Commentary by Rod King

Confession of an Early, Remote Customer.

Everyday people use it. Celebrities use it. And even politicians at the national level use it. Yes, it's Twitter! But, what really is Twitter?

About two and half years ago, I read a posting in Techcrunch about an emerging social network to which members easily became addicted. The social network called "Twitter" allows members to respond to one question: "What are you doing?" A member's response, however, is limited to 140 characters! Being a technophile, I easily signed up on Twitter's website. Nevertheless, it took me another two years before I answered Twitter's question of "What are you doing?" Recently, I've been reflecting on why it took me so long to "get it" about Twitter's innovation. To be honest, I'm still getting it. Now, however, I see immense opportunities in using Twitter.

What has significantly changed over time regarding Twitter? The basic format and structure of Twitter's website have remained the same. However, my perception of Twitter has been positively transformed. As an innovation, I regarded Twitter's micro-blogging feature as an example of TRIZ's Segmentation principle or trend. Nevertheless, I did not want to become a micro-blogger. I usually have a lot to say (;-)! In addition, I considered the constant question – "What are you doing?" – as an unwelcome invitation to intermittently reveal trivial snippets of my life to the whole world. And I consider myself to be a rather private person. Consequently, I was an early adopter but practically, a ‘remote' customer of Twitter's service or social network. For about two years, therefore, I did not consider "hiring" Twitter to help me get any "job" done. For about two years, I did not see how Twitter could add value to my "jobs." During that time, I saw Twitter as a social networking platform for broadcasting and receiving trivial information about ‘private and social jobs.' As time evolved, I gradually realized that Twitter could be hired for doing ‘business jobs.'

"Jobs To Be Done" is a concept that is closely associated with Clayton Christensen, the author of books such as "The Innovator's Dilemma" and "The Innovator's Solution." Jobs To Be Done (JTBD) is a simple but powerful concept especially for uncovering growth opportunities, designing customer-focused products/services, and developing innovative business models. Actually, JTBD involves hierarchical functional thinking which is prevalent in TRIZ. However, JTBD, is framed from the perspective of the customer and consequently, facilitates customer value innovation. JTBD allows someone to see the usefulness of a product or service from multiple perspectives of the customer; a ‘job' could be technical, social, emotional and/or even political. And a customer could be a private individual, group, business, or non-profit organization.

I admit that for about two years, my perception was limited by looking at Twitter through the ‘private individual' lens. Seeing Twitter through a ‘business' lens has really been liberating.

Many people and organizations are now hiring Twitter to do diverse jobs. Are you hiring Twitter to do any job? Why (not)? I'd be interested to hear your comments.

Best,
Rod.

Joey was like many inventors. He had come up with a great technology that involves a visual process for better organizing massive amounts of information. He was now finding cool ways to apply the technology.

"Search is cool," Joey thought. "And, in time, I could make a lot of bucks like Google and Yahoo." But boy was he wrong! His long search for a robust and profitable business model was making him realize that "Cool Technology does not mean Cool Money." Building a profitable business model is turning out to be a lot more difficult than he had thought. He found out that Google took about two years to develop its innovative business model and search/advertising platform. Also, there is hardly any book on how to build and innovate on business models. Joey was surprised: an important subject like business model innovation but virtually no book on the topic.

I met Joey at a networking event jointly organized by the local business incubator and chamber of commerce. Joey was chatty and eager to tell his story. He explained that he was looking for someone to help him develop a profitable business model for his new technology. Joey seemed to have decided that he was going to develop a visual search engine and compete with market leaders such as Google and Yahoo. All that he needed was to justify his decision using an explicit business model. However, I advised Joey to take another look at the national landscape of industries and try to determine which industry or domain was in most pain, desperately needed his technology, and could provide the highest Return On Investment (ROI).

The following week, I got a call from Joey. He said that he had prepared a ‘Blue Ocean Map' for a set of industries. The Blue Ocean Map contains a plot of Revenue Potential vs. Pain of Customer.

According to Joey's Blue Ocean Map, the healthcare industry currently has the highest customer pain as well as highest revenue potential. He noted that he had used his own experience and research to rate the various industries. Do you agree with Joey's assessment of the state of the featured industries? Why (not)? From a customer perspective, what are useful and harmful effects as well as technical and physical contradictions of the healthcare industry?

Also, Joey now plans to develop a business model for a visual information organizer that will be used in the healthcare industry. Is that a good direction for Joey? Why (not)?

I look forward to hearing your feedback.

Best,

Rod.

Joey Bloggs was nervous. He paced the corridor as he waited for his turn. To Joey, it felt like the first time when he ventured into the ocean with his surfboard. A creative entrepreneur with big dreams, Joey was eager to pitch his business and prototype to the panel of seasoned Venture Capitalists. Joey was seeking an investment of $300,000 for his startup business in an economy plagued by global recession.

With only ten minutes to present his case, Joey focused on talking about his highly innovative ‘visual search engine' which provides a brain-friendlier way to organize massive amounts of information. At the end of Joey's presentation, Bob Rich, the chairman of the investment committee commented: "Joey, I'm impressed with your technology and I think that your innovation could positively change the way people organize information as well as help reduce the problem of information overload. But Joey, what is your business model? How do you intend to make money with your visual search engine?"

Joey replied, "I think my search engine is more visually appealing than Google's. People will flock to my search engine. And we'll make money by selling ads just like Google does."

"Don't you have a more innovative business model?" Bob asked.

Joey was familiar with methodologies of creative problem solving and innovation such as Lateral Thinking, TRIZ, and Value Engineering. However, Joey was struggling in coming up with ideas for developing an innovative business model for his visual search engine.

If we had access to Joey Bloggs, how would we help him? How would we help Joey innovate on his business model? How should Joey go about innovating on his business model?

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Hi, my name is Rod King. And I'll be writing articles as a commentator on Real Innovation. I like collaborative approaches to creativity and innovation. And as a fan of open collaboration and "Wisdom of the Crowd," I'd like to invite the community to contribute and join me in exploring ideas on how we can help Joey Bloggs generate ideas for an innovative business model. All ideas are welcomed.

A few points of clarification though. Joey Bloggs and Bob Rich are figments of my imagination. The context of the above story is based on my experience as well as imagination. In short, I've used TRIZ Inventive Principle #5: I've merged bits of facts and fiction. I just thought that the discussion would be livelier, if the topic of business model innovation is presented within the framework of a "factional" case study. I therefore look forward to hearing your feedback.

Did I mention that Joey was looking for a definition of a business model because he couldn't find a satisfactory one? Joey's working definition of a business model is as follows:

"A business model describes the way an enterprise functions as well as delivers on its value proposition for customers and investors."

A wordy definition of a business model? But, what do you think?

Best, Rod.

Dr. Rod King is a thought leader, consultant, and trainer on business model analysis, design, and innovation. In today's world of globalization and increasing competition, enterprises need new ways to do business as well as create highly desirable and uncontested market spaces, in other words, "Blue Oceans." In fact, a 2008 Global CEO Study by IBM reported that virtually all interviewed CEOs are changing their business models. The majority of CEOs consider business model innovation as the most profitable and defensible form of innovation. Dr. King is a pioneer of an integrated approach to business model analysis, design, innovation, and performance management.

As an expert on visual business modeling, Dr. King helps individuals, teams, and businesses to develop visual business models and dashboards for greater profitability and competitive advantage. He offers clients a better way to ask and manage breakthrough questions not only for designing business models but also for monitoring and managing the performance of business models. Dr. King is the inventor of the Blue Ocean-Performance Dashboard, which is an integrated portfolio of best practice tools for exponential growth in business. The Blue Ocean-Performance Dashboard visually integrates three powerful tools in business management: Value (Supply) Chain; Blue Ocean Strategy; Balanced Scorecard.

Dr. King is the inventor of the "Fractal Grid" which is a visual organizer that has pending US and international patents. The Fractal Grid is also being applied as a visual search engine. Dr. King uses the Zoomable Page, which is the basis of the Fractal Grid, to facilitate visual idea generation and problem solving as well as business model analysis, design, and innovation.

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