Elizabeth Jovanoska – Founder, Business Concierge on Demand By

Elizabeth Jovanoska

Founder, Business Concierge on Demand

Business Concierge on Demand has been a member of My Business since March 2021

Business model innovation does not always require a hefty investment, you can do small things incrementally to innovate the way you do business. Innovation starts with small incremental changes, and start-ups could benefit from adopting the ‘Blue Ocean’ strategy.

The ‘Blue Ocean’ strategy focuses on how a company stands out from its competition. By focusing on changing the way you bring value to a business is ‘innovation’. For example, making changes in one of the '4V’s' below.

The 4V’s of a business model is:

1. Value proposition
2. Value creation
3. Value capture
4. Value network

Tesla and Airbnb are both good examples of how they innovate and differentiate themselves from the competition through their value proposition and value creation. They offer a completely different product and experience to that of their competitors. Additionally, Airbnb has a unique revenue model namely through two sources – hosts and guests.

Here are my top four areas where you can innovate your business model to enhance your product or service offering with lower price points.  

How do you stand out from the competition? Again, I will use the Airbnb example as it is a strong case study of business model innovation.

Airbnb created new customer segments – hosts, are the people who own property and want to make money by renting out their available space and freelance photographers, available in all cities of the world who go to a location and take photographs of the property. They also have a unique value proposition ‘trust by design’. 

Automating and standardising processes are quick wins you can implement with minimal investment. Some simple processes you can automate is the way you communicate to your customers, like through online apps that do the job for you. Secondly, outsource the work required for your customers.

For example, Airbnb hosts who offer the self-check-in process. Lastly, standardise your processes, this will save you time spent on these low value-adding tasks. Your time as a business owner is better spent on product or service improvements or acquiring new customers.

Investing in technology is key to innovating for any organisation. The key is to reduce the number of customer journey steps to make it easier and faster for your customer to buy. Uber is a great example of this. They invested in technology by building a mobile app where customers can book a ride. They have eliminated many steps in the customer journey.

Firstly, they have eliminated the need to search for a taxi phone number, the need to call and talk to an operator to book the service, and the need to take out a card or cash for payment. This is all taken care of through their mobile app. How easy and convenient is this for the customer!

Adopting agile methodologies involves creating new values, principles and practices in the way a company operates. Agile means doing things differently and more iteratively.

Some of the methodologies of agile include Scrum, which promotes a culture of creativity and adaptivity, with a team focused on solving problems incrementally and iteratively. Lean focuses on the continual elimination of waste and Kanban focuses on reducing lead times in the delivery of a product or service. The benefits of adopting agile ways of working include:

  • Faster time to market with new products/services where customers can provide feedback and the company can have the opportunity to continually make improvements.
  • Better visibility into projects and increased alignment and collaboration between the business and technology teams.

Business model innovation is being able to adopt change in your existing model to enable better products and services to your customers. Innovating your business model also means you will continue to differentiate yourself from the competition. By adopting an innovative mindset means you will continue to make changes in your business and deliver value to your customers.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of My Business. 

Elizabeth Jovanoska

Founder, Business Concierge on Demand

Elizabeth has over 18 years of experience working with clients on solving complex business problems through developing and executing strategies, marketing campaigns, growth strategies and automating processes.