Tag: business model

Why “Repeatable” Business Strategies Work

May 23, 2012 • Blog • 4 comments

What is the secret of enduring business success? The answer, according to Bain & Company’s Chris Zook and James Allen, is to develop repeatable business models. This is described in Bain’s website on Repeatability and highlighted in a recently published book by the authors.


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In this podcast on HBR Ideacast, Chris shares that businesses which keep changing courses and introduce unnecessary complexity in their systems are actually killing themselves. To cope with a fast changing, highly complex and unpredictable world, businesses shouldn’t introduce increasingly convoluted systems that add layers of bureaucratic layers that slow down work processes unnecessarily.

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Examples of Organisations that Zag

April 9, 2012 • Blog • no comments

Continuing along the theme of “Zagging” as a business strategy (ie radical but customer valued differentiation), I thought it would be interesting to highlight examples of businesses which apply such “Blue Ocean” strategies in their core value propositions. By offering something radical and unique yet deeply appreciated by their customers and other stakeholders, they are able to stand out in an increasingly hyper-competitive marketplace. This would mean offering a new innovation that isn’t seen in the existing marketplace and competing on different terms from incumbents.

As expected, many of these examples are in the mouth watering F&B industry, but there are also a few cases of consumer oriented innovation in other domains both digital and non-digital.

1) Gourmet craft beers in a hawker centre: Good Beer Company in Chinatown Hawker Centre. Fine hand-crafted beers in the comfort of your slipper and shorts anybody?

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The Mesh: Why the Future of Business is Sharing (Book Review)

January 3, 2012 • Book Reviews • no comments

The Mesh Future Economy

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Every now and then, you pick up a book which offer such a compelling new idea that you simply cannot put down. The Mesh: Why the Future of Business is Sharing by Lisa Gansky is one such title.

In an increasingly crowded, economically uncertain, and environmentally damaged world, people are becoming increasingly wary about the financial and personal burden of buying and owning stuff.

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How Much Should You Charge?

February 26, 2011 • Blog • 2 comments


Courtesy of Rentoid

In an age where anything and everything is trending towards FREE, companies face many increasingly thorny dilemmas on the issue of pricing. What should one charge in order to make a profitable and sustainable living? How can one stand out from other similar businesses using price as a lever? Is there a trade-off between the number of users/subscribers/fans and actual paying customers?

Answering these questions isn’t easy. One can either choose to go with one’s gut (ala Malcolm Gladwell’s the Law of Thin Slices) or perhaps embrace a more methodical approach.

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