John Elkington, the Founding partner of Volans, a future-focused business working at the intersection of the sustainability, entrepreneurship and innovation movements wrote a very interesting piece (watch the video below) in Fast company sometime back and I went back to it to pick up some powerful ideas.
At the current churn rate 50% of the S&P 500 will cease to exist over the next 50 years. The Gartner Hype Cycle is a good indicator of the probable Crash and burns.
On the flip side though there are opportunities for new companies to emerge and grow. At the core however will be business models and not only breakthrough technology. Many will have sustainability at its core. Generation Foundation agues that sustainability will be Fundamental for Growth.
So where are the opportunities : 1. Making goods and services available to those who didn’t have access to them and 2. replace resource intensive products and services with ones that are radically more efficient.
Transport is a prime example. The Uber revolution is just the tip of the change that is coming. According to the article, Think Tank Rethink X predicts that, once hail a ride is combined with autonomous electric vehicles, the costs of accessing mobility services will be so low that costs associated with owning a car will seem prohibitive and consumer behavior vis a vis ownership of cars will shift quickly (just as they did with Uber and similar ride hailing services world wide in a matter of 5 years). Within 10 years of legalization of AEV’s 95% of travel miles will be though transport as a service (as against owned cars in US).
The key is to figure the business model that would combine user benefit aided by breakthrough technologies bringing goods and services within the reach of the masses.
The ideas above are from the article by John Elkington and Richard Johnson of Volans (and Project Breakthrough). These are great ways to rethink our approach to growing businesses. You would want to read it as you work on your BMC or Go to Market strategy. I will dig on this and post a few more pieces directing you to similar ideas and information.
I would love to hear from you and look forward to content that you have come across and found compelling.
Link to article below:
We Need Breakthrough Business Models, Not Breakthrough Technology. Technology doesn’t transform markets, business models do
Breakthrough Business Models https://youtu.be/y–1fjFtG5E
Check the Project Breakthrough website http://breakthrough.unglobalcompact.org/
