John Seely Brown has, for almost four decades, been one of information technologies' true visionaries. A recent, fresh review of his 1997 compilation of articles by thought leaders of the day, Seeing Things Differently: Insights on Innovation, uncovered this prescient thought on business model innovation:
"To do things differently, we must learn to see things differently. Seeing differently means learning to question the conceptual lenses through which we view and frame the world, our businesses, our core competencies, our competitive advantage, and our business models... If there is anything actually coming into focus today, it is the realization that we need to question much of what we think we know about how to conduct commerce, including marketing, distribution, service and the notion of competition itself. Hardest of all, we need to be able to think about changing the architecture of our revenue streams, that is, the way we make money."
Though published prior to the mainstreaming of the Internet revolution and the reordering of the cosmos, much of the book retains currency in this era of globalization, dynamic commerce ecosystems, social networks and on-demand delivery of services.
Advances in technology in general, and information-related technologies in particular, continue apace. It can be difficult sometimes separating the real from the imagined, but for those enterprises that do not understand or, worse still, fail to embrace the changes/opportunities that are manifest in this environment, life can become brutal pretty quickly. The quote above speaks to the importance of constantly assessing, testing, reframing and reinventing your business model.
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