Latest posts
A Smarter Way to Design Business Strategies to Serve the Poor
With intelligent modelling, a little data can go a long way when it comes to predicting the performance of bottom-of-the-pyramid strategies.
Workplace Excellence Can Be Contagious
Collective outcomes soar when top performers mingle with less adept colleagues.
Ad Hoc Promotions Can’t Buy Customer Loyalty
Short-term promotions disconnected from your overall strategy will not give your business a lasting lift.
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Is Fintech Here to Stay?
2015 was the best year for venture investment in US Fintech start-ups since 2000, with $21.6 billion invested, but the number of deals fell for the first time since 2009.
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Corporates and Start-ups: Engage or Else!
There have never been more ways for big companies and entrepreneurs to collaborate - and you’d be surprised at how common these unlikely pairings are becoming.
Carbon Pricing: Not Such a Clean Option
Carbon pricing has been hailed as the best way to bring down emissions and drive investment in cleaner technologies. New research suggests it could do just the opposite.
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How the Lean Startup Approach Can Alleviate Poverty
Experimenting before plunging into major investments can pay off in the long run.
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Geolocation is Changing the Retail Business Model Yet Again
And maybe that’s why Amazon is moving into bricks-and-mortar.
Product Knowledge Drives Sales Leadership
Retail sales associates with strong brand expertise sell 87 percent more than peers without.
Why Large Companies Struggle With Business Model Innovation
Innovation success stories are all strikingly similar: a bright idea, supported by a zealot-innovator who sees it through. The windfall of goodies follows. But failures happen for all sorts of reasons, and they often occur even when the idea is sound.
A Business Model for Bangladesh
Following the collapse of the Rana Plaza factory building in Bangladesh in April, which caused the deaths of over 1,000 people, many commentators pointed to the absence of building codes, lack of workplace safety rules, and the greed of corporations. But there are business model solutions that can improve supply chain compliance.
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Liberate Your Employees and Recharge your Business Model
As we discussed in our recent blog post on HBR Blogging Network, it finally seems that the uproar overMarissa Meyer’s diktat banning flexible work policies at Yahoo is dying down. While good arguments were made on both sides of the issue, what got lost in the charged debate was the potential for evolving traditional business models through changing the employee-employer relationship.
Tesla’s Model S: Technology Outruns the Business Model
In our recent blog post on HBR blogging network we discussed the Tesla Model S, which is arguably the most promising all-electric contender for a slice of the luxury sedan market, but was panned recently by New York Times reporter John Broder, who finished his test-drive on the back of a flatbed truck. Elon Musk, co-founder of Tesla Motors, was quick to respond with accusations that the test was not performed under fair conditions. Whatever the rights and wrongs of the dispute, though, one thing is clear: Tesla has some way to go before it can get motorists to buy into its vision of an all-electric no-compromises luxury sedan.
When Business Models Trump Technology
In a recent blog post on Harvard Business Review we discuss one of these frequent situations in which business model innovation is necessary to bring technological innovation to life. In case you missed it, the2012 World Food Prize went to Daniel Hillel, an Israeli scientist who, in his own words, “…helped to develop the principle of shifting from low-frequency, high-volume irrigation to high-frequency, low-volume irrigation”, the system known as drip irrigation.
Why Apple Has to Manufacture in China
Apple gets a lot of stick about manufacturing in China, and the issue came up again recently with the release of the iPhone 5. A recent article on the “Cult of Mac”contrasts Apple to Timbuk2, a US producer of traveler and messenger bags, that proudly locates most of its of its manufacturing in San Francisco, one of the most expensive places on earth. The workers in the factory are neither overworked nor are they underpaid, yet Timbuk2 is not struggling financially unlike many other US-based manufacturers. This begs the question: can’t Apple do the same and move jobs back from China? We covered this issue in a recent post on HBR network.
Making car manufacturing sane: Business Model Innovation at Volkswagen
After a brief hiatus due to vacations and travel over summer, the Renaissance Innovator blog is back! While I was catching up on the stack of journals which accumulated over summer, a Fortune article about Volkswagen which describes transformation of the company from a local German producer to a global phenomenon with over €160B in sales caught my eye. Volkswagen has quietly passed General Motors and Toyota last year to become the largest automotive maker in the world. So what is its secret?
The Darwinian Workplace in the WinnerS-take-all Organizations
The latest issue of Harvard Business Review features an article “The Darwinian Workplace” on promoting healthy competition in the workplace that I co-authored. The key message of the article is based on several research projects with highly innovative technology companies that implemented tournaments among its workers to increase worker productivity and, at the same time, to increase firm’s profitability.
How to Innovate for a Greener World (and Make Money)
In the minds of both consumers and managers going green is typically thought as being associated with an additional expense. We see this in food stores, for instance, where organic products cost more. Despite this general perception, there exists a simple approach for just about any organization or household to become more sustainable and make more money in the process.
Innovating Presidential Elections: What Can one Learn from the Russian Experience?
Recent presidential elections in Russia have drawn worldwide attention over the last few months. There was, however, one aspect of elections which did not receive as much coverage in the western press (at least in my opinion).
What is the “best” way to innovate?
MIT Sloan Management Review just came out with the latest 2012 picks for the world’s most innovative companies. This is a great list which includes 50 very interesting companies (mostly young) in a number of industries. While I enjoyed reading about these innovative companies, I could not help but be once again disappointed with the exclusive focus on product and technology innovators on the list and the lack of Business Model Innovators.
Making Cars Electric, One Country at a Time
Not that long ago, I talked about one of the most interesting startups I know of, an Israeli company called Better Place, which has the promise to accomplish what 170 years of technology innovation failed to achieve. What I am talking about is the elusive dream of electric vehicles and the constant struggle of word’s best scientists to combat two basic issues with electric vehicles: the range anxiety and the high cost of batteries.
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Is there such thing as fair price?
Among Renaissance Innovations that dramatically changed airline industries around the world is dynamic pricing.
To focus or not to focus (on patients, that is)?
As I am preparing for a teaching session in a couple of weeks in Moscow, I realized that we had not written about one of the older but even more relevant today innovation. Some months back I blogged about a very cool startup Diapers.com which was founded by my former students in 2005 and which was recently acquired by Amazon.com.
Retail innovations for the 21st century
A few related things happened this week which all prompted me to write about retail innovations. First, a startup company I am advising, Objective Logistics, has received a round of funding from Google Ventures and Atlas Ventures.
