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Hey, happy Monday,
like Mattarella, I probably also need right now to get my hair done.
I don’t know if this is true, however, I have always been told that if you cut them short they grow back stronger.
What I know for a fact to be true, however, is that to grow the business you have to cut out the things that no longer work. The important thing is to figure out what, where, and when to give this cut.
I have always heard managers and consultants ask for “more budget,” and I have never heard anyone reduce or give it back.
I then realized over time and working with increasingly structured companies that it is not their fault, it is the fault of bureaucracy and corporate culture.
Even in normal times, let alone now, it is easy for a manager to spot signs that his or her division or product, is in decline. And this can happen for countless reasons, not necessarily due to negligence or lack of capability. Simply a new solution on the market solves the same problem better, cheaper or faster. What is more likely to happen is that more budget is invested with the hope of turning things around rather than leaving the industry and devoting the team’s energies to a new initiative.
The fact is that in business schools people learn how to build and grow a project but are never taught how to know when it is time to abandon it and how to do it the right way. Nor is the incentive system built to reward these kinds of initiatives that promote efficiency, in fact they penalize it.
It is in companies like this that they ask themselves, “Does it make sense to engage when bonuses have already blown up on March 9?”
It is time to stop looking at the business plan (which was already unrealistic in November) and focus on redesigning a new competitive advantage enabled by the 3Ps: People, Processes and Products.
In our Facebook group at our first Meeting, I shared the STRTGY Maturity Index (direct link) which represents organizations according to two dimensions, priopria competitiveness and the impact/value they manage to generate, defining them in these categories:
Static: unable to react except instinctively
Reactive: able to respond but with limited human and financial resources
Proactive: able to reconfigure and sustain change
Innovative: able to anticipate change
Since I first introduced it, everything has changed, but the framework is as relevant as ever. I suggest you download it and literally connect the dots to see where you are.
If you have already done this at one time, compare the new results with the previous ones.
In any case, use it as a map to figure out the new direction. If you need any help, don’t hesitate to write to me.
The Contactless Business Model
New business models will be the key to innovation, not new technologies.
In his latest book, Reinvent Your Business Model, Mark W. Johnson partner and co-founder of Innosight, highlights 2 key points, take note:
New technologies, however transformative, are not enough to create a business model that creates value for its customers and itself in a repeatable way
New business models, enabled by new technologies, are key to the success or failure of organizations
This pandemic will forever change both the left and right sides of your canvas. That of Key Partners and that of Customers and how you will need to relate to them.
On the one hand protectionism, certifications and new regulations will change your supply chain.
On the other, your business will have to reinvent how to provide value in a relationship in which physical contact and sharing will be a strong constraint.
Bhu!
I believe that one of the sectors that is suffering this crisis more than any other will also be the one that will teach us so much: catering.
They were born even before the pandemic but are now spreading faster-they are Ghost Restaurants: restaurants that serve their customers only through home delivery. They do not own a location or waiters; there is no music or decor. Just a website, a profile on social media, an account on delivery apps.
Why pay for things you can no longer enjoy?
And new opportunities arise, including B2B.
For example, Forage Kitchen is a shared kitchen with a very specific mission, to support food and the local economy by sharing work space, business support, and a community. If you want to open a restaurant, you can take one of their equipped spaces.
Imagine the Central Market in Florence or Rome moving to a shed in the suburbs, and welcoming typical cuisine from all regions and ethnic specialties under one roof.
Just go to the app and make a reservation. Or better yet make a subscription and forget about the kitchen because we will have given up the island with the cooktop to make room for an extra desk.
But before I leave you to your day I want to give you this suggestion, what if a robot was cooking? One like the one I leave you with in the link below.
You would pay for the only thing that matters. The algorithm. The recipe, which contains not only quantities and cooking times but also the chef’s 3D-captured movements.
Welcome to the Computational Restaurant.
What about you, and your team, in these 7 weeks, how are you transforming your business model?
Write to me, I am curious! And if you need to compare don’t hesitate to ask. I always respond to everyone.
Good work!
Make yourself heard.
