Bas van Oosterhout’s Business Innovation Blog

Working on different client innovation projects and reshaping their Business Models it is often the case that a new project explicits a need to move into a different part of the current value chain. With Value Chains in this case I mean different organizations and enitities, consisting of resources and knowledge stream, all involved in […]

Many people are interested in how a new Value Proposition is created. Of course, understanding this process and being able to execute it, provides a basis for continuously staying ahead of competitors; it would be the Holy Grail of business. In workshops I have used various methods such as Blue Ocean and TRIZ. These methods […]

Recently Business Models and Business Model Innovation received increased attention. The term devaluated during the high rise of the Internet Bubble, when all you needed to get venture capital was a new type of Business Model, without any sanity check.
Now in an era of ever increasing competition from emerging markets, re-thinking your Business Model seems […]

During the Internet Bubble Business Model was one of the buzz words. Companies did not need a real strategy, a special competence, or even customers. The only thing needed was a web-based Business Model making vague promisses about wild profits in a distant future (source Joan Magretta, HBR, 2002). Not strange that the term itself […]

Last week news spread that Ryanair’s profit could be halved due to ever risen fuel cost and a weaker UK pound. Last quarter 2007 net profit dropped with as much as 27%. This is not news that is typical for Ryanair. Applying the Southwest business model it is well know for being a “no frills […]

Recently I stumbled upon an interesting article which states that we should not focus on the things we are good at, but concentrate on the areas we are not so great at. The theory behind it is based on researching to-be chess masters. Of course this differs 180 degrees from our common sense.
Applying this line […]

Growth is something which can be realized in many different ways: operational excellence with Six Sigma trajectories; product or technology innovation, either incremental or radical; business model innovation; or plain old mergers and acquisitions (M&A). Of course calling it plain old does no justice to the complexity of these kinds of transitions. But fact is […]

Googling the internet “Blue Ocean” was already quite popular (12,900,000 hits). “Business Model Innovation” is a risen star here (6,800,000 hits). Combining the two only generates 75,400 hits. A bit strange… Not only do the two serve the same purpose, deliver growth and innovation to a company. The first can serve as a means of […]

For the snowboarder or skier who is seeking the cookie cutter winter wonderland megaresorts there is a alternative: Echo Mountain, Colorado. When caught in a bruising sustaining battle that gives clear advantage to powerful incumbents, other players looked for new business models that might enable them to beat the market in new […]

From the 3rd till the 14th of December the United Nations Climat Change Conference was held in Bali. Again loads of attention were given to the subjects of sustainability. Nowadays the topic has really found grounds in society; it is even fashionable to concentrate on environmentally friendly goods and services.
In this light there is a […]