Introduction

In 2006, Henry Chesbrough wrote in the opening lines of his now classic book, Open Business Models, that “knowing that innovation is a core business necessity is not news, but that innovating a business model is news.”(Preface xiii) Today, thinking about innovating your business model has become more common and less news worthy. What is news, though, is the currently available methodologies by which business models may be analyzed, designed, and implemented. For this reason, business model design is appropriate in a volume dedicated to design and design thinking.

Business model design will be of greatest interest to: executives responsible for finding better ways to compete, product managers who look to launch a new product, research and development (R&D) managers who need to prove their innovation has market value, or marketing managers who look to increase market share. Many of these professionals have already heard of business models, but in our experience they lack an ability to articulate exactly what their model is or how it works.

Although innovative business model thinking is becoming more prevalent, there are still lingering questions as to what it is, what is its value, and where does it fit with design thinking and strategy. This chapter addresses these questions and more. We will show how business model design can insightfully provide bold new opportunities for competing more effectively, launching a new business more successfully, or growing your business and market share.

18.1 What Is a Business Model?

The first use of the term business model came at the advent of personal computing and the invention of spreadsheets to create what-if financial models. These models were helpful for exploring sensitivities of a business's financials to numerous variables before ever launching the business. The ability to model and simulate a business's financials allowed questioning and exploration, which provided management with insight and increasing confidence. It stands to reason then that if the financials of a business can be modeled and in charta stress-tested why not other aspects of the business.

In 2002, Joan Magretta noted in her seminal article “Why Business Models Matter” that business modeling is becoming much more than just the financial modeling. She suggested that business modeling is the combination of two elements: the first was a logical story, which she called the narrative, and second, an economic model based on the narrative. The story, she added, was explaining who your customers are, what they value, and how you will make money. The economic model is then based on, and dependent on, the assumptions introduced in the narrative. She concluded that fault with either element would be fatal to the business. Although modest in detail, for the first time a method for business modeling beyond the financials was proposed.

In 2008 Mark Johnson, Clay Christensen, and Henning Kagermann wrote “Reinventing Your Business Model,” in which they defined the business model as the sum of three elements: the Value Proposition, the Profit Formula, and Key Resources and Processes. They demonstrated that business model innovation can substantially create new value in an industry or category and they defined the conditions warranting a business model review. For the first time, a criterion for triggering a business model evaluation was proposed, including a framework for creating a business model. Further, they boldly offered that the value of business model design was that it has the potential to help revolutionize a market or even to create new markets.

However, these critical thinking experts stopped short of delivering a framework that management and product managers could use to analyze, design, but also implement a business model. Figure 18.1 shows the evolution of business model thinking, from spreadsheets to the current thinking in business model design.

Regardless of the framework you may consider using, keep in mind the guiding principle of all business model design concepts, and that is, that the implemented model must both optimize value to the customer and value to the organization with a risk profile that is acceptable to the business. Identifying a business model that can deliver on this principle is the objective of all business model design methods. But this simple principle does not allay the confusion about business models and herein we will address four key questions:

1. When do I need to think about my business model?
2. What value should I expect from a business model design?
3. What method can I use to design a business model?
4. How do I implement my new or revised business model?

18.2 When Do I Need to Think about My Business Model?

In our experience, we have found two key triggers for management to consider a business model design: either the business is under obvious or perceived threat, or there is intent to launch a new business or new product. Here, we can refer to the first trigger as the Black Cloud scenario and the second, of course, as the White Cloud scenario.

In the Black Cloud scenario, management considers the business's potential to sustain itself into the future as they face a changing environment and evolving customer needs. As the dynamic unfolds, prescient managers recognize that they need more than a bandage to reinvigorate their position. They see need for an integrated analysis that will question if the company's business model is keeping pace, anticipating change, and positioning it ahead of market needs. Anticipatory Black Cloud thinkers see their markets changing and act—some successfully, like IBM, Netflix, and HP; and some not so successfully, like Kodak, Research-in-Motion (Blackberry), or Blockbuster. Jim Collins (2009), in “How the Mighty Fall,” characterizes this condition superbly:

I've come to see institutional decline like a staged disease: harder to detect but easier to cure in the early stages, easier to detect but harder to cure in the later stages. An institution can look strong on the outside but already be sick on the inside, dangerously on the cusp of a precipitous fall. (page 5)

In the White Cloud Scenario, entrepreneurs see the world in a new light with a new technology, new product, or new processes or service. Their choice is to introduce this new idea in a traditional business model or strengthen the offering by wrapping it in a more creative and potent model. There is a vast list of entrepreneurial companies that have wrapped their innovation in a new business model—like Google introducing its search engine in an advertising model, Fresh Direct introducing its fresh meals in a home delivery model, Zip Car introducing its automotive card swipe technology in a rent-anywhere-anytime model, or Apple wrapping its iPod in the iTunes music delivery model.

In both Black Scenarios and White Scenarios, there is that moment when management knows they must to do something different. And rather than jumping into reevaluating their strategic plan, which feels good because it is action oriented, they first consider how a business model analysis can inform their strategic planning process. So the time to think about your business model is when you have a Black Cloud or White Cloud trigger but before you conduct your strategic planning.

In our experience, it benefits to start with a critical self-evaluation of how your business stacks up against the competition. One way of doing so is to complete the Business Model Strength Survey (found at www.analogypartners.com/methodology.html). The survey provides a means of directly scoring your business against that of your competition and reveals where possible weaknesses exist.

18.3 What Value Should I Expect from a Business Model Design?

Michael Porter (1985) in his classic book Competitive Advantage defined a business's potential as always being relative to its competitors: “Competition is at the core of the success or failure of firms” (page 1). He suggested that the main purpose of a business model is to create competitive advantage by creating superior value for buyers. Thus, any business model design method must include comparison to your competition.

Improving on your business model will depend on the type of competition and the strength of competition. Are you competing with a well-defined competitor or more nebulous competition such as with your customer's time or attention (there is always competition whether it is implicit or explicit)? If your competition is weak, lacks growth, or has razor-thin margins and yet the market's need remains, then there is less of a challenge in developing a competitive business model. However, if your competition is like Apple, Starbucks, or Nike, your challenge is, of course, greater. Nevertheless, to win in your market is to understand your competition, and improving your business model so that it delivers to the needs of your consumer in the multiple ways that are important to them.

Michael Porter further defined a business's competitive advantage as either being Cost Advantage or Non–Cost Differentiation Advantage. Some contemporary experts suggest that companies must drive both to stay competitive in our global market. Regardless, a business model design can help identify multiple and perhaps unexpected means of achieving both. For example, Target achieves cost and differentiation advantage relative to Wal-Mart, with its comparable low costs but with superior product offerings and a better shopping experience. Olay achieves relatively low cost compared to prestige cosmetics but does so, and differentiates itself in its channel. Their model is masstige, a prestige product sold through a mass channel. Toyota achieves differentiation through its smart product design and low cost through its relentless productivity improvements in manufacturing. To the consumer, this translates into highly reliable vehicles at very affordable prices. A business model design can and should define elements that both deliver cost and non–cost differentiation.

Finally, there is a common misconception that achieving value from a business model design is difficult or arduous to implement. Of course, some changes can be difficult and risky, but in many cases, extreme makeovers are unnecessary to achieve tangible results. You have options—some will deliver significant business value but are high risk; others are low risk but of limited value. Other options are the appropriate choice, but the business lacks the resources or know-how. Homing in on the appropriate options, in a methodical way, is the process of business model design. You should therefore expect that the business model design process will answer the questions of (1) how to consider the “many different options” and (2) how to “select the option with an effective change that offers an acceptable risk of failure.”

18.4 What Method Can I Use to Design a Business Model?

Business model design is still an evolving discipline with multiple design methods available, but when considering which to choose, assess the method's ability to:

1. Allow teams to easily understand and work fluidly with the method.
2. Connect competitive realities with the model.
3. Facilitate innovative low-cost and differentiation advantages across all aspects of the business.
4. Facilitate transition of innovative ideas into the business's strategy and execution processes.

While business model design methodologies generally satisfy the first three objectives, we have not seen any that facilitates the fourth. Methodologies that use more abstract building blocks, such as Value Proposition, Key Partners, and Key Activities, while essential to the business model discussion are nonetheless less rigorously connected to the organization's defined roles and responsibilities and therefore do not fluidly translate into, or enable, the execution process. We suggest that the six-cornerstone methodology (below) uniquely achieves all four objectives.

The six-cornerstone methodology uses a framework depicting the six fundamental cornerstones or building blocks of a business as seen in Figure 18.2. The six cornerstones are titled: (1) Product (or Service), (2) Customer, (3) Influencer, (4) Revenue, (5) Channel, and (6) Manufacturing or Operations. Moreover, the framework is applicable to any organization: for-profit or non-profit, large corporations or start-ups.

Let us first define what each business cornerstone represents; here as a guide are some characterizations:

1. Product defines the physical product or service you intend to provide and the means by which you develop and protect it. It also includes all ancillary effects that create uniqueness for the offering including packaging, accessories, training or education, support or complimentary services, or defines defensive assets such as intellectual property (e.g., patents, trademarks, trade secrets, and copyrights). If you offer a service, this can include customer experience, customer service, presentation, or the environment in which you deliver the service.
2. Customer defines the ultimate user or decision maker. They can be a consumer buying shampoo or an intermediary who selects and purchases a product for an end user such as a surgeon selecting an implantable pacemaker for a patient. Marketing is a key contributor to this cornerstone; consider, then, how effectively the Functional (physical, utilitarian), Experiential (emotional), and Symbolic (spiritual or self-actualization) aspects motivate the customer to purchase your product (for details see Park et al. “Strategic Brand Concept-Image Management”).
3. Influencer defines anyone in the product's ecosystem that has credentials to influence the awareness, trial, purchase, or product loyalty of your product. This can be an individual, media, associations, buying groups, key opinion leaders, recognized experts, or what Malcolm Gladwell called “Mavens” in his book The Tipping Point. The Influencer helps the customer make a product selection, or to help realize the maximum benefit after buying a product or service.
4. Revenue defines the manner in which the business will generate revenues and profits. Even a “free” business model, where the product is given away free, must have some aspect, such as sponsor-paid advertising, that helps secure compensation to sustain the business.
5. Channel defines the means by which product is delivered to the ultimate consumer. There are three kinds: channels that require the consumer to go to a location (bricks-and-mortar stores), channels that deliver product to the consumer (by mail, by Internet, by drone, or service in the home), or channels that are virtual (television and online sales). Increasingly, the channel must offer the consumer alternatives and an excellent shopping experience to provide a competitive advantage.
6. Manufacturing or Operations defines the means by which you produce your product or a service. It can be a tangible production process such as that used to make ball bearings, automotive engines, or electric toothbrushes. Or it can be less tangible production such as software. Or it can be production of an experience such as Disneyland, a Broadway play, or Viking Cruises.

The six-cornerstones are the foundational elements of business model design, but there is more. You will note in Figure 18.2 that each cornerstone has a link to each other cornerstone. These links can have meaning and importance. Whenever the definition of one cornerstone is inextricably linked to another, then the link has unique meaning and is of critical import. For example, if the product is defined or designed by the customer, then both the Product and Consumer cornerstones become linked in a manner different than if it were a mass-produced product. A good example of this is the Threadless Tee Shirt Company that produces T-shirts designed by consumers. The link between the Product cornerstone and the Consumer cornerstone becomes an essential and differentiable element of their business model. For simplicity, we will not expand on the nuances of the links in this chapter, but mention it only to show that the framework embodies depth beyond the six cornerstones.

18.5 Process of Designing a Business Model

Given this framework for defining a business model, we will now show how to use it for designing your model. This process will help your team explore all options that are plausible to outdo the competition and will prioritize which to include in your strategy. The six steps are:

1. Define the business model of competitors. Since this is a comparative effort, it is necessary to first define the business model of your competitors by evaluating their strengths and weaknesses using the cornerstone model. For consistency, assume the point-of-view of the consumer when doing the comparative analysis—how would the consumer rate the value they derive from each cornerstone. If consumers express need for improvement from even the most successful company in your category then even that company does not earn best-in-class scores. In some markets, an “Influencer” or recommender's point-of-view of competitive strength is more relevant to the evaluation. For example, a surgeon influences which type of pacemaker a patient will receive even though the patient is the consumer of the pacemaker.

   We suggest you do your first analysis by color-coding the six cornerstones of your competitor. Use green to highlight your competitor's cornerstones where consumers consider them the best in your market. Use red for your competitor's cornerstones where they are clearly subpar, and use yellow for any remaining cornerstones.

2. Define your own business model by giving fair-minded thought to how you measure up against the competition. If starting a new business, this would be your prediction of how customers will perceive your offering relative to the competition. Similar to the competitive analysis, use green where you believe consumers will perceive your business to be equivalent to, or better than, the best in the market; red for your weak cornerstones; and the remainder yellow. (You can conduct a more thorough comparative analysis, cornerstone by cornerstone, by using the comparative questionnaire “Three Steps to Assessing Your Current Business Model Strength” found at www.analogypartners.com/methodology.html.) Your business model may look like that in Figure 18.3.

   

3. Decide which cornerstones to improve. Now compare your own business model with your competitors. Using a table such as Table 18.1 you can visualize how your self-evaluation stacks up against the competition. In this example, competitor #1 has a product inferior to your own but is doing a better job at leveraging influencers in the market, and this is delivering better revenue performance. Comparing your business to competitor #2, they have superior product strength but because their customer and influencer strengths are weak, they are doing no better in revenue generation. Clearly, competitor #1 should be the focal point in your competitive strategy to gain market share and growth.

   	Self-Evaluation	Competitor #1	Competitor #2
   Product
   Customer
   Influencer
   Revenue
   Channel
   Manufacturing/Operations

4. Develop a rich set of Value Accelerators™ to creatively decide how to improve any cornerstones that appear weak in your analysis. We refer to these ideas as Value Accelerators, which are assets that deliver value or help extract value from the market. Value Accelerators are the ideas you have (we will use both terms interchangeably) that, if introduced, would help bring you to parity or superiority relative to your competition. (For more in-depth instructions, see www.analogypartners.com/methodology.html for a “Guide for Developing Powerful Value Accelerators.”)

   This exercise is the most intense and soliciting input from managers, key opinion leaders, and customers is most helpful. Further, there are tools and methodologies for the do-it-yourselfer, and there are professional innovation facilitators available to accelerate the creative process. The ideas generated may appear more challenging than what you believe you have the ability or resources to introduce, but include them nevertheless. As business guru Ram Charan suggests in every Business is a Growth Business (Preface viii).

   The mindset of growth starts with an insatiable curiosity about the world's needs. It does not accept the limits of existing products and existing markets; it quests endlessly for new opportunities to expand beyond their artificial boundaries. In a phase we use, it's about broadening your pond—enlarging the scope of your business activities by defining and meeting the new needs that change is always generating.

   Reviewing the example in Table 18.1, this company should focus on its weaknesses relative to the main competition and develop Value Accelerators to improve their Influencer and Channel cornerstones.

   Why not only focus on fortifying the strengths of your company rather than fixing weaknesses? If you have scored a cornerstone of your business as “strong” and your competition equally strong, then this means two things: (1) if you improve on this strength, then customers may not value these improvements; and (2) customers already perceive you as equal in strength to your competition, so further improvement may not improve customer's perceived differentiation. Can you improve on the taste of Starbuck's highly rated coffee? Assuming you are equal in taste, will making yours even better create sufficient differentiation for consumers? If you put effort and resources into improving the strength of an already strong cornerstone, it will at best provide diminishing returns and at worst dilute resources needed for improving your weak cornerstones. If either of these is not true, then you should rate yourself inferior to the competition.

5. Prioritize Value Accelerators based on impact. At this point, you should have a rich set of ideas to enrich your business model. Some ideas will profoundly help your business while others may only provide short-term or nonsustainable improvement. To select the best ideas for your business, we suggest prioritizing them by evaluating them against two criteria: value to the business and level of risk. Those ideas that deliver high value to the business and are least risky, of course, are preferable to those of low value and high risk. In order to “keep score,” we suggest using a score card that will help you evaluate each of the ideas. The score card has two major categories—Value and Risk—with subcriteria to provide a richer characterization of each. For example, subcriteria for Value may include: is the expected incremental revenue sufficient, is it aligned to the overall corporate strategy, and how defensible is the idea to prevent imitation? Then develop a number of subcriteria for Risk, such as: the level of investment required, do you have the internal resources, and will management accept the risk?

   The score card may look like Table 18.2. Here, we use a scale of 1 to 10 for scoring, where 10 is for the most valuable ideas and the least risky ideas to introduce.

   	Business Value					Business Risk
   Value Accelerators	Revenue Potential	Sustainable Advantage	Good Strategic Fit	Defensible	Value Sum	Resource Investment	Have Skills & Experience	Confidence of Execution	Can Mitigate Risk	Risk Sum
   Product Value Accelerator	10	8	8	8	34	3	8	8	3	22
   Consumer Value Accelerator	9	4	6	2	21	9	9	6	7	31
   Influencer Value Accelerator	7	7	4	4	22	7	7	4	4	22
   Revenue Value Accelerator	4	9	6	2	21	1	3	3	1	8
   Channel Value Accelerator	8	7	1	4	20	8	7	7	4	26
   Operations Value Accelerator	9	9	7	9	34	6	6	7	3	22
   Value Accelerator #7	3	7	3	3	16	3	7	1	1	12
   Value Accelerator #8	6	2	9	3	20	6	2	7	3	18
   Value Accelerator #9	8	7	3	7	25	3	7	9	7	26
   Value Accelerator #10	2	8	9	2	21	2	8	9	2	21
   Value Accelerator #11	8	6	4	4	22	8	6	1	4	19

   The score card should sum the subcriteria for a total Value score and a total Risk score for each idea. For example, if you have four subcriteria for Value, sum them to get a total Value sum. Do the same for Risk. To visualize how the ideas prioritize we then suggest creating a simple plot of the results. Each idea has two coordinates, Value sum and Risk sum, with which you can plot each on a 2 × 2 matrix, as shown in Figure 18.4.

   

   The matrix helps to categorize all the ideas. Ideas that fall into the upper right-hand quadrant are Priorities, as they are most potent for the business and relatively ease to implement. Ideas that fall into the lower right-hand quadrant are important but difficult to implement and you should find a partner to help execute these in a competent manner. Ideas in the upper left quadrant, Quick Hits, are easy to do but likely to be imitated by the competition, so choose these wisely. Of course, those ideas in the lower left, Ignore, are both difficult and of low value and should be ignored.

   At this point, you have defined in quite some detail all the ideas by cornerstone that will make up your new or revised business model. You have considered each idea and have had your management team score each to the best of their prognostic capabilities. You now need to set a threshold for identifying those ideas you will implement and those you will not. This will largely depend on your resources and timing for enabling and launching each of the ideas.

6. Leverage your top Value Accelerators into a business strategy. This, the most crucial step, brings life to those Value Accelerators that will bring you to a superior position relative to your competition. We suggest using your plot of Value Accelerators (see Figure 18.4) in your strategy process. You may elect as many of the Value Accelerators from this process that meet your needs and consistent with available resources. If you are planning to drive revenues in the short term, look in the quadrant labeled “Quick Hits” and select those with the highest Business Value. Those ideas that are deemed important but difficult to execute for your firm will likely appear in the quadrant marked “Find Partner.” Those ideas that you find in “Priorities” should be where you focus most of your resources, noting that the further away from the center of the chart the idea is located the more transformational the idea will be for your business. If many ideas are attractive but you lack resources, create a Value Accelerator road map showing how you intend to tackle multiple Value Accelerators over time.

   Table 18.3 provides a summary of the Six Steps for Designing a Business Model.

   Six Steps to Develop Your Business Model
   1. Define the business model of competitors.	Use the six-cornerstone framework to define the relative strengths of your competitors.
   2. Define your own business model as it is currently.	Use the six-cornerstone framework to define your own strengths or for a new business where you perceive your strengths to be.
   3. Decide which cornerstones need to be improved to be more competitive.	If you find a cornerstone lacking in strength or differentiation, then consider what Value Accelerator you can incorporate to improve that relative situation.
   4. Develop a rich set of options or Value Accelerators for each cornerstone.	Develop as many ideas or Value Accelerators as necessary to strengthen a cornerstone or a linkage.
   5. Prioritize your Value Accelerators based on their impact to the organization and their level of difficulty.	Using the score card, prioritize your Value Accelerators to find those that are most important to the business and understand which you will tackle yourself and for which you will need a partner.
   6. Leverage your top Value Accelerators into a business strategy.	Select those Value Accelerators you wish and integrate them into your business plan for execution.

18.6 How Do I Implement My New or Revised Business Model?

Strategy& (formerly Booz and Company) published a Strategy Execution Survey in 2014. In it, they reported that 55 percent of the leadership surveyed believed that their companies were not focused on executing their strategy. Their top three concerns were: the strategy is not bold enough, it is not coherent enough, and it is not clear enough. They also expressed concern that the organization was not aligned behind the strategy and that the work of the strategy creates conflicting priorities. Business model design mitigates these concerns and will significantly simplify and improve your strategic planning process.

Your strategic plan must define how the organization will implement its business model. With business model design, the key challenges and objectives are quantified, internal discussion of trade-offs completed, as is leadership buy-in by its scoring and prioritization. Strategic planning then becomes easier given a clear set of Value Accelerators. If there is any dissension, it will more likely be about the lesser, but still critical, issues of timing and resources. Critically, business model design will have addressed these stated concerns:

1. Being bold. One of the most potent aspects of business model design is the ability to identify weaknesses and to generate break out ideas—the Value Accelerators. However, ideas around product or branding alone do not necessarily create a highly competitive offering that comes from the persistent development of superior ideas in each cornerstone—where the integrated whole is significantly more bold and powerful. Business model design will deliver the bold steps that management wants to see.
2. Being coherent. A key advantage of using the six-cornerstone business model framework, and a weakness of other models, is its solid connection between its output and your organization's leadership. Each cornerstone can be coherently mapped to a specific leadership position, and this expedites the best Value Accelerators into action. For most organizations, it is clear that:
   • Product is the responsibility of R&D.
   • Customer, Influencer, and Channel cornerstones belong to marketing.
   • Revenue is the responsibility of finance.
   • Manufacturing or Operations owns the how-to-make aspects of the business.
3. Being clear. Business model frameworks that use more abstract building blocks, such as Value Proposition, Key Partners, and Key Activities, while essential to the design process, are nonetheless less clearly connected to the organization's defined roles and responsibilities. As the narrative of the six-cornerstones permeates the organization, key objectives and responsibilities become clear.
4. Being aligned. To complete the business strategy plan, management must be aligned and have their roles and responsibilities defined. The score card provides a perfect mechanism for testing alignment. If scores from management are consistent, then the organization understands the need and rationale to introduce the selected Value Accelerators. If scores are widely divergent, then there is either a lack of understanding with the Value or the Risk associated with the idea. In this case, more discussion, debate, or data is needed to resolve the issue.

18.7 Conclusion

Business model design is first and foremost a methodology to significantly enrich your offering and enhance your competitive advantage, and must be integratively developed with the design thinking of your product or service. Further, the six-cornerstone method allows your organization to build a common language, provides a framework for presentation and debate, delivers bold innovation, and enables a strategy for attaining superiority in your market. The framework provides a simple terminology to easily learn, yet does not hinder more complex thinking. It allows idea exchange and communication more easily, with fewer tendencies for misunderstanding. This framework stimulates innovation but is grounded in a reality of the competitive environment. Once business model design is embraced as a standard practice in your organization, all design thinking will have a consistency and power to communicate and to gain buy-in and alignment. Finally, the ideas, scoring, and recommendations are well documented and provide clear lines of responsibility for execution.

This framework has been introduced in many management teams, from start-ups to Fortune 100, from for-profit to non-profit, from business-to-consumer to business-to-business companies. What we find to be most helpful in the design of a business model is the engagement of the team, an embrace of the terminology, and free and creative thinking.

When it comes to creating a growth business, Ram Charan (1998) summed it up best in his book Every Business Is a Growth Business:

For those that want to build profitable growth companies there is no single answer, no cotton candy high, no quick fix. What we are talking about is not easy. It takes a deep commitment to change on the part of leaders grounded in reality, with clear teachable points of view on growth. (Preface ix)

References

1. Charan, R. (1998). Every business is a growth business. New York, NY: Three Rivers Press.
2. Chesbrough, H. (2006). Open business models: How to thrive in the new innovation landscape. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.
3. Collins, J. (2009). How the Mighty Fall, HarperCollins, New York.
4. Gladwell, Malcolm (2000), The Tipping Point, Little Brown and Company, New York.
5. Johnson, M. W., Christensen, C. M., & Kagermann, H. (2008, December). Reinventing your business model. Harvard Business Review, 86(12), 51–59.
6. Magretta, J. (2002, May). Why business models matter. Harvard Business Review 80(5), 86–92.
7. Park, C. W., Jaworski, B. J., & MacInnis, D. J. (1986, October). Strategic brand concept-image management. Journal of Marketing, 50(4), 135–146.
8. Porter, M E. (1985). Competitive advantage: Creating and sustaining superior performance. New York, NY: Free Press.
9. Strategy & (2014). Strategy execution survey & key findings. Retrieved from www.strategyand.pwc.com/media/file/Strategyand_Slide-Pack-Strategy-execution-survey.pdf

About the Authors

John Aceti is a technologist, inventor, business executive, and entrepreneur; he has worked for 30 years in three national US laboratories. In each, his responsibility has been to transition new and advanced technologies into commercially viable innovative products in the pharmaceutical, medical device, consumer health, and consumer markets. He is also the inventor and founder of three medical device companies in the hearing, diabetes, and health monitoring markets. He holds 30 US patents. Today, John's interest is in facilitating design thinking teams to create innovative, new-to-the-world products and business strategies and to help them secure early-stage investment.

Tony Singarayar is a business model architect who advises senior business leaders on competitive advantage and revenue and margin growth. His expertise stems from five experiences: a 20-year career at Johnson & Johnson including roles in business model innovation, new categories and products, R&D, business development/L&A, supply chain, corporate social responsibility, emerging markets, finance, marketing, and information technology; he founded a team named one of the top 15 internal consulting units in the world in an independent study of 700 companies; he founded Analogy, a strategy consultancy that accelerates revenue and profit growth by using a proprietary database of hundreds of business models; and he is Managing Director of a 44-year-old, 400-employee, office technology business in Sri Lanka.