Amazon Proves Infertile Soil for Unions, So Far
“Amazon’s culture and business model are based on rapid innovation, flexibility and open lines of direct communication between managers and associates,” Mr. Stanzel said. “This direct connection is the most effective way to understand and respond to the wants and needs of our associates.” Union officials think Amazon fights so hard to keep them at bay to prevent a domino effect among its warehouses. “This is Amazon’s biggest fear,” said Andy Powell, a district organizer for the International Association of Machinists & Aerospace Workers who is trying to organize Amazon fulfillment center workers in Delaware and several nearby states. “The minute one falls and people see they got a better deal, it’s going to be a cancer for them.”
Strategy
October 26, 2011 Harvard Business Review By Chris Zook and James Allen The sharper your differentiation, the greater your advantage. Consider Tetra Pak, a company that in 2010 sold more than 150 billion packages in 170 markets around the world.
Business Models & Business-IT research
As ‘value’ is one of the most common term in business model definitions, the obvious question is what is meant with value? Surprisingly, it is almost never further elaborated or discussed in business model books or articles. In general the term ‘value’ is used to refer to ‘the quality (positive or negative) that renders something desirable or valuable’ (Wordnet 3.0) or ‘something (as a principle or quality) intrinsically valuable or desirable’ (Merriam-Webster). It seems that when business model definitions refer to value, they mostly mean customer value (such as, Afuah, 2004; Dubosson-Torbay, Osterwalder, & Pigneur, 2002; Tapscott, 2001), while some refer to value for both the customer and the company (e.g., Bouwman, De Vos, & Haaker, 2008; Johnson, 2010).
Decapitated Churches in China’s Christian Heartland
The campaign began in 2014, when the government abruptly announced plans to demolish a church in the neighboring city of Wenzhou, saying it had not received the proper building permits. Then the government began issuing orders for churches across the province to remove their crosses. The Salvation Church, a complex with three spires atop a three-story congregation hall, offices and a parking lot, quickly became a center of resistance. Hundreds of parishioners encircled the church to protect the cross, facing off against hundreds of riot police officers.
The Great Repeatable Business Model
Idea in Brief Really successful companies build their strategies on a few vivid and hardy forms of differentiation that act as a system and reinforce one another. They grow in ways that exploit their core differentiators by replicating them in new contexts. And they turn the sources of their differentiation into routines, behaviors, and activity systems that everyone in the organization can understand and follow. Powerful differentiations deliver enduring profits only when they are supported by simple, nonnegotiable principles and robust learning systems that drive constant improvement across the business. Differentiation is the essence of strategy, the prime source of competitive advantage.
Alexander Osterwalder: Mapping Customer Pains to Value Proposition with Steve Blank
(video via Standford University) Get the (FREE) Business Model Studio Resource Guide Continue and watch Alex use visual facilitation in front of a live audience.
Table of Contents
This Blog Linked From Here Saturday, April 11, 2009
Defining Your Business Model
A business model isn't something you build from the ground up. When management-types ask about a business model — as in, "So what's your business model?" — they really want an answer to a much more direct and basic question: "How do you plan to make money?" Behind that question is a lineup of other questions:
How to: Business Model Blocks
16 blocks to visualize your business model All our business model examples are visualized with this set of 16 building blocks. To give more insight in how this works, we give a brief overview of the different building blocks. Using a common, visual language enables you to easily communicate business models to different audiences, to learn from successful models in other industries, and to quickly generate new variations and business models of the future. Once you grasp the building blocks below, check out our business model tools to design your own business model in seconds.
Amazon Has Just Registered to Sell Ocean Freight
(Image via Robert Scoble) Flexport has obtained information that Amazon China has registered to operate as an ocean freight forwarder in the United States. The Federal Maritime Commission now lists Amazon China in its directory of licensed Ocean Transportation Intermediaries—the list of companies authorized to sell ocean freight services.
Business Model Canvas Set to Explode
I’d just finished a workshop on Business Model Canvas about gaining clarity in large organizations, when suddenly the flood gates seem to have opened up a day or so later, for me to see beyond and piece more of it together in my mind. After swirling around in this maelstrom of articles, tweets, new publishing, advanced announcements I had to gain some high ground to recover my breath and think a little more. Catching my breath, here is my clarity take and prediction for the BMC. Ignoring lots of early warning signs Maybe I should have seen this coming earlier but sometimes you hear a distant rumble but you simply shrug your shoulders and get on with your own work. This week it hit me so I spent some time piecing together different aspects around the shifts taking place on the Business model canvas that have been going on in different parts of the world for my prediction:
Revenue Model Types: The Quick Guide
A revenue model describes how a business generates revenue streams from its products and services. It is one of the key components of the business model. Existing businesses interested in expanding to new areas or adjusting to a new generation of competitors should carefully consider their revenue models. A strong revenue model is also most important for early stage startups; their investors are usually very conscious of monetization.
