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This book will give you deep insight into the nature of business models. But the scale and speed at which innovative business models are
It describes traditional and bleeding-edge models and their dynamics, transforming industry landscapes today is unprecedented. For entre-
innovation techniques, how to position your model within an intensely preneurs, executives, consultants, and academics, it is high time to
competitive landscape, and how to lead the redesign of your own organi- understand the impact of this extraordinary evolution. Now is the time
zation’s business model. to understand and to methodically address the challenge of business
Certainly you’ve noticed that this is not the typical strategy or man- model innovation.
agement book. We designed it to convey the essentials of what you need Ultimately, business model innovation is about creating value, for
to know, quickly, simply, and in a visual format. Examples are presented companies, customers, and society. It is about replacing outdated models.
pictorially and the content is complemented with exercises and workshop With its iPod digital media player and iTunes.com online store, Apple
scenarios you can use immediately. Rather than writing a conventional created an innovative new business model that transformed the company
book about business model innovation, we’ve tried to design a practical into the dominant force in online music. Skype brought us dirt-cheap
guide for visionaries, game changers, and challengers eager to design or global calling rates and free Skype-to-Skype calls with an innovative
reinvent business models. We’ve also worked hard to create a beautiful business model built on so-called peer-to-peer technology. It is now the
book to enhance the pleasure of your “consumption.” We hope you enjoy world’s largest carrier of international voice traffic. Zipcar frees city dwell-
using it as much as we’ve enjoyed creating it. ers from automobile ownership by offering hourly or daily on-demand
An online community complements this book (and was integral to car rentals under a fee-based membership system. It’s a business model
its creation, as you will discover later). Since business model innovation response to emerging user needs and pressing environmental concerns.
is a rapidly evolving field, you may want to go beyond the essentials in Grameen Bank is helping alleviate poverty through an innovative business
Business Model Generation and discover new tools online. Please consider model that popularized microlending to the poor.
joining our worldwide community of business practitioners and research- But how can we systematically invent, design, and implement
ers who have co-created this book. On the Hub you can participate in these powerful new business models? How can we question, challenge,
discussions about business models, learn from others’ insights, and try and transform old, outmoded ones? How can we turn visionary ideas
out new tools provided by the authors. Visit the Business Model Hub at into game-changing business models that challenge the establishment—or
www.BusinessModelGeneration.com/hub. rejuvenate it if we ourselves are the incumbents? Business Model Generation
Business model innovation is hardly new. When the founders of Diners aims to give you the answers.
Club introduced the credit card in 1950, they were practicing business Since practicing is better than preaching, we adopted a new model
model innovation. The same goes for Xerox, when it introduced photo- for writing this book. Four hundred and seventy members of the Business
copier leasing and the per-copy payment system in 1959. In fact, we might Model Innovation Hub contributed cases, examples, and critical com-
trace business model innovation all the way back to the fifteenth century, ments to the manuscript—and we took their feedback to heart. Read more
when Johannes Gutenberg sought applications for the mechanical printing about our experience in the final chapter of Business Model Generation.
device he had invented.

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