What do you do when unforeseen or unpredictable forces threaten to sweep away your hopes for a new product or business?
In his forthcoming book, Seizing the White Space: Business Model Innovation for Growth and Renewal, Mike W. Johnson discusses how businesses can innovate their existing business models in response to radically changing conditions or develop new units with different business models entirely. According to Johnson:
“The key to innovating your business model in the face of discontinuity is to look for the opportunities in the threat itself. You have to try to understand how the new circumstances will change the jobs customers need to get done or give rise to entirely new jobs they need to do. Understanding powerful external forces in this way can make the suddenly overwhelming far more manageable. Instead of hunkering down and waiting out the storm or freezing your current business model like a deer in headlights, you can transform and renew your company by building better models that take advantage of the shifting environment.”
For an example of a car company executive turned green-tech entrepreneur who was able to creatively turn a industry-upsetting challenge into an opportunity and to learn more about Johnson’s upcoming book, read The Way To Innovate To Beat Radical Discontinuity, from Forbes Magazine.
Idea Management