Book review
Changing the rules of the game is what makes a business great

Companies typically focus on product and process innovations for gaining a competitive edge. While such innovations are clearly very important sources of value creation, the impact of business model innovation is of a far higher order altogether — it’s strategic in nature.
The essence of business model innovation is finding a better and more profitable way of creating value for customers. In a world where strategies can easily be imitated and competition emerge from seemingly nowhere, business model innovation is becoming crucially important.

In this book, Vedpuriswar explains both the innards and process of business model innovation and highlights its impact using dozens of stories of great companies, including Dell, Wal-Mart, Starbucks, Southwest Airlines, Gujarat Ambuja, HDFC, Ranbaxy and others which have created new ways of doing business that competitors find difficult to replicate. Not only do such companies stand uniquely apart in a crowd, they have also clocked enviable financial performance.

Equally, the author weaves together innovation insights of the contemporary gurus of business strategy, including Peter Drucker, Michael Porter, Gary Hamel, Adrian Slywotzsky and Clayton Christensen to highlight key lessons.

How to innovate a new business model

Target new, untapped or neglected customer segments

Identify new or currently neglected customer needs and priorities

Redefine the product

Capture value by moving downstream

Growth through strategic outsourcing
Use disruptive technologies to leapfrog established players.

Highly readable and absorbing, this book shows how business model innovation allows a company to change the very rules of the game and control the key levers of an industry. It is an incisive blueprint for get-ahead companies, senior executives, board members, consultants and investors on the lookout for extraordinary growth opportunities.

Pages: 488
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 81-7094-628-x
Published in 2005



About the author A V VEDPURISWAR is currently Dean, ICFAI Knowledge Centre, an affiliate of the Institute of Chartered Financial Analysts of India, Hyderabad. A BTech (Hons) in Chemical Engineering from IIT Kharagpur (Class of 1985), a PGDM from IIM Calcutta (Class of 1991), and CFA (Class of 1996) from ICFA1, Vedpuriswar combines nine years of industry with eight years now spent in the academia. Vedpuriswar's areas of interest include globulization, risk management, knowledge management, and innovation. His articles have appeared in The Hindu, The Hindu Business Line, The Economic Times, Indian Management and Smart Manager. Vedpuriswar has written and edited more than 200 cases in various areas of management, many of which are being used in leading business schools in Asia, USA and Europe. Vedpuriswar's earlier books. The Global CEO, Enterprise Risk Management and an edited book, Strategic Financial Management have also been published by Vision Books. Vedpuriswar's is a remarkable writing talent. He writes superbly and is at ease with tackling subjects that are wide and vast, effortlessly moving from the big picture to the key detail. His trilogy of books on business strategy, The Global CEO, Enterprise Risk Management and now Business Innovation Lessons from Great Companies, together form a strategy lour de force, underlying his undoubted talent as a business writer of global stature.