Business Model Generation, Alexander Osterwalder & Yves Pigneur

"Brainstorming for business models"
 

Summary

“Business model” has always been an obscure thing for me. Of course, I knew that a business model is the “how an organization creates, delivers, and captures value”, but this remained quite obscure to me. The book of Osterwalder and Pigneur makes a great step in putting some light on the “business model” concept. This is firstly done by defining a canvas, which describes the components of a business model, then giving a set of interesting patterns (templates), which are complemented by very clear and interesting market examples.

 

Model / Concepts

The main model is the “business model canvas”:

Infrastructure

• Key Activities: The most important activities in executing a company's value proposition.
• Key Resources: The resources necessary to create value for the customer.
• Key Partners: Buyer-supplier relationships permitting focusing on their core activity.

Offering

• Value Proposition: The collection of products and services a business offers to meet the needs of its customers. Characterized by newness, performance, customization, design, brand, price, status, risk reduction, convenience/usability.

Customers

• Customer Segments: Mass, niche, segmented, diversified, multi-sided
• Channels: Direct/ indirect. Phases: awareness, evaluation, purchase, delivery, after sales.
• Customer Relationship: Personal, dedicated personal, self-service, automated services, communities.

Finances

• Cost Structure: Cost-driven, value-driven, fixed-cost, variable costs, economy of scale/scope.
• Revenue Streams: Asset sales, usage fee, subscription fee, lending/renting/leasing, licensing, brokerage fee, advertising. Fixed pricing vs. dynamic pricing.

Impact

This is the weak point: It’s not easy to generate a direct impact for a company. In my case, it has been very helpful to better structure the business plan and also to better communicate it, but then it’s over. Probably the impact is more important in larger companies, where there are a lot of people in charge of the business model.

 

Rating

• rating Amazon - 4.5/5.0 (268 reviews)
• my rating - 4.0/5.0
• fun factor - 4.0/5.0
• simplicity - 5.0/5.0
• impact - 3.0/5.0

The Brand Gap, Marty Neumeier

"Excellent book about the power of branding."

Summary

The brand gap is an excellent book about the power of branding. It defines and presents what brand and branding is with simple yet powerful definitions and concepts.
The book points out that a brand is a person’s gut feeling about a product, service or company. It is therefore not what you say it is, it’s what they say it is.
The brand gap is between strategies, marketing, and creative, between analytical, logical, linear, and intuitive, emotional, between concrete, numerical and spatial, visual.

Model / Concepts
The book presents the five disciplines of branding:

1. Differentiate – Who are you? What do you do? Why does it matter?
2. Collaborate – Outsource vs. internally with an integrated marketing team.
3. Innovate – Passion is magic, not logic: Creativity, naming, icons/avatars instead of logos, packaging.
4. Validate – Test distinctiveness, relevance, memorability, extendibility, depth.
5. Cultivate – Every person in the company has to be involved in the branding process. No decision should be made without asking: “Will this help or hurt the brand?”

Impact
If you are a new comer in branding, this book is worth gold: The basic definitions of branding and the clear focus into the branding exercise are key factors to bring a company into the market.
If you are a branding expert, I think that the book still brings you valuable information, especially with the disciplines and the virtuous circle created by them.

Rating

• rating Amazon – 4.5/5.0 (89 reviews)
• my rating - 4.5/5.0
• fun factor – 4.5/5.0
• simplicity - 4.5/5.0
• impact - 4.5/5.0

Who Moved My Cheese, Spencer Johnson

"Very simplistic, but with some interesting basics about change."

Summary

It is well known that change is a source of stress, and it is also well known that nowadays change happens more and more often.

Mr. Johnson presents the cheese/mouse metaphor explaining how to deal with change.

The book is quite simplistic and concentrates on few basics about change, which can be helpful for young professionals.

Model / Concepts

Well, it's not really a model. The book correctly states that:

1. Change happens.
2. You have to watch for signs of change, and prepare for it.
3. When change happens, don't try to resist, adapt to it quickly.
4. Enjoy change as it is a source of opportunity.

Impact
Not so much.

To be honest, I was reading this book in the beginning of my management experience, and it helped me being more open-minded with respect to change. The two points I use to promote in my company are:

1. When change happens, don't try to resist, adapt to it quickly.
2. Remember that change is a source of opportunity.

Rating

• rating Amazon - 3.3/5.0 (1'768 reviews)
• my rating - 3.0/5.0
• fun factor - 3.5/5.0
• simplicity - 5.0/5.0
• impact - 2.0/5.0

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable, Patrick Lencioni

"Extremely well designed model for team building. My preferred team development book for its impact!"

Summary
This is a typical Lencioni-style book, where most of the text is dedicated to a so-called fable, which illustrates both the problem and the solution the author wants to address. If you like the style, then you'll have a lot of reward because it's really easy and quick to read, to understand and to apply.
In this work, the author proposes a model to foster team work quality in several steps starting from the foundations of team work up to full focus on result.

Model / Concepts

The goal is to face the typical dysfunctions of a team from the bottom to build up a strong, cohesive team working together towards the result.

1. Absence of trust - This is the first dysfunction, where people tend to hide their weaknesses and mistakes. To address that, one has to build a culture, where being open and human is natural and seen as positive.
2. Fear of conflict - Debate and constructive conflict are the base of successful and committed decisions. A team has therefore to fight against the fear of conflict, which creates unconstructive artificial harmony.
3. Lack of commitment - After constructive conflict, it is important to enforce clarity and closure thus avoiding ambiguity. Clear decisions help getting to commitment.
4. Avoidance of accountability - When trust, positive debate, and commitment are achieved, a leader has to support accountability, which helps keeping high standards.
5. Inattention to result - Finally, the team can concentrate on result and avoid destructive status and ego issues.

Impact
Well, the impact is huge!
It's quite easy to explain and promote the concepts.
Trust, constructive conflict and commitment, are also easy to apply and have a clear impact in the way the team works. Of course, you have to address all the fears both on a team level and for every team member on a one-on-one level, but then you can have substantial improvements in short time.
Avoidance of accountability is the most challenging dysfunction to address. Only people that trust each other and that don't fear conflict will have the courage to make their subordinate, pair or even superior accountable. This is a never ending work that brings also important benefits, but with more effort.

Rating

• rating Amazon - 4.4/5.0 (346 reviews)
• my rating - 5.0/5.0
• fun factor - 4.5/5.0
• simplicity - 5.0/5.0
• impact - 5.0/5.0

How to Write Great Copy for the Web, Donna Spencer

"A good, compact book to help you writing text for your web site."

Summary
If you have a blog for your friends, a web site for the family pictures, or a list of the latest MP3 readers, it may be too early to read this book.
If you are in a big company with a marketing department and a lot of advertising suppliers, this book is too basics.
However, if you are in a small company, where you have to start being more professional, but without the resources of a big one, this is a good, compact book helping you writing text, which will have more impact on your web pages.

Model / Concepts

The book doesn't really have a model, but a very good structure covering:

1. The difference between the web and the other media (newspapers, revues, etc.).
2. Some basic "secrets" about page titles, headings, lists, quotes, etc.
3. Some important style hints (writing to the reader, use authentic voice, etc.).
4. Other suggestions about how to be persuasive with your text.

Impact

Again, as explained in the summary, if writing and proof reading is not enough anymore because you are getting more and more professional / industrial, then it is very helpful to read this book before collaborating with the suppliers helping you creating your new web site.

Rating

• rating Amazon - N/A (0 reviews)
• my rating - 4.0/5.0
• fun factor - 3.5/5.0
• simplicity - 4.5/5.0
• impact - 4.0/5.0

Getting Things Done, David Allen

"A masterpiece for personal productivity in the modern working environment."

Summary

Getting Things Done has become a best seller and is today the most important reference in the "getting things done" topic. This is not by chance!

The book starts by saying that nowadays, we have more and more demands and insufficient resources to fulfill them. The goal is thus to capture anything you consider unfinished out of your mind in a trusted system. Then, the idea is to first define the problem, the success, and the next action toward success. Finally, you do and follow up.

Model/concepts

The goal is not to manage your “stuff”, but to manage your actions needed to bring your “stuff” to success:

  1.  Collect – In the system out of the head; Few collection buckets; Empty buckets regularly.
  2.  Process – Actionable?
No, then set it  as trash, maybe later, or potentially useful;
Yes, then define action, do if < 2min, delegate, or defer & track.
  3.  Organize – Actions on calendar, next action by context (calls, computer, office, etc.), and waiting for.
  4.  Review – Weekly gather & process new “stuff”, review calendar, update action lists.
  5.  Do – Choose by context (where am I?), time available, energy available, priority.

Impact
Huge, really!
There are two key points in Allen's approach that are highly powerful:

• Get “stuff” out of your head in a trusted system.
• Think and act in term of actions toward success not in term of problems.

The book gives all the necessary material to do that, and it works. Once you have no stuff in your head, and you know that with your system you can correctly handle it, your life is much easier. Additionally, the concept of action thinking/acting is extremely powerfull to face problems in a positive and simple way.
This has played an important role in my working life when my company has moved from the "few friends" start-up phase to the "leader & team" structure. Before, I was still involved in some development, and I had quite long slots to perform relatively few different tasks. As leader of a small team, I had to perform more and more small tasks, and there David's model has been very helpful.

Rating

• rating Amazon - 4.4/5.0 (641 reviews)
• my rating - 4.5/5.0
• fun factor - 4.0/5.0
• simplicity - 4.0/5.0
• impact - 5.0/5.0

The One Minute Manager, Kenneth Blanchard & Spencer Johnson

"Short, simple, maybe even simplistic, but useful in practice."

Summary

That's a classic book arguing that management of people can be simple (one minute) by applying three basic concepts: Goal setting, praising, reprimand.

There is one key concept stating that it's easier to learn by knowing what to do (i.e. what is right), instead of knowing what not to do (i.e. what is wrong).

This is achieved by putting in place clarity with written goal setting, praising of right behaviours, and reprimanding bad behaviours when the goals and the right behaviours are known.

Model/concepts

One Minute Goal Setting

• Agree on goals, and write each goal on a single page with less than 250 words.
• Take a minute regularly to look at your performance and check if your behavior matches your goal.

One Minute Praising

• Praise people immediately and tell them specifically what they did right.
• Tell people how you feel about their behaviour, and how this impacts the success of other people and the whole organization.
• Encourage them to do more of the same.

One Minute Reprimand

• Reprimand people immediately and tell them specifically what they did wrong.
• Tell people how you feel about their behaviour.
• Explain that you reprimand the behaviour, and still you value the people.
• When the reprimand is over, it's over.

Impact
Even though the model is quite simplistic, there is one extremely powerful concept that can be used in practice, which is: "Catch people doing something right".
The reason is simple: It's much easier to learn by knowing what to do instead what not to do.
This is indeed a huge motivator for employees, who are rewarded for their successes.
Additionally, when people are rewarded for their good job, they accept more easily the critics (or reprimands).
In my team, this turns out to be a powerful tool.

Rating

• rating Amazon - 4.1/5.0 (212 reviews)
• my rating - 4.0/5.0
• fun factor - 4.0/5.0
• simplicity - 4.5/5.0
• impact - 5.0/5.0