Business Model Development Tip: Discover the Game Changer

What do you do when all of your analy­sis and strate­gic plan­ning end­ing up with answers that sug­gest “stay the course”? Espe­cially when there is no evi­dence to sup­port a shift but your gut is telling you to move. Busi­ness and strate­gic plans can be great oper­a­tional tools if they are appro­pri­ately woven into a con­cerns oper­a­tional eco-system. What we have to remem­ber is that eco-systems are influ­enced by out­side forces, often dra­mat­i­cally so. Dur­ing our plan­ning , an ana­lyt­i­cal process, we make assump­tions about what the out­side forces are and how they will influ­ence our sys­tem. This is where intu­itive think­ing — dirt under your nails — comes into play. Good intu­ition comes from years of first­hand knowl­edge that allows you to under­stand how peo­ple and the world works. This often allows you to appre­ci­ate the value derived from forward-looking (a 2 to 3 year per­spec­tive is best) and the devel­op­ment of ‘real-word’ based test mod­els or pilots to ver­ify a hunch.

Work It Like Apple

Nilofer Mer­chant, CEO and Chief Strate­gist of Rubi­con Con­sult­ing, in her recent post “If You’re Look­ing At The Past To Design The Future, You’re Going To Crash and Burn” breaks down a per­fect exam­ple of why one needs to employ both ana­lytic and intu­itive think­ing to your busi­ness. But more impor­tantly when and how each should be employed.

Dis­cover the Game Changer

The long and short of it all is that com­mon knowl­edge may not be cor­rect. Answer a ques­tion by find­ing the obvi­ous answer first, then go back and look for the not-obvious one. This is why I love hybrid think­ing (a com­bi­na­tion of process, peo­ple, and crit­i­cal based think­ing) because it works best when you con­tin­u­ally ask yourself:

• Does this make sense from per­spec­tive 1, 2, or 3?
• If so, why?
• If not, why not?

Keep an open mind. Tests new expe­ri­ences and knowl­edge against the past. If the out­comes are con­sis­tent with what is known, keep your view. If not, strive to learn why there is an incon­sis­tency. Once resolved, either keep your exist­ing frame of ref­er­ence or alter it to include the new expe­ri­ence, edu­ca­tion, cul­ture or many other fac­tors that con­tribute to your view the world.