I have listened to three great talks on business models recently that have really made me think about how important they are in building a sustainable and successful business. In fact, some of the most successful, disruptive and admired businesses – Xerox, ARM, Google for example, have all been so successful because of the highly innovative business models they adopted.
I wanted to share three talks, two from our own events, the BLN Growth Forum and Money in Mobile and one from Alex Osterwalder who will be talking at Business of Software this year alongside Professor Clayton Christensen and significant others. I think they will be of interest to a lot of BoS-ties as they illustrate really neatly how important it is to think beyond a product. All three offer powerful insights into why business models matter and all have something to say that is likely to think about the business model you have in your organisation.
The speakers are Hermann Hauser, Ilja Laurs and Alex Osterwalder.
Hermann Hauser is an entrepreneur (behind Acorn Computers amongst others) and venture capitalist who has personally invested in well over 100 technology companies. Only one of those companies has failed because of technology. Hermann discusses some of the key building blocks of successful companies and illustrates the incredible importance of the right business model to the success of ARM Holdings who have now got over 21billion chips on the market that incorporate their designs.
Ilja Laurs, CEO of GetJar is the founder of the world's largest independent app store. He talks about business models in mobile content and shows how you should go about deciding what business model is going to work best for your mobile app business.
Alex Osterwalder loves business models. He lives and breathes business models. He has even written a best selling book on the subject: Business Model Generation: A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers, and Challengers This was such an interesting book we have got a copy for everyone that attends Busienss of Software 2011. Here Alex explains why innovation in the business model was critical to the success of companies including Xerox and Google.
- Alex will be speaking at Business of Software, the preliminary schedule has just been released. I am also pleased to say he will be running a guest blog for us on business model innovation in the software industry.
- Tickets for BoS 2011 are now 2/3 sold.
- Starting from 18th July tickets will increase in price by $100 every month until the event or we are sold out.
- Quick reminder – if you are considering applying to do a Lightning Talk or Workshop/unconference session, the deadline for submissions is 10th August.