Business model innovation is one of our favourite things to do, talk about, and learn about. Sure, it’s great to develop or change products or services, and making an existing model work even better can be really satisfying. But…. if you want to disrupt your market, make a big splash and get everyone talking, and buying…. innovating your business model is where it is at. 

Step 2. Get creative.

When you have a visual business model you need to get creative. This is the hard bit! So we suggest starting with an anything goes approach. For each segment of your model, try and think of as many things as possible which could go there…EVEN IF they don’t fit with your model for now. Use “And” not “Or” and keep adding things until you really can’t add any more. Then go to sleep, and when you wake up keep going! You’ll know it is starting to work when you realise that some of the more ridiculous ideas on some segments, start to make sense when you combine them with other new elements of the model.

If you get stuck ask yourself questions or try and complete these sentences:

• Wouldn’t it be amazing if…

• Who else might need this…

• Who else can we partner with?

• Can we create services to go with our products, or products to go with services?

• The best thing a customer could ever say about us is…..

Use pins and string, or marker pens to map alternative “routes” through your new model, showing what links to what. Again, give it some time, keep coming back over a few days, let the ideas rattle around in your brain a bit; you might surprise yourself.

This blog is part of a series on business model innovation – check back for the next steps, and you can see all of our previous blogs on this site. And… if you are feeling inspired but want some extra support email us at tellmemore@rubystarassociates.co.uk/dev to talk about how we can help.