Welcome to IAM Talking, a periodic podcast interview series, with your host, Dan Keldsen, Co-founder and Principal at Information Architected.

Today, the topic is Business Model Innovation – White Space and You.

In this episode, I am interviewing Mark Johnson, the author of a new book, Seizing the White Space: Business Model Innovation for Growth and Renewal.

Mark is chairman of Innosight, a strategic innovation consulting and investing company with offices in Massachusetts, Singapore, and India, which he cofounded with Harvard Business School professor Clayton M. Christensen. He has consulted to Global 1000 and start-up companies in a wide range of industries—including health care, aerospace/defense, enterprise IT, energy, automotive, and consumer packaged goods—and has advised Singapore’s government on innovation and entrepreneurship.

Mark’s most recent work has focused on helping companies envision and create new growth, manage transformation, and achieve renewal through business model innovation.

Find copies of his new book, Seizing the White Space: Business Model Innovation for Growth and Renewal, at your favorite online or brick and mortar book store. The official website for the book is www.seizingthewhitespace.com.

Key Concepts Covered on White Space Innovation

We cover several of the key concepts, including a deep dive into the Customer Value Proposition (CVP) and the “job to be done” mindset that Innosight typically uses in their work, which is part of an overall trend in innovation management that focuses on the outcomes that customers are searching for, rather than the products, services, or solutions-based approach, which is rapidly becoming a dated and dangerous approach.

We also discuss several aspects of innovation maturity – both from the standpoint of innovation practices, product innovation vs. process innovation vs. white space or business model innovation, as well as maturity in skillsets and personnel to execute on a variety of innovation initiatives.

Listen now!

Listen to the Interview: IAM Talking with Mark Johnson – Business Model Innovation – White Space and You

Reference Materials for White Space Innovation

For reference, two of the figures or graphics referenced from the book, can be found below.

The Four-Box Business Innovation Model

And the Stages of Business Model Implementation

Closing Review

Whether you are just getting started with innovation management, or are already a seasoned innovator, I would readily recommend Seizing the White Space as a worthy addition to your innovation toolkit. Business Model Innovation may be the latest flavor of innovation to get air time, but not without good reason. By re-thinking the fundamentals of at least SOME aspect of your innovation portfolio, to make way for White Space Innovation opportunities, you will be in far better shape than your “head in the sand” competitors.

Is your Information Architected for Innovation? for White Space discovery?

Contact us at 
617-933-9655 to discuss how you can put in place systematic tools, techniques and yes, technology to make the most of the strengths of the people within your organization

More details on our practices related to Collaboration and Innovation can be found at:

• Innovation Management Workshops and Coaching/Consulting

Collaboration – it’s all the rage, and to some it is “new.”

Yet for any project, whether it is assembling a sales proposal in response to a Request For Proposals (RFP), to the collaboration and coordination necessary to build an aircraft carrier, or any size or style of collaboration in between, there are several questions to consider when it comes to modern day collaboration, what many are calling Enterprise 2.0, or for those with a longer history in business collaboration, Knowledge Management 2.0.

Do you believe that your organization has pulled together a suitably versatile and agile collaboration toolkit?

Are your collaboration tools built for distributed teams, or for localized teams?

Are the tools involved well-integrated into the flow of collaborative work (search, research, document, refine, revise, publish, re-use, etc.), or do you as a user of the toolkit have to remember what tool or application to use at various stages within the context of collaboration?

While management may say that “we need more collaboration,” are you measured based on collaborative contributions, or in the end are you actually penalized for team contributions if it gets in the way of your individual work and personal performance measures?

Join us for a discussion (continue discussion in comments below or twitter via #iaie20) on the current and future state of collaboration – and what it takes to ensure that your culture, skills, and technical tools are up to the task of real-time, flexible online collaboration. Not all collaboration efforts or outcomes are the same – make sure you are setting yourself up to succeed.

Watch the Video archive of Webinar

Is your Information Architected for Collaboration? for Innovation? to leverage the strengths of the workers and teams within the organization?

Contact us now at 
617-933-9655 to discuss our Collaboration-focused assessments, consulting or workshops, and to schedule a private 30-minute executive briefing on how we can most effectively work together. You can quickly jump-start or re-start your collaboration efforts, and we can show you how.

Schedule a private executive briefing now

Target your collaboration pains now, details on our consulting practices related to Collaboration and Innovation can be found at:

• Collaboration and Enterprise 2.0 Workshops, Coaching and Consulting
• Innovation Management Workshops and Coaching/Consulting

A brief 20 minute video interview (embedded at the bottom) on the journey that a mid-sized company, Allyis, has taken in moving from a 1.0 to mindset, and where the journey will be CONTINUING to go from here on out. For them, 2008 was the watershed year when many previous efforts clicked into place and sent their 2.0 efforts into high gear.

Driven from the Top

This is the type of interview (audio, video or “just” text) that we typically do with Enterprise 2.0 customer engagements. The “soft” efforts that it takes to actively sow and reap Enterprise 2.0 needs all of the bottom-up AND top-down efforts you can bring to bear – while I’m a big proponent of emergent behavior, there’s nothing like stated dedication to an ongoing effort like a change of management thinking to Enterprise 2.0 to ACTUALLY (rather than theoretically) make change happen.

Allyis was kind enough to host me for 3-days last week in their offices in Kirkland, WA, for two separate sessions – one to continue sowing the seeds of Enterprise 2.0 Thinking (and Doing) with their executive and management team in a 2-day hybrid course of the Enterprise 2.0 Specialist course that Carl and I had developed for AIIM while we were the Market Intelligence unit of AIIM, and a 3rd day which I’ve been describing as a day-long Enterprise 2.0 keynote (I *think* that’s a good thing) largely for clients and the local contacts of Allyis to continue discussing and learning about Enterprise 2.0.

Engagement and 2.0 Nirvana

Fascinating discussions, and very interesting to hear how technology and/or culture lead and lag each other across various departments within companies, or across different organizations. Still a long way to go Enterprise 2.0 Nirvana, but I have to say I was VERY heartened to engage all of the people of Allyis and their peers in the Washington state area.

Hear what Ethan Yarbrough, President of Allyis had to say about the start of their journey, and the ongoing work they are doing to push to the front of the Enterprise 2.0 curve.

What are YOU doing in your business to BE Enterprise 2.0? Let us know – transparency, participation, feedback – no progress without reflection and refinement.

Any efforts that you’ve used to market, sell, educate on Enterprise 2.0 within your organization, chime in  – we’re using these materials to build up the story around the 2.0 Adoption Council. More stories = better.

(Downloadable MP4 version)

Is your Information Architected for Innovation? for Collaboration? to leverage the strengths of the workers and teams within the organization?

Contact us at 
617-933-9655 to discuss how you can put in place systematic tools, techniques and yes, technology to make the most of the strengths of the people within your organization

More details on our practices related to Collaboration and Innovation can be found at:

• Innovation Management Workshops and Coaching/Consulting
• Collaboration and Enterprise 2.0 Workshops, Coaching and Consulting