Business Models ...

Business models are an under-appreciated part of being a start-up (and a larger company too !) Far too little time is spent on coming up with the appropriate business model. Often, I find that people revert to "its the way its always done" mindset (which has a place in a maturing industry). The other common mindset is to struggle to do everything yourself and outsource only what absolutely cannot be done in house. Business models are very important at the start-up stage as a number of decisions made then get embedded into the company's processes and culture and become hard to reverse later.

To give an example, many product ideas in the IT space need to decide who their market is (retail, corporate, government, size of target customer, etc), how to approach the market (direct or through systems integrators, or distributors / wholesale / retail, or SaaS), how to develop (in-house, outsourced, mixed), etc. Poor choice of business model can rapidly lead to disaster even with a good product. On the other hand, its great to watch Facebook and Apple navigate the complexities of their business model to ensure that they are open but maintain control over critical pieces of the value chain, and work to reinforce those particular strengths. Think Facebook Connect or Share; think iTunes as the gatekeeper to get music and apps onto the iPod/iPad/iPhone/iTouch or programming apps for the iPhone is possible only on the Mac !

Some of the best books I've read on business models include Co-Opetition, Wikinomics and the Innovator's Dilemma & Solution series. The Dhandho Investor I put in the same category though it deals with a particular type of situation, which is running a business on low capital and low risk.

Some interesting websites on the subject are The Business Model Database, Business Model Designer and Business Innovation Factory. And this is Wikipedia on Business models.

I don't see too many courses though on designing business models. It seems to be buried in the strategy courses in business schools. This should change.

Government Ideas

Interesting model. A variant of this came to me during a visit to Badami where I found the Archeological Society was doing a great job, but its pamphlets and brochures could be improved. The idea was to have a website where people could post things in government that can be improved (in this case, the brochure about Badami). If I had particular solutions for the problem, which will happen reasonably often (I recognised the problem because I have a bent towards improving communication through design), then there is an option to suggest the solution. The organisation ("Improve Your Life") behind the website tries to figure out who in which Government department needs to be contacted to deal with this information. Ideally, Improve Your Life also works out a strategy by which the idea gets implements. In this particular case, it could be working out a sponsorship deal with a FMCG company to sponsor the printing of this material. This could then be provided free to the Government Department. Ideally, the designer with the solution can be part of the eventual graphic production and get credit, and even paid. 

I just came across Sunlight Labs, which had a contest "Design for America". Very interesting concept - Open contest for design which makes Government more understandable. Can we do one for India ? Will the Government accept the designs ?

Ideas ...

I just read that good ideas are not so hard to come by, but entrepreneurs to execute on a good idea are much harder to find. Unfortunately, I'm in the same bind, so I'll be sharing various business ideas I come across or have on the blog too. I hope entreprenuers who are searching for ideas execute some of these.

Design and its role in society

Design as a field seems to be exploding. Over the last 2 decades, new areas like UI design, human interaction design and game design have come up. Some areas that I find related have also grown, such as information visualization. Even more far flung fields like business model design or choice architecture are becoming prominent.

The common theme of good design - good to individuals and useful to society - has the common theme of "making it easier". This is really from a cognitive sense. Making functions obvious, reducing errors, making choices simpler, or better all end up using fewer cognitive resources and therefore easier for the user. In a way, its cognitive judo. How about a Design firm called Judo, with a tag line - Making It Easier !