Providing numerous ideas and concepts to get the synaptic response working, only a dullard can not find some idea that they can modify for, not directly copy for, their own business model. Balancing a fine line between being too aggressive and not aggressive enough, I really think the reader will have to discover how much or how little based on their own circumstance, this book is not a magic bullet, but not a bad starting point.
The most innovative point, not necessarily "new", is the constant reminder to think beyond your immediate customer and consider how you can make your customer a better supplier to theirs. This is discussed in a very understandable manner.
Scenario planning (a really great tool) is implied throughout the text and the Shell organization I think should be credited with bringing these concepts to the forefront, if not inventing it, I'm surprised they were not one of the subjects.
There is one point I disagree with, but not vehemently. I don't think that a person can learn to be innovative (I think this is implied). The best I believe can be achieved is that person can learn not to stop those that are. To their credit, the authors do address this.
At times the reading is rather slow, but not hard. So my suggestion is to start with chapter 1 (don't laugh it starts on page 61), my reason is that forewords written by CEO's whom are praised in the main body are not exactly unbiased and the prologue is comprised of brief company biographies that don't provide much to the main point of the reading.
I do give credit for a well-balanced approach for all aspects of the business model and accountants should learn well and remember that people make the numbers, not computers. I do wish there would have been more time spent on employee motivation factors, I just think they are overly neglected in most businesses, but they are at least discussed.
This obviously information that people in business need to know about. It's also something that economists should pay attention to. Innovation is perhaps the key component in explaining the dynamics of a capitalist economy. Unfortunately, for most academic economists, innovation is regarded, not as an essential attribute of an economy, but as an "external force" that is inexplicable by economic theory. Or, if innovation is admitted as an endogenous force, its regarded as a kind of wild card -- as something that, because it cannot be unambiguously quantified, is of little use in the development of sophisticated economic models, which nowadays are almost always of staggering mathematical complexity. Reading a book like The Ultimate Competitive Advantage reminds us that knowledge comes, not from abstruse theorizing, but from experience, from practical life. As Paul Ormerod has noted, economists can learn a great deal from the serious work of business writers and scholars, precisely because such work is often rooted in the experience of the real world business world, rather than in abstract academic theories, which are framed largely to fit into mathematics, rather than to accurately describe the real world. While the Ultimate Competitive Advantage is certainly not a work of economics and is written entirely for businessmen, the empirical insights it provides into the way the market actually works in real life should not be missed by those eager to cast off the discredited theories of mainstream equilibrium economics.
In this volume, Mitchell and Coles do nothing less than teach business executives how to voluntarily invoke these same dynamics at the busines level to profitably expand the impact and relevance of their enterprises.
Mitchell and Coles aim to establish the princiciples of business model innovation as a practice for continuing competitive advantage. They succeed in this mission stupendously. Integrating the principle of innovation outlined in the E-myth, the quest for total solutions expounded in Davidow's Marketing High Technology, the low-cost primacy Ries' Focus, and the systems economics perspective of The Profit Zone, Mitchell and Coles present a singular, integrated practice and paradigm for strategic management. Surprisingly, this method works best when it is deeply rooted in the organization's core values and service orientation.
The book is not without its faults; in particular, it does not get into full swing for several dozen pages. But once it does, the writing can be truly inspired and practical to boot: I have already started applying its principles to my consulting practice. I heartily recommend this book to those who insist on business impact and thrive on customer satisfaction.
