Business Model Generation

   Business Model Generation, provides and incredibly powerful and concise tool for Entrepreneurs who want to start a successful and stable business or for business that want to evaluate and improve their existing business.  The beginning of the book describes what a Business Model Canvas is and instructs readers on how use it.  The Business Model Canvas is targeted mainly at entrepreneurs and is a diagram that is divided into nine different categories that the entrepreneur fills out with specific elements about the business plan.

Business Model Canvas in it's graphic form

   The Business Model Canvas categories include:

1. Customer Segments
2. Value Propositions
3. Channels
4. Customer Relationships
5. Revenue Streams
6. Key Resources
7. Key Activities
8. Key Partnerships
9. Cost Structure

All of these categories create for a concise plan and way of approaching evaluating a business plan, all while having very clear and explicit explanations as to subcategories, characteristics, and different points of views.

The Business Model Canvas in it's useable form

Working with the Internet

Michael Porter's "Strategy and the Internet"

   "Strategy and the Internet is a very interesting article.  The article talks about how traditional business tactics and strategies are effected by the Internet.  The main point that he makes throughout the article is that if business integrates the Internet and works with it, then business will be able to flourish and ultimately succeed.  One way that the Internet changes business is that it empowers customers.  Customers are no longer limited to their geography for acquiring their goods and services.  Customers are also empowered, because with the internet they are now able to easily compare prices and products in ways that were previously impossible.  However, there are some draw backs, such as the elimination of face to face contact, and the inability of customers to interact with products before purchasing them.  But, overall Porter feels that the gain from the modern Internet is worth the few drawbacks.

Christoph Sawyer

How do you become an Innovator?

As a kid I wanted to be an inventor. As I started to grow up, so did my grasp on reality.  You can't really aspire to be an inventor.  More recently, I'm able to see how my dream job can be a reality.  By combining my love of technology and by thinking in an innovative way, I can in way become an inventor.  But how does one be innovative?  Innovation is a sort of abstract term.  However, Peter Drucker did a really good job of outlining the components of innovation.

Drucker outlines innovation in "7 Sources of Innovation":

1. The Unexpected
2. Incongruities
3. Process Needs
4. Industry and Market Structure
5. Demographics
6. Changes in Perception
7. New Knowledge

I think that Drucker's source list is both helpful and accurate in explicitly outlining what it means to be innovative and how to be innovative.

1. Innovation is all about thinking forward, thinking about what people want/need before they do, this is "The Unexpected" aspect of the source list.  An example of this is Google Drive (formerly Google Docs), Google identified that people like collaborating, but previous there were not any robust web-apps for working collaboratively.
   
2. Thinking about things that seem to contradict seems to amaze people and can revolutionize an idea, this explains Drucker's "Incongruities".  An example of this is the "Nano" car and how Tata Motors wanted to create a small yet spacious car to fit a four person family in.  
   
3. Figuring out what product people need that otherwise doesn't exist and really make a product profitable and really take off.  This is what is referred to as "Process Needs".  An example of this is the iPhone, how it revolutionized phones (into Smartphones), and how the iPhone revolutionized "apps", because the majority of people use "apps" in their everyday life.
   
4. Shifting around how a company or business operates and how it is structured is another key aspect; it helps to always keep the company following to up-to-date with current products and practices.  On the source this this is known as "Industry and Market Structure".  This is best demonstrated when a new person comes into a company and restructures the business in a way they feel is most effective, to create positive change in the company's day-to-day operations.
   
5. Demographics are an important part of innovation, because it allows product to reach a certain group of people that might not have been previously targeted.  15 years ago, no one thought that teens and children would be a huge consumer of electronics, ie. iPods, tablets, etc)
   
6. To be different, you need to think different.  "Changing Perception" and having a fresh out-look, allows for a lot of growth and naturally, innovation will follow.  By changing advertising methods to digital ones, companies are more easily able to attract younger and wide audience way more efficiently than anything previously.
   
7. New Knowledge is the key to staying in business.  After knowing what is, and what isn't working, an more successful product or business is able to emerge.  An example is Apple, and their "ear-pods".  Apple recently introduced their new earbud design; advertising that they looked at hundreds of different ears, in order to maximize audio effectiveness.  This was a step forward due to the poor quality of their previous earbuds.

These are just a few thoughts and my interpretations of Drucker's "7 Steps of Innovation".  Let me know what you think and what your opinion is.  For reference I looked at the following website for the list of steps: http://www.innovationmanagement.org/Wiki/index.php?title=7_Sources_of_Innovation_(Peter_Drucker)

Innovation Quotes

"Innovation is often the result of connecting seemingly disconnected ideas to create a solution" -Nanovation, p.11

"The best way to predict the future is to create it" -Peter Drucker

Is writing notes something of the future?

    Many of you have probably have heard of the note taking app Evernote.  If you haven't, Evernote is an application that allows you to take notes and sync those notes on your mobile device, computer, and on the internet. Evernote's versatility, ease of use, and multitude of tools are what have made the app become so popular.  Because the application has so many different uses and such high potential, people are always finding different ways to utilize this utility.  So that's Evernote's overview in a nutshell.  Now on to how they most recently become even more innovative.

    Let me introduce you to the new "Evernote Smart Notebook by Moleskine".

Their latest note taking utility merges the past and present together to create something truly unique.  This notebook allows users to take notes as they normally would in a notebook, but then allows them to photograph their notes, uploading them and indexing them to the user's Evernote account.  This tool is the solution for those who retain information better when they write their notes, but want to have those notes accessible on the computer.  Be forewarned, the mobile application to take the photo is only on iOS (iPhone).
Some of the "Evernote Smart Notebook" include:

• Ruled or Squared paper
• Pocket or Large Sized books
• SmartStickers which interacted with the application when photographed
• A free three-month subscription to Evernote Premium

  You can preorder the notebook now, and starting October 1st you can order the book.  You can click here to learn how to use the notebook and application.  You can also click here to read Evernote's Blog post about their new notebook.