Business concepts are all well and fine, but what do these business model innovation concepts potentially do for you? I want to share some questions designed to help you apply what you have been reading to your existing business.

What is your current business model?

If you offer many products and services, you may have more than one. Understanding how you operate now will make it easier to think about how you can improve upon the present.

In thinking about this question, you will find it helpful to focus first on what benefits customers get from what you provide. Also, consider what benefits the customers’ customers get through to the end user of the product or service. In thinking about benefits, remember that customers always want more and at a lower price. How does your business model accomplish that for them?

As an example, let’s consider the Folger’s coffee business at Procter & Gamble. That business is an industry leader in providing coffee-based products to allow consumers to have a tasty, comforting beverage at home that may or may not stimulate them with caffeine. The products are sold primarily through supermarkets, discounters, and warehouse clubs.

Compare that with the Starbucks coffee business. Starbucks primarily provides high-quality coffee and tea products through a service in complex prepared forms in coffee bars to also provide an enjoyable experience. The company further offers roasted coffee beans as a product for tasty experiences at other coffee bars and eat-away-from home locales as well as for consumers to brew at home, so that customers can always have the good-tasting products they prefer.

The companies have two different business models that provide different products, differing amounts of experience, in different ways, and mostly in different locations. Notice that Folger’s could have innovated with the Starbucks business model before Starbucks even existed as a company. The model already existed in Europe, which is what helped stimulate the Starbucks model.

Had Folger’s taken this path, there would probably be only one business model now in the industry. Interestingly, the two businesses have started to compete directly with each other’s business models by offering prepackaged coffee-based beverages that are manufactured and distributed by others into normal beverage outlets.

What were the last five business models before the current one?

Understanding how you got to where you are today often provides valuable insights into what new business models would be most attractive in the future. The forces that made those innovations work may still be around today, or may have only been slightly changed.

Has your company had a process aimed at developing improved business models?

New business processes almost always emerge from a deliberate process of innovation. If your company has yet to establish such a process, chances are higher that you have a substantial backlog of opportunities for desirable new business models.

If you have such a process, does it look at business model innovation separately from product and technological innovation?

Many companies see new products and technologies as the only potential ways to provide increased benefits to customers and end users. As the coffee discussion suggested, it can be easier to add more value by turning a product into a service than it is to focus only on improving the product itself.

For example, General Food’s Maxwell House division had introduced flavored coffees conceptually like what you get in a coffee bar in the early 1970s. Few would argue that the taste and experience of these canned items are a match for what is offered at a Starbucks or a coffee bar using Starbucks products. Without a separate focus on designing and implementing new and better business models (that may include new products and technologies), you are probably missing most of your opportunities.

When was the last time your company changed its business model?

If the answer is more than two years ago, the odds favor there being a current opportunity to implement an improved business model.

How many times has the business model changed in your industry in the last ten years?

If the answer is less than three times, there is probably untapped potential for a new business model now.

How expensive is it for you to develop and test a new business model?

The answer differs a lot from industry to industry. If the costs are low, then you have very high potential to develop an improved business model. You will face few internal hurdles to doing the necessary early experimentation. Conversely, if the costs are high, you will probably need to create an improved way to develop business models that is less expensive.

How risky is it for you to develop a test a new business model?

For some companies, reputation is so important, for example, that it is difficult to even test new things until they are almost perfect. In other industries, working with crude prototypes is the expectation.

What do you lose if your business model experiment fails in all of the predictable ways that it could? If not very much, what are you waiting for?

If much is at stake, consider ways to reduce the amount at risk or the visibility of your flops. Early experiments should be expected to create “learning” rather than solutions, so you need to have a way to get your learning on the cheap.

Copyright 2008 Donald W. Mitchell, All Rights Reserved



By: Donald Mitchell

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With the increasing development of the knowledge economy worldwide, all countries in the world including China pay more attention to promoting scientific and technological innovation, so as to cultivate the national core competitiveness and realized economic sustainability.

Innovation is also the internal gene of ePathChina’s development. Since the beginning, ePathChina.com (www.epathchina.com) has not been copying the overseas existing mode, but has been making great efforts to found its special New Generation B2C mode to serve small business persons, such as eBay sellers, distributors, store owners, retailers and etc.

Good credit, fast delivery, super quality are the component parts of the success of ePathChina Ltd. (www.epathchina.com). ePathChina has done a series of work to establish a brand-new business environment with “good credit, super quality, fast delivery”.

In the field of quality, ePathChina has set up a special team to carry out the research in electronics market. After purchasing these products directly from partner manufacturers, professional quality inspector of ePathChina start to test all the functions in order to ensure its super quality when arriving to customers.

In the aspect of fast delivery, ePathChina has cooperated with many excellent logistics companies, including DHL, UPS and EMS for customers to choose. When delivery method has been confirmed, ePathChina make the delivery going immediately. If something unuausl happened in the way they will know first because every order is followed by technical clerk.

In terms of good credit, ePathChina has made meticulous work. In addition to those daily carefully dealing with deals from clients, ePathChina also makes many innovations such as Level-up Policy to encourage its buyers. When products are not satisfied by customers, they can return them back, then ePathChina can exchange, repair or even refund.

ePathChina’s innovative achievement has gained the global recognization. With these detailed work, ePathChina has accumulated lots good reputation in foreign buyers. Although established in 2007, ePathChina have served more than 15,000 worldwide customers as their high quality considerate service and electronic products.

About ePathChina.com

ePathChina Limited (http://www.epathchina.com) is a China based company and whose business office locates in Shenzhen of China (right next to Hong Kong), the global manufacturer and sourcing center of electronic products. ePathChina works for serving all business persons, such as ebay sellers, distributors, store owners, retailers, drop shippers and small wholesalers with high quality goods at a competitive price. Abiding by the principle of “Super Quality, Satisfactory Services”, ePathChina are striving hard to make win-win situation for its customers.

By: Steven Jobs

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Large successful corporations started as small companies. They were once unknown entities thriving on with their limited available funds. In a world where large corporations dominate the market, small companies would easily collapse.

So what have made these used to be small companies stay in the market? Innovation breeds success. When these companies were just starting out, they were not afraid to try out something new. Innovation is taking improvement to a much higher level. Whereas improvement is just making an existing process or product better, innovation is creating changes and discovering new methods.

Innovation is thinking out of the box. To be innovative, one must not set limitations to what he could do. Chances for success stops the moment limitations are set upon the horizons.

When things might seem hopeless, innovation could give more options. Companies that are just starting up definitely needs a lot of innovation. External factors might lack confidence in what a company can possibly do. Funds might be low but it shouldn’t hinder a company from succeeding. Innovation is capable of creating opportunities when none could be found.

At first, ideas generated might seem absurd but when these ideas are taken further, these create more feasible possibilities. Success stories usually begin with formulating ideas and creating ways to materialize them. At the onset, ideas are usually ridiculed and thought of as silly imaginations which couldn’t be done.

With the very competitive market that we have today, innovation is important. One small innovative idea could spell great success for a company. Innovation gives the lead from other competitors. Opportunities will continue pouring in as more and more ideas are generated.

In a day, millions of ideas are generated, but only a few of them really make it out to the market and fewer stays in the market. In business, pursuing that brilliant idea would make a significant difference. Starting from scratch is not at all a problem. That’s precisely what innovation is – creating something out of nothing. A lot of businesses benefit from this.

Innovation could also be applied to marketing strategies. New approach to business marketing would lead to better product advertising. Customers are always dying to try out something new. There are always room for improvement, as well as lot more room for more new business ideas. In the fight to stay in the market, those who have shown surprising and breakthrough ideas are the ones that stay.

Most of the time, failures are inevitable but these do not dampen the spirits of an innovator. Being innovative does not happen overnight, it is a product taking each outrageous idea to the next higher level.

Failures contribute to successes. Successful companies definitely had their share of failures. Usually these might even outnumber their successes. However, success due to just one innovative idea reap greater effects than a million failures. Those failures will just then be considered chapters of a great success story.

Anybody could be innovative if they chose to be so. All it takes is just a lot of freedom to let the thoughts wander about. Businesses are in cutthroat competition with each other. Whoever gets to discover new ways and products usually gets the edge.

Being innovative is defying every limits set by yourself or by other people. When others might think that it won’t be possible, innovators take it as a challenge. To be innovative means developing strong visions and working on those visions for the success of the business.

Usually, innovation would initially draw negative reactions. It would shake up the existing status quo. It is not afraid to take calculated risks. When this happens, it would broaden the opportunities for the business, thus giving it greater chances for success.

By: Mario Churchill

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Professional logos are great brand building tools that do more than good to your business. This article is an attempt to brief the fantastic art involved in professional logos making and tips to choose the best service provider for custom logos.

There are a plenty of tutorials in the internet that describe the making of new logos, best logos, and vector logos. Some of them are extremely good, but remember trial and error method especially in logo designing will let you in a lurch. This is why it is always good to choose professional logo designers for your brand building process. However, all these are secondary in nature when compared to the conceptualization process. Whether you own small business or a big one, logos are considered to be the cornerstone in branding your business.

Typically, a logo’s design is for immediate recognition. Some of the good examples include Apple Inc.’s apple with a bite missing, and Coca Cola’s fantastic art script. A log can be either an image reflecting the name or a script set aloof that impresses audience or a combination of both. It is also a good idea to design an image and create a byline that is catchy.

While selecting or creating images professional logo designers adhere to the mythological ideas so that the logo points exactly to the relevant idea when viewed by laymen. Professional logo designers follow the following steps; Gathering Information, Font Selection, Symbol or image selection, Combining the elements to form logos, and Finishing touches in creating fantastic logos that work.

Although conceptualization requires vigilant and learned mind to design creative logos for businesses, it is erroneously supposed to be a dry and difficult mental exercise that requires protracted analytical thinking. In reality the process of conceptualization is using the particulars in a unique combination and illuminating the core idea of the business firm. To create innovative logo designs, it certainly requires thinking and seeing beyond existing ideas.

Once the process of conceptualization is over, it’s time to put the pieces together and provide it a final shape. This is the final stage of creating new logos. This involves artists adept in graphics to give life to the abstract ideas convert it into a concrete image. Utmost care is taken to blend the logo with relevant fonts colors and shades to provide the perfect look. The advancements in the field of designing software makes it easy to provide the perfect finish.

Now that you have realized the importance of conceptualization and skills required for logo making, you can very well look if the service provider is capable of following all the above steps in creating alluring logos. Yet another simple way is to ask for sample logos with which you can judge the capabilities of the service provider. Do remember to look for customer reviews and check if good customer support is available, before you place your orders.

By: Ghafar

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