Entrepreneurship and Innovation Today

The Opportunity Clinic - 28 Tactics for Managing Your Business in a Recession Part 4 of 28 “Left Behind “Opportunities

 

 

Every human concept or invention has 4 effects on society, according to Marshall McLuhan. As we switch from plastic bags to bring-your-own cloth bags in grocery stores, we see one of these unintended effects or consequences. It’s what I would classify as a “left behind” combined with a  "process" opportunity window, in the Opportunity Clinic ™ ©  jargon. I'm less of a "trends" fan, althought this does present another "opportunity window" because trends such as a shift from plastic to bring-it-yourself (biy) bags are ovbious to most people and the opportunity space gets quickly crowded out.

My good friend Susan Abbott writes about this unintended consequence of the switch in bags on her blog

What happened when everyone started bringing their own bag: the law of unintended consequences

"I just got a call from a good buddy leaving Loblaws, which recently introduced a save-the-planet charge of 5 cents a bag for those no-goodniks that don't bring their own.

"I'm just leaving the Superstore now," says buddy."Everyone is bringing their own bags.

"And you would not believe how this has slowed down the checkout process. At least 30% slower."

I witnessed this myself at a Wal-Mart. The bags are not all the same size. Some are floppy and need to be held open. One guy was handing the bags over one at a time.

Last week when I commented about the cost of human-delivered services, I wasn't even thinking about this.

Researchers like me know how much customers hate waiting in line. They hate watching inefficiency in line. It used to be just the brown rice brotherhood that took their own bag. Soon everyone will be doing it.  Yikes! "

These are touch-points for the opportunity savvy entrepreneur that can 1) recognize this change event or shift and notice the unintended consequences ..they are usually in your face if you only take the time to look and ask a few strategic questions and 2) find and fill an opportunity space or opportunity window here with your unique solution.

Here's a freebee for someone..... design a cloth bag holder for your store-bought cloth bags, so that the checkout clerk can scan and pack groceries right away into your cloth bag, (but not for bags from the competion's store).

Related posts in this series:

The Opportunity Clinic - 28 Tactics for Managing Your Business in a Recession Part 3 of 28 Design Opportunities- Hope or Nostalgia

The Opportunity Clinic - 28 Tactics for Managing Your Business in a Recession Part 2 of 28 Innovation or Efficiency?

The Opportunity Clinic - 28 Tactics for Managing Your Business (& surviving and thriving) in a Recession Part 1of 28

Related Posts over that past year:

·         Opportunity Recognition in Difficult Times

·         Recession - Proofing your Business - Spotting & Designing Opportunities in a Downturn

·         Recession - Proofing your Business - Spotting & Designing Opportunities in a Downturn – June 25, 2008, Ontario College of Art Design, Toronto, ON

·         Recession-Proofing your Business-Strategies and Tactics for smoother sailing in turbulent seas

·         Master Class in Opportunity Recognition for entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs> May 30th 2008> University of Toronto

·         Turning Misery into Opportunity

·         Vacuum leaves pullout opportunities;

·         How will baby boomers handle the recession? Zoomers, Doomers, Gloomers, Opportuneurs

·         Recession, Depression and Shortages as Opportunities

·         Restructuring of American Business-A New Business Model?

·         Using New Yorker Cartoons for Opportunity Recognition /Sense-making & Pattern Recognition

·         Text Mining for S&T Scouting, Foresight and Opportunity Recognition

·         The Opportunity Clinic-swapping opportunity scenarios 08-002

Walter Derzko

 

Every human concept or invention has 4 effects on society, according to Marshall McLuhan. As we switch from plastic bags to bring-your-own cloth bags in grocery stores, we see one of these unintended effects or consequences. It’s what I would classify as a “left behind” combined with a  "process" opportunity window, in the Opportunity Clinic ™ ©  jargon. I'm less of a "trends" fan, althought this does present another "opportunity window" because trends such as a shift from plastic to bring-it-yourself (biy) bags are ovbious to most people and the opportunity space gets quickly crowded out.

My good friend Susan Abbott writes about this unintended consequence of the switch in bags on her blog

What happened when everyone started bringing their own bag: the law of unintended consequences

"I just got a call from a good buddy leaving Loblaws, which recently introduced a save-the-planet charge of 5 cents a bag for those no-goodniks that don't bring their own.

"I'm just leaving the Superstore now," says buddy."Everyone is bringing their own bags.

"And you would not believe how this has slowed down the checkout process. At least 30% slower."

I witnessed this myself at a Wal-Mart. The bags are not all the same size. Some are floppy and need to be held open. One guy was handing the bags over one at a time.

Last week when I commented about the cost of human-delivered services, I wasn't even thinking about this.

Researchers like me know how much customers hate waiting in line. They hate watching inefficiency in line. It used to be just the brown rice brotherhood that took their own bag. Soon everyone will be doing it.  Yikes! "

These are touch-points for the opportunity savvy entrepreneur that can 1) recognize this change event or shift and notice the unintended consequences ..they are usually in your face if you only take the time to look and ask a few strategic questions and 2) find and fill an opportunity space or opportunity window here with your unique solution.

Here's a freebee for someone..... design a cloth bag holder for your store-bought cloth bags, so that the checkout clerk can scan and pack groceries right away into your cloth bag, (but not for bags from the competion's store).

Related posts in this series:

The Opportunity Clinic - 28 Tactics for Managing Your Business in a Recession Part 3 of 28 Design Opportunities- Hope or Nostalgia

The Opportunity Clinic - 28 Tactics for Managing Your Business in a Recession Part 2 of 28 Innovation or Efficiency?

The Opportunity Clinic - 28 Tactics for Managing Your Business (& surviving and thriving) in a Recession Part 1of 28

Related Posts over that past year:

·         Opportunity Recognition in Difficult Times

·         Recession - Proofing your Business - Spotting & Designing Opportunities in a Downturn

·         Recession - Proofing your Business - Spotting & Designing Opportunities in a Downturn – June 25, 2008, Ontario College of Art Design, Toronto, ON

·         Recession-Proofing your Business-Strategies and Tactics for smoother sailing in turbulent seas

·         Master Class in Opportunity Recognition for entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs> May 30th 2008> University of Toronto

·         Turning Misery into Opportunity

·         Vacuum leaves pullout opportunities;

·         How will baby boomers handle the recession? Zoomers, Doomers, Gloomers, Opportuneurs

·         Recession, Depression and Shortages as Opportunities

·         Restructuring of American Business-A New Business Model?

·         Using New Yorker Cartoons for Opportunity Recognition /Sense-making & Pattern Recognition

·         Text Mining for S&T Scouting, Foresight and Opportunity Recognition

·         The Opportunity Clinic-swapping opportunity scenarios 08-002

Walter Derzko

900 Minnesota Farmers own "downstream" organic Vodka brand

You've heard of credit unions or farm or business coops...here's a new take on an old member owned business model concept.

If you buy  Prairie Organic Vodka, a Minnesota coop of over 900 farmers “who share ownership of the brand.” Prairie describes their vodka as “beautifully smooth. With hints of melon and pear on the nose, creaminess on the palette, and a bright smooth finish…”

What is organic about Prairie Vodka?

The #2 yellow corn is organic, and, “the growing process cannot use genetically modified seeds, artificial fertilizers, hormones, weed controllers, or pesticides.” In fact, Prairie states that this method costs more than twice the normal method used by conventional farmers. The distillery itself also has Oregon Tilth organic certification, meaning every step in the distillation process has passed strict requirements for organic production.

All “garbage” corcobs are turned into biogas for powering the stills, and any leftover grains are returned to the farmers for livestock feed. The vodka is also certified kosher by the The Orthodox Union, with the understanding that once a product is certified kosher, it will adhere to those standards throughout its lifetime of production.

The vodka is distilled in Benson, Minnesota, and bottled by Phillips & Co in Princeton, MN. Phillips is a family-owned distillery with one of the first worker profit-sharing plans in the country dating back to 1944.

What is organic about Prairie Vodka?

The #2 yellow corn is organic, and, “the growing process cannot use genetically modified seeds, artificial fertilizers, hormones, weed controllers, or pesticides.” In fact, Prairie states that this method costs more than twice the normal method used by conventional farmers. The distillery itself also has Oregon Tilth organic certification, meaning every step in the distillation process has passed strict requirements for organic production.

All “garbage” corcobs are turned into biogas for powering the stills, and any leftover grains are returned to the farmers for livestock feed. The vodka is also certified kosher by the The Orthodox Union, with the understanding that once a product is certified kosher, it will adhere to those standards throughout its lifetime of production.

The vodka is distilled in Benson, Minnesota, and bottled by Phillips & Co in Princeton, MN. Phillips is a family-owned distillery with one of the first worker profit-sharing plans in the country dating back to 1944.

The Business Model: In Search of Meaning

We invite you to participate in a PDW devoted to an exploration of the meaning of Business Model, a concept that is gaining increasing use in strategic literature. The session will held on Saturday, August 9^th and will combine short presentations by the panelists with breakout sessions for participants to explore the various uses of the Business Model concept followed by debriefings from the different breakout teams. Each panelist is a strong contributor to the concept of business model; however each has his or her own added value. This allows exploration of many different avenues of meaning. Participants should have a chance to have rich discussions that are very different after each speaker and bring in their own experience of frequentation with the idea of business model. The program is as follows:

PDW on The Business Model: In Search of Meaning

Program Session #: 72 | Submission: 10185 | Sponsor(s): (BPS, ENT, OMT, IM, MC, HCM)
Scheduled: Saturday, Aug 9 2008 8:00AM - 10:30AM at

Anaheim

Convention Center

in 201D

Panelists	Role	Affiliation
Stephanie Hurt	Organizer & Speaker	Meredith College
Constantinos Markides	Speaker	London Business School
Ramon Casadesus	Speaker	Harvard Business School
Michael Jacobides	Speaker	London Business School
Filipe Santos	Speaker	INSEAD
Marcus Hurt	Speaker	EDHEC Business School

Panelists taking part in this PDW come from a variety of intellectual and academic horizons. Among the ‘questions we ask’ is: How can this new concept be defined in a way that provides a useful tool for understanding organizations’ strategic choices and operating methods?

Gaining popularity as a concept in the late 90s, ‘business models’ are more and more often evoked by academics, consultants and journalists. However, there is no clear agreement on how the concept should be defined. Some refer to it as a stultifying pattern that blocks change and others as something that entrepreneurial firms design and pilot. For some it seems to loosely refer to the competitive positioning of an organization and its value proposition, while for others it encompasses the whole of a firm’s architecture, its boundary design and management. In this we may ask ourselves if it is not a new paradigm for strategy.

This PDW means to act as an open forum where panelists exchange with participants on the evolving meaning of the business model concept and its future usefulness in management as an analytical and prescriptive tool for both researchers and practitioners. Some of the questions we will ask ourselves are: Can we agree on a common definition of business model? What does the concept add beyond related constructs currently applied in strategy and organizational theory? How can research help fine-tune the concept?

Family Business models in different cultural regions- Book announcement

Dear Colleagues,

We are delighted to announce the publication of the eleven volume set, Culturally Sensitive Models of Family Business.  This Compendium uses GLOBE's ten cultural clusters of the world (Anglo Region, Confucian Asia, Eastern Europe, Germanic Europe, Latin America, Latin Europe, Middle East, Nordic Europe, Southern Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa) to address the commonality as well as differences in family businesses around the world.  While a growing body of knowledge about different cultures exists, it tends to be centered on a few cultures (e.g., Anglo) and is dispersed throughout a wide array of publication outlets.  The purpose of this Compendium is to examine and highlight the various cultures from around the world in one single resource to make it readily accessible to scholars, students, and practitioners.  A special volume on gender in family business rounds out the set.

"The Compendium is a timely and major contribution.  It is a great resource for scholars and students interested in understanding the diversity and uniqueness of family firms around the world.  Family business practitioners and policy makers seeking to enhance global collaborations and creating sustainable families, communities, and businesses will find this an invaluable resource."  Pramodita Sharma, Ph.D. Associate Dean of Business and Professor of Family Business Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada

"As an integral first phase for a broader research program, C.A.S.E. (Culturally-Sensitive Assessment System and Education), it offers comparative cultural analysis of family businesses and culturally-sensitive tools to create more successful families, businesses, and communities worldwide."  Joseph Horak, Ph.D. Horak Family and Psychological Services, President, C.A.S.E. Worldwide Group, L.L.C., USA

The Compendium is intended to open a new stream of inquiry in the growing field of family business.  We encourage you to share this information about the Compendium and the caseworldwide.com ( http://caseworldwide.com/ )site with your colleagues and contacts.  In addition, please ask the library of your institution to order a full set of the Compendium.

You may order the full 11-set Compendium at a discounted rate of $240.

Additional copies of each volume can be purchased for $25 per volume.

Sincerely,

The Editorial Team,

Vipin Gupta ([email protected]) Nancy Levenburg ([email protected]) Lynda Moore ([email protected]) Jaideep Motwani ([email protected]) Thomas Schwarz ([email protected])

Webinar - Building a Better Business Model -- rescheduled for December 13

News from CATA

Dear Walter,

We are pleased to announce that the webinar 'Building a Better Business Model', featuring Andrew Maxwell, has been re-scheduled for Thursday, December 13 at 12 pm EST.  You can still register by going to www.tmrc.ca/webinar_growth_level2.html

We hope you will plan to join us!

Sincerely,

CATA Alliance ; The Canadian Innovation Centre;  Edge Creative Technology Marketing Resource Centre

Paperless Newspaper goes virtual

One of the major Finnish business newspapers Taloussanomat announced today that they will stop printing on paper- in the beginning of the next year they will only be available via Internet.

Thanks to Elena for the heads-up

http://www.flickr.com/photos/16932541@N03/1887088141/in/pool-weaksignals/