Outside Innovation

Warren Jones' Profit Forms

In my search for good codifications of the "next gen" business models and customer-driven processes, I came across Warren Jones' blog. The Science of Profitability - Profit Forms. In which he provides 33 different business models -- he calls them Profit Forms. Examples include: Customer Solutions Profit; Flawless Transactions Profit, Time Profit, Switchboard Profit, etc.

For each one, he cites companies that provide good examples of each, as well as CEOs that have mastered one or more of them.

Julie Fleischer's Reading List

Here's another great blog on innovation, branding, and customer-led approaches--Julie Fleischer's  Innovation Ecosystem. Julie is the Innovation Thought Leader for Egg Strategy.

Julie was kind enough to mention my book, Outside Innovation, in her blog. 

In fact, Julie has compiled a really useful reading list on her blog, as well as providing lots of food for thought for innovators, product designers and those who are studying human behavior patterns in search of the next great thing.

AN INNOVATION HOW-TO GAMEPLAN FOR BUSINESS AND IT EXECS.

To make rapid progress in enabling and empowering your customers to lead you toward new innovations, you need to coordinate your business strategy and your IT efforts. I recently published a report, A Coordinated Game Plan for Business and IT Execs to Spur Outside Innovation (a free PDF download, but you will need to fill out a form), to start you on your way.

In this game plan, I look at how business and IT strategies must align to address the five steps to customer innovation chronicled in my book:

1.    Identify, study, and engage with lead customers
2.    Provide customers with tools to use to reach their outcomes
3.    Nurture customer communities
4.    Empower customers to strut their stuff
5.    Open up your products and engage customers in peer production