We would all acknowledge that the retail business model has changed massively over the last decade. In the UK there have been a steady stream of casualties over the past couple of years and it is easy to blame the economic environment or the growth of online business model as the reason. These are often…
When I saw this piece of work by Eric Berlow and Sean Gourley of Quid who are both TED Fellows, what struck me was that by using visualisation the snapshot above had created insight from what appeared data with limited linkages. In my case what came to mind first was that, based on the various…
In the ‘age of big data’, I read Tim Cummins’ recent post, ‘Contracting as a Data Centre‘ with interest. The comparison of the contracting function as a data centre is an interesting one. The value of a company is largely made up of the value of its contracts, agreements, and relationships. As Tim points out,…
When we think of Facebook we often think of it as a social networking site. Yesterday, for a period of time, people trying to log into other, 3rd party, sites which use their Facebook account for authentication were redirected to an error page. At this point it became clear to them that services such as…
As I have written before (“Supply Chain Shocks – A Risk or an Opportunity?“), in today’s connected world, companies can no longer just focus on the layers of the supply chain that directly contract with if they truly want to guard their own success. They need to understand the second, third, and further tiers, such that…
I’ve written before on the issue of cash flow, its importance to business, and the potential for companies to use it as a strategic tool as a part of a supply chain. It was therefore interesting to read an article in the business section of the Sunday Times today which was describing the plight of…
Increasingly in relation to business models we are seeing the use of terms such as ecosystem, keystone, and networks. This is not in itself new, as we have been used to the concept of supply chains more many years and they have been used throughout history. What we are seeing increasingly, is many organisations adopting…
You would have to have been isolated in a bunker for the last few years to have missed the number of natural disasters that have happened. It can be debated whether they are becoming more frequent or more violent, however, what is indisputable is that the impact of these natural shocks is of greater significance and impact on global…
When we think of subscriptions we usually think of magazines and health clubs. From a business model perspective they both operate a similar model where we agree to commit to pay a periodic fee for a period of time in return for access to an often perishable service or product. When we dig beneath the…
It’s hard to envisage a world without mobile phones, but they have only been around for some 20 years. I remember back in the 90’s, with the proliferation of providers and competition there was a bit of an arms race between the networks to create the most attractive packages. For the consumer this often meant confusion and…