to understand the logic of each method.