In this article I will review the book Business Model Shifts with subtitle “Six ways to create new value for customers”. It is the latest book from the Business Models Inc. team Patrick van der Pijl, Justin Lokitz, Roland Wijnen and Maarten van Lieshout.
You’ve also seen these names in the publication of Design a Better Business.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Book Structure – Business Model Shifts
Every book starts with an introduction, but rarely the introduction is interesting at all. Not in this case, since next the business model 101 it is about the Periodic Table of Business Model Elements and a formal definition of a Business Model Shift. All is centered around the question: Where is (customer) value next !!?
Definition Business Model Shift
“A business model shift is a deliberate and systematic move toward more relevance and value for customers, and as a result growth of your organization. Business Model Shift can reflect bold moves into wholly new business models. But more often, shifts start as small moves inside and existing business model that evolve into entirely new ways of creating value and relevance.”
You clearly see the link of this book with Design a Better Business and the Business Model Patterns of Erik van der Pluijm on WRKSHP.tools. The Business Model Shift is a design process that I would compare to building with Lego building-blocks. You assemble new -but changed- elements for your Business Model.
| # | CHAPTER DESCRIPTION | PAGE |
|---|---|---|
| 00 | Introduction | v |
| 01 | From normal to new normal | 1 |
| 02 | From products to services | 8 |
| 03 | From shareholder to stakeholder | 48 |
| 04 | From physical to digital | 90 |
| 04 | From pipeline to platform | 132 |
| 05 | From incremental to exponential | 172 |
| 06 | From linear to circular | 214 |
| 10 | Conclusion | 254 |
Each Business Model Shift chapter consists of different Shift Stories (large, medium and small case studies). However all are examples of that specific shift.
Personally it are these examples that catch my attention. For example Medtronic Netherlands is very close to where I live so it is cool to read which (digital) transformation steps that there were taken. From a product business model to a managed services business model. Or the example of Swapfiets where I learned that PON (also behind Volkswagen Netherlands) was the investor of this service company.
Each Business Model Shift chapter closes with lessons learned by asking yourself a couple of questions and bold high level strategic steps. Each question forces you to reflect on the example and the underlying pattern used. This approach trains you to see the Business Model Elements and Business Model Patterns. The high level strategic steps give you guidance on how to get the shift done. 😉
And yes … you will need to get the book yourself to go through this wealth of information and case studies.
COVID-19 – Not 6 but 7 shifts to create new value
When you look carefully at the book-structure above you will notice that in total there are 7 Business Model Shifts covered, so you will get 1 shift extra. The book is published in the middle of the global COVID-19 pandemic. There is some coolness that Patrick van der Pijl and his team, cover this historic event in their book. However they cover it from a Business Model Shift perspective.
Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, stated the effects of the COVID-19 transformational impact as: “We’ve seen two years’ worth of digital transformation in two months. From remote teamwork and learning, to sales and customer service, to critical cloud infrastructure and security—we are working alongside customers every day to help them adapt and stay open for business in a world of remote everything.”
So Business Model Shift From normal to new normal, where the Business Models Inc team cover a few examples of Business Model Changes as a response to the COVID-19 and the impact on the existing business models.
Concluding thoughts and wrap-up
Patrick van der Pijl and the Business Models Inc. team published another cool book around the topic of Business Models, now aimed at the shifts and underlying patterns. The connection with Patrick goes back to the 2009 book launch of Business Model Generation in Amsterdam. So Business Model Shifts is the third book of Business Models Inc.
The book is available in both an English and a Dutch version. The Dutch version has a different cover, and in all fairness I opted for the original English one. 😉
You can get it on Amazon for a price point of € 29,– which is more than fair for the information you get.
The Business Model Inc. team again pulled of an amazing job. Business Model Shifts is a must have (work)book on your bookshelf if you are interested in innovation, business model patterns or if you simply have a disruption mindset. It fits well next to the Business Models Inc and Strategyzer books.
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