Seizing the White Space: Business Model Innovation for Growth and Renewal

Clear-eyed blueprint for innovation

Mark W. Johnson must be a terrific consultant. His tidy new book unfolds in a masterful, controlled way, shifting elegantly from practical knowledge to business analysis to case studies of how "business model innovation" has recast such companies as Whole Foods and Apple. The reader feels both pushed by Johnson's thinking and supported by his clear logic. Johnson posits that to exploit growth opportunities companies often must innovate away from their core capabilities - or, as he puts it, venture into the "white space." To help companies take this leap, he describes a useful "four-box" framework for understanding business models and provides step-by-step instructions for designing and implementing a fresh one for your firm. getAbstract highly recommends this thoughtful, comprehensive look at business model innovation to general managers, entrepreneurs and strategists.

White Space

Rehash of Blue Ocean Strategy

Book Review and Innovation Summary

A few weeks ago I received "Seizing the White Space" by Mark W. Johnson in the mail. "Seizing the White Space" is an approachable 200 pages, and is an easy, and pleasant read.

Mark W. Johnson is chairman of Innosight, a strategic innovation consulting and investing company.

The book is focused on business model innovation and introducing a simple framework for thinking about potential business model innovations and evaluating the positives and negatives of a potential business model. The book first defines `white space' with the following two-by-two matrix:

After reading the book I was left with two questions that I would love your feedback on. If business is about margin and profit maximization:

1.Are companies typically better served by moving into white space areas or by licensing their IP to someone for whom the activity is core (or pursuing some other type of external collaboration)?
2.Why do many organizations think that they have to develop an opportunity or otherwise hide it away?

One of Mark Johnson's initial points is that we lack a shared vocabulary for discussing and comparing business models. As a solution Mark offers up his four-box business model framework:

...

For the missing images and the rest of the book review and innovation summary - please visit http://www.business-strategy-innovation.com/wordpress/2010/05/book-review-and-innovation-summary-seizing-the-white-space/

Braden Kelley
Editor, Blogging Innovation

No text was provided for this review.

No text was provided for this review.