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CLEAR SPACE THINKING - the original - lipscombe.richard@gmail.com
Tuesday, 12 October 2010
Just a moment away?
Mood:  a-ok
Topic: New business models

 

Its one of those moments! A time when a dream begins to become reality. Space tourism? Perhaps just a moment away see


Posted by richard-lipscombe at 4:56 PM NZT
Wednesday, 2 June 2010
DigitalCore.
Mood:  a-ok
Topic: New business models

 

Digital design rules. Base business on an inclusion principle. Provide key IP free of charge. Automate to facilitate self-service.


Posted by richard-lipscombe at 12:40 PM NZT
Thursday, 19 March 2009
Is your best business asset buried by clutter?
Mood:  a-ok
Topic: New business models

What business are you in?  What is your best asset for doing well in that business?  How is business?

What business is Google in?  Advertising.  What is Google's best asset for doing well in that business?  Search results linked to advertisements for relevant or related goods and services.  How is business?  Booming.

Are you able to answer those three questions as quickly and as easily as Google can?  If not why not?

Most businesses are confused about what business they are in.  Most business people hedge their bets by providing a lot of ancillary products or services.  Most businesses end up with their best asset being buried in clutter.

What business is Wal-Mart in?  Box store retailing.  What is Wal-Mart's best asset for doing well in that business?  Consistently low prices.  How is business?  Booming.

Posted by richard-lipscombe at 5:06 PM NZT
Updated: Thursday, 19 March 2009 5:10 PM NZT
Tuesday, 17 March 2009
Compete with your revenue model....
Mood:  a-ok
Topic: New business models

 

In  business today you can be competitors even though you do not belong to the same industry, provide similar services, nor have comparable products.  Where you compete directly is with your revenue model.  Google is a good example of being a competitor for lots of businesses that know little or nothing about search engines.  They could be newspapers, magazines, TV stations, etc but they find they are competing with Google's revenue model.  Google makes its money from advertising as do many other businesses that would never see themselves as being remotely connected to business run from the Googleplex at Mountain View California.

Newspapers are dead or dying around the world at present because they do not have a revenue model that can compete with online content providers.  The old revenue model of classfied advertising is no longer able to compete with the scale and reach of online advertising. 


Posted by richard-lipscombe at 7:37 PM NZT
Updated: Wednesday, 18 March 2009 8:49 AM NZT
Tuesday, 3 March 2009
Three phase business model
Mood:  a-ok
Topic: New business models

 

Here is an integrated global/digital/networked business model.  Access is provided by experiential local networks - good consumer experiences result in growth of local clusters.  These clusters, in turn, connect to each other if, and only if, they have a shared purpose.  These clusters are then connected by purpose-driven systems which stretch around the globe.

This business model is essentially a three phase system.  First, some local consumers form experiential clusters - these clusters form because people derive "use value" from their local network.  Second, consumer clusters form into purpose-driven networks - consumer clusters link to each other if, and only if, they have a common purpose that is met by an extended network.  Third, consumer clusters become an integral part of a facilitated network - consumer clusters are linked to global networks that facilitate their wants and needs.  Each network is a money tree.


Posted by richard-lipscombe at 5:35 PM EADT
Wednesday, 4 February 2009
Digital Warrior manifesto.....
Mood:  a-ok
Topic: New business models

 

In life it is important to know who you are what you care about and what you know. Today, I am a Digital Warrior who cares about web-based revenue models and who knows a few simple things.....

So here is what I know and thus what I can help you to understand in 2009.....

Number one - Resolve issues. 

Clear ....... Clear out old ideas.... establish a new framework for action.

Hold ...... Hold onto to new ideas within models.... establish prototypes for testing.

Build ..... Build new revenue models based on successful prototypes... establish feedback loops.

Number two - Understand web-based communities.

Clusters.... open access clusters loosely held together by a common theme.

Clans...... facilitated access clusters held together by a common goal.

Tribes.... restricted access clusters tightly held together by a common purpose.

Number three - Move from analogue to digital.

Analogue systems - sequential processing, silo structure, centralised control.

Digtial networks - parallel processing, cluster structure, decentralised control,.

Number four - Reorganise capabilities.

Cloud computing forms a base for cooperative workspace.

Consumers replace the recruited talent.

 You can now follow me on Twitter.  Catch me at http://twitter.com/digitalwarrrior   Note that warrrior has 3 r's - a penalty for not being 'first in' with this cool name.

 


 


Posted by richard-lipscombe at 11:16 AM EADT
Updated: Wednesday, 4 February 2009 11:36 AM EADT
Friday, 15 August 2008
Take big risks and profit....
Mood:  a-ok
Topic: New business models

WOW!  What a great future we all face right now.  There are more opportunities around right now than I can ever remember.  This is such a special time for us all if we do not get caught up in the negative mindset as the economic depression sets in next year.  But with hard economic times come huge opportunities for those of us who stay focussed on what we want to do.

How am I going to stay focussed?  I am going to keep myself well informed about the economic developments occurring around me so I am not blindsided by them.  I am going to stay flexible about what can and can not be achieved right now.  I am going to pursue what I have an absolute passion for and make my mark by bringing energy and purpose to everything I do.  I am going to take big risks - calculated risks but big risks nonetheless.

Take big risks and profit.


Posted by richard-lipscombe at 11:07 AM NZT
Updated: Friday, 15 August 2008 11:36 AM NZT
Tuesday, 18 March 2008
Richard's Chattering Clusters....
Mood:  energetic
Topic: New business models

Posted by richard-lipscombe at 1:46 PM NZT
Sunday, 16 March 2008
Richard's pathway to Google....
Mood:  a-ok
Topic: New business models

Posted by richard-lipscombe at 10:19 AM NZT
Monday, 10 March 2008
Bold ideas.....
Mood:  d'oh
Topic: New business models

 
I walked into a small room in the administration building behind the main factory - my client's office was just down the hallway.  Beyond the hallway were the accounts people doing their numbers.  It was all very low key and very unfashionable. 

My room had a white board, pens, and eraser - what else could you want if you were there to help them save their business?

They walked into the room without any chatter - they were all apprehensive.  It was written on their faces: "I hope this won't take too long I have so much to do today".  They were all thinking about other things.  "I won't keep you long", I heard myself say.  "I have one thing and only one thing to say"  I had their attention as if I had switched on a light in each of their brains.  "Tomorrow I want you to come into this room with bold ideas - if you think your idea is bold test it on some else around the place and if they are not truly shocked by it then don't bring it here".  "Right!"  They looked stunned like kids who are let out of school for no apparent or good reason.  "Oh one other thing, my bold idea is that we will win new business here because we understand our customer's customer"......  They stopped just before the door and then went off to ponder what the hell I was on about.

All day and into the night I spent huddled over reports - alarming reports - about how poorly they serviced their customer.  There was no saving grace in any of it. 

I walked into the room at 8.15am the next morning.  "Right listen up", they were chatting excitedly to each other, "I went through all the marketing, contractual, and service delivery information pertaining to our customer that I could find".  "It is truly sickening stuff to read!" they were all fully attentive now.   "So my big idea is we forget the past with this customer and start as if we are a new company - we have to win them from scratch with relevant and remarkable ideas".  They looked at each other in disbelief.  "Did I hear you correctly Richard?" asks Tony.  "Yes, now let's go round the room for your ideas if you will".  It took ten minutes and I let them go.

We had met for a total of around 15 minutes over the first two days and we had set the framework for a revolution within this business.

Bold ideas was what I asked for and bold ideas was what I got.  Today it is not me asking them for bold ideas it is their customer's customer.


Posted by richard-lipscombe at 6:40 PM NZT
Saturday, 8 March 2008
Falling living standards.....
Mood:  d'oh
Topic: New business models

Finally the penny has dropped with me at least.  The world economy is booming, except financial services because the bankers got greedy, while main street is struggling.  The US nation-state economy is probably entering into a recession - that is two quarters of negative growth.  The reality is even worse than those economic statistics show.  American households, on average, are worse off than they were in 1999.  But today they face rising costs of food, petrol, and health care - they are losing their standard of living.  The problem is not confined to Americans it is a global phenomenon.  Simply put the new rich are getting richer and the new poor are getting poorer.  So who are the new rich and who are the new poor?

The new rich are people who work in the global networked economy. They are part of the machine to machine economy - they can do mundane things or innovative things so long as they are connected into a global network.  The machine to machine economy needs fewer and fewer people but those people earn more and more - they earn multiples of what people doing similar things can earn in the local economy.  So the new rich are not necessarily entrepreneurs but merely workers who are in the right economy - the global networked economy.

The new poor are people who work in the local economy.  They are part of the experience economy - they can do mundane things or innovative things but so long as they are connected only to their local economy they are part of the new poor.  Their challenge is to do more with less at work and at home - to live with a lower carbon footprint and to demand less from the global networked economy.  If they can work local - live and eat local then even though they are part of the new poor their quality of life can actually improve markedly.

What we could see in the next few decades is a return to a simpler life - a life where people work to live rather than live to work.  A life where people do have more time with family and friends - more time to pursue hobbies or more time to find a passive income enterprise that they can connect to the global networked economy.

Perhaps we are headed for a time when living standard will continue to fall but the quality of life will continue to rise for the new poor.

Posted by richard-lipscombe at 7:26 PM NZT
Tuesday, 4 March 2008
Customers must work for you.....
Mood:  a-ok
Topic: New business models

 
The new architecture of business must enable customers to work for you.

You have all the technology you need to do this.  You have good examples of how this new business model works for others.  You now have to find a new business model that suits your needs.  But where to start?

Start with your ideologies - challenge your existing theories, language, and revenue models. 

If your theory of business is based on value chains and efficient supply - rethink it!  The new theory is use value and efficient demand.  In a networked economy there is no value adding process.  There is no mass demand - it is individual not general.  There is a global network with abundant supply.

If your language of business is based on vision, strategy, leadership, and talent - rethink it!  The new language is based on users, cooperation, and complementary offerings.  Complexity is a given and it must be acknowledged in the language used. New business terms must enter the vocabulary.  There are local customer clusters that have to be energised and kept productive.

If your revenue model is based on price points and competition - rethink it!  The new revenue model is based on free offerings to build demand.  When you offer free usage you open up your revenue model to passive income options.   When you engage passive income revenue models you are focussed entirely on demand.  When you network your revenue model to include other businesses you expand your demand. 


Posted by richard-lipscombe at 5:56 PM EADT
Free and complementary.....
Mood:  a-ok
Topic: New business models

The big change in business is the revenue model - the core element is free provision and the key earner is passive income.  Now that is different.  It means your business has to play by new rules.  First and foremost you do not hire anyone who is not extraordinary.  Second you do not sell to customers who are not extraordinary.  Third you do not associate with businesses that are not extraordinary. 

This new business model is both free and complementary.

Products and services that are extraordinary and free are a winner for any user.  When you add the fact that they are complemented by extraordinary offerings from like minded businesses then you have a winning business model.  Free and complementary yet extraordinary - this is what you are going to need to sustain your business in the flat world of the internet.

You need the development cost of your product to be free - like it is from Google, Amazon, eBay, Skype, etc.  Those businesses rely on their research and development to be extraordinary - then they give away their intellectual property freely.  They do that because without user demand their R&D is worth nothing.  User demand is what they need to network their business into sustainable yet passive revenue models. The early adopters like Google have relied upon channeling user demand to the precise product or service it seeks.  This has been relatively easy but it is about to become much more complex and much more difficult.

Business is about to become much more complex because it is the productivity of your users not your staff that brings success.  If your users are not innovative and productive then your business will lag behind the extraordinary business curve you need to be on to ensure you can build a networked economy.  Let's be clear about this  - your users not your employees are the talent.  If you have extraordinarily talented users you will be networked around the globe.  If you have ordinary talented users you must complement your offering with those of other businesses to give your users an extraordinary experience.

This is essentially what Steve Jobs did when he tied the iPhone to one telecommunications company.  Jobs knew he had ordinary talented users - he designed the iPhone for them - therefore he knew he had to give them an extraordinary iPhone user experience (incidentally he probably also got a passive income stream from this telecommunications company for every new user who signed on).  However the next generation of iPhone will have extraordinarily talented users and so Steve Jobs will be able to complement it with free contracts with every telecommunications company (Steve Jobs'  passive revenue models will be with other businesses linked to his users' general demand for goods and services).  Meanwhile the provision of service contract will most likely also be free with this offering because the telecommunications companies will have devised passive income models that suit these new users.

Posted by richard-lipscombe at 8:13 AM EADT
Monday, 3 March 2008
Ideas are like flies - noisy and messy so they must be killed...
Mood:  d'oh
Topic: New business models

 
Last century it was common to have a fly strip hanging from the light above the kitchen table.  The flies would rest on its sticky surface and become trapped and die.  It was a simple solution to a messy and noisy pest.  Flies are a nuisance to order and the proper flow of things in around the kitchen - also they are dangerous to your health.  But flies are also useful - they clean up in a messy environment.

Ideas are as common as flies in most businesses - they are just as messy and noisy.  Ideas buzz around with no place to go and so they become a nuisance.  But there is a sticky strip in most businesses that catches all those ideas - the revenue model.  In most businesses the revenue model is the sticky strip for ideas - it traps them and they die.

If you like flies what is wrong with you?  If you like ideas what is wrong with you?  Don't you know that both are messy and noisy so they must be killed!


Posted by richard-lipscombe at 11:57 AM EADT
Sunday, 17 February 2008
F, D, V, M, P & R....
Mood:  d'oh
Topic: New business models

 
This missive is about future possibilities.   The C21st is full of wonderful opportunities.  There has never been a better time to do big things in your life.  There has never been a better time to be different.  There has never been a better time to find out who you are and what you stand for and then to do what you do best.

However all around me are nay sayers - the worst are the management gurus, speakers, and consultants are who are paid exorbitant fees to tell us stories about the past.  Their fees are only relevant because the amount they charge ensures they are listened to and that their moribund ideas are followed as if they were both relevant and remarkable - they are neither.  These false prophets claim they are change agents and yet the stories they tell you will button down your mindsets to yesterday's realities - not tomorrow's opportunities.

I am not a prophet - I am not a management guru - so you have to think hard about what I say before you are likely to believe it let alone act on it.  But eventually the new realities will be revealed to us all and I doubt that it will have much to do with yesterday.

What I see already is a world that is F, D, V, M, P & R.

Oh yeah I should perhaps explain what I mean.  The world is FLAT due to the internet.  The world is DIGITAL which means production is now automated and services are distributed machine-to-machine.  The world is VIRTUAL because we are all connected through broadband internet-based technologies - eg  email,  VoIP telephones, Facebook, Myspace, etc.  The world is MOBILE because we do everything on the run - we live 24/7.  The world is PERSONAL because we now have products and services customised to our precise requirements.  Finally the world is different because new age businesses have REVENUE models that raise passive income - eg Google, Skype, eBay, etc.

Do you live and work in a FDVMPR world?  If not why not?


Posted by richard-lipscombe at 6:05 PM EADT
Tuesday, 15 January 2008
2008 - access, speed, and trust.....
Mood:  a-ok
Topic: New business models

 
Jeff Bezos has built a C21st business at Amazon - one based on access, speed, and trust.

It does not matter how nice the people in the bookstore are to you or how hard they "try to help you" if they do not provide you with unequivocal access to what you seek.  In a bookstore with 150,000 titles on the shelves you are often "turned away" because the book seller can not access the title(s) you seek.  You are asked to fill out a form so the book seller can "back order" it for you -  this only adds insult to your injury a few days later as the book seller has made no progress with your request.  The back order process is unreliable but it is also too slow.  After a week you have either sourced your book somewhere else or you have forgotten why you ever wanted it.  It is about now the book seller rings to inform you this title is out of print - she suggests you try the second-hand book sellers.  You are no longer listening - she has lost your trust.

To be relevant and remarkable in 2008 you must invest in your customers - you must base your business on access, speed, and trust.


Posted by richard-lipscombe at 10:35 PM EADT
Updated: Tuesday, 15 January 2008 10:38 PM EADT
Sunday, 23 December 2007
The new cost of free.....
Mood:  d'oh
Topic: New business models

 
The world moves on - often it moves in circles as what was old is new again....  What was old is Milton Friedman's claim "there is no such thing as a free lunch".....

What is new again is "there is no such thing as a free lunch because 'they' have just found out some new ways to make you pay for it"....

The internet was a "free zone" until around 2005....  Sure their were advertisements but they were banner types or low key intrusions - they posed at best a minor inconvenience to most users in time and essentially they bore no dollar cost....  This was like free TV way back when I was a kid....  Sometimes the advertisements were better than the content back then...  Back then I watched the advertisements and became attached to certain brands so when I went shopping I paid a premium for my goods or services...  I paid for the advertisements whenever I went shopping....  That was the old way to pay for free...

The new way to pay for free is more pervasive....  I have free access to a newspaper over the Internet where they have commercial videos running in the background of each page I read....  I never click on the advertisements, well very rarely, so I should not have to pay for them in any way shape or form - they are there but they are provided to me free right?  Well wrong....  They are provided free but they are constant downloads while I read so they are recorded by my Internet Service Provider (ISP) and if I break my limit as happened to me this month I do pay....  I can pay with dollars or with a downgrade in the speed of my internet service....  This is the new cost of free - it is a cost that most of us might not see but will, eventually, force us all to change our mindsets, habits, and ways of being on the Internet so that  free is truly free....

The new cost of "free" is just one of the many amazing things I have discovered about "clear space enterprises" in 2007....


Posted by richard-lipscombe at 5:03 PM EADT
Tuesday, 11 December 2007
Customer clusters.....
Mood:  lucky
Topic: New business models

If you understand "Customer Clusters" you understand C21st business.  The challenge is threefold:- create them, secure them, and build off them.

1) Create them.......

Customer clusters are incompatible with mass production systems.  Why?  Because they form around "use value" not price points, brands, demographics, etc.  They form because a group of customers have had the same or a very similar experience.  Disney creates great experiences - when customers go home from Disneyland in Southern California they form clusters.  Within them are those who have had a great experience and want it again, those who have not yet had their great experience but are just "hanging out for it", and those who just love to recount their great experience to whomever will listen.  The important thing to note is the customers create the clusters not Disney Inc.  Disney creates the "great experience" that ultimately translates into "use value" for these existing and potential customers.

2) Secure them.......

The problem with these raw clusters is they will implode as quickly as they were created if their inherent "use value" is not maintained.  Sometimes the "use value" can be maintained by simply repeating "great experience" but more often the original experience has to be innovated.  Thus the key to securing a "customer cluster" is to innovate the core experience of using your products or services.  Each experience of your product or service has to be totally fulfilling.  Any hint of a stale or inadequate experience by a user is potentially lethal to your customer cluster.

3) Build off them.....

Customer clusters can be built off if and only if you can network them.  Clusters are independent entities even though they relate back to the same experience.  Remember the lesson that Mathew taught us about clusters in the Park on Sundays.  All the clusters are there for the same great experience - Sunday in the Park - but each cluster is a distinctly separate entity.  Italians cluster under the trees so the men can play bocchi.  English cluster near the green patches to play cricket.  Americans cluster near the bike track to play baseball.  The multi-cultural mixture forms a cluster over near the river bank because they all like to feed the Black Swans.  Each cluster is unique but they are all there to enjoy one great experience - Sunday in the Park.  If you can access these clusters and link them then you will increase the "use value" they all get from their Sundays in the Park.  How might you link them?  Well imagine that you provided a great experience that innovated their Sunday in the Park.  Imagine you put on an open air play - the first one was Alice in Wonderland.  You sold tickets to the event.  You staged the event in the trees, along the river bank, on the island in the river, and just near the bike path.  Each venue had a separate scene of the story and it played all day.  People could stroll up to each scene whenever they preferred.  You would have clusters forming at regular intervals to partake of the great experience of seeing Alice in Wonderland.  All these cluster would include people from each of the regular clusters in the Park - the whole thing is now networked.  The original clusters have been built off.

Posted by richard-lipscombe at 3:25 PM EADT
Updated: Thursday, 28 February 2008 4:45 PM EADT
Wednesday, 5 December 2007
Ideas need context, frameworks, and execution......
Mood:  a-ok
Topic: New business models

 

Clear Space Thinking is about three things - context, frameworks, and execution.

When you think you have a good idea you need to put it into context.  Is this idea relevant to an industry, community, demographic, etc?  Once you have established its context you must provide frameworks or models that fit with that context.  Decide whether this best fits a local or global context - the former is all about people and the latter is all about systems.  Once you have prototyped and tested your frameworks you have to execute - switch it on and learn on the job.

Digital frameworks are based on clusters and networks.  Global clusters and networks are all about access where local clusters and networks are all about connection.  When the two are combined they are literally impossible to compete against if they are maintained to a high standard.  Digital networks are forming rapidly at both the local and the global levels - they are forming linked clusters that span across nation-state borders and in the process create entirely new economies.  The economics of networked clusters on a global and local scale is yet to be invented so this is "clear space enterprising".

Google is the best example in the world today of "clear space enterprising" but it is not the only one.  There is no way to know what the limits to growth are for the new Google economy.   Remember Google started out as an idea in a post-graduates mind - it was given a context (free search), it was given a framework (Google Inc with its passive revenue models), and it was executed (Googleplex).  Once the idea was put into a proper context, a framework could be fashioned, and only then could the idea be properly executed.

Posted by richard-lipscombe at 12:12 PM EADT
Updated: Wednesday, 5 December 2007 12:20 PM EADT
Tuesday, 4 December 2007
Can I help you create some snowflakes?
Mood:  a-ok
Topic: New business models

 
Over lunch recently my friend and colleague said I should network what I do well.  What I do well is think in unusual ways about issues.

Do you have a problem - a business, political, communal, church, organisational, or cultural issue that you are trying to resolve?

Perhaps I can help you - if so all you need do is send me an email outlining the problem and I will give you an outline of what I think I can do to help.  If I can not help then I will simply tell you.  I resolve issues - I usually need a look at the site of the issue but essentially I resolve issues within my head.  There is no secret to the way my brain works - it challenges conventions and traditional solutions until it finds a new pathway to resolution.My brain is wired in a funny way and that allows it to find normal what others often find abnormal - this is a great help with issue resolution but not always helpful with household chores, keeping down a regular gig, or being a good team player.  Thus I am left with my passion for helping people who want to disrupt their thinking in order to make a breakthrough in their approach to both long-term and pressing issues.

If you have a problem you are wrestling with and you would like me to take a look at it simply drop me a line - lipscombe.richard@gmail.com.


Posted by richard-lipscombe at 1:18 PM EADT

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