Today, I came across a fascinating discussion about Information Age business models at the Harvard Business School Publishing website. It encapsulates the entire paradox of doing business in the Information Age – do you use the wonderful processing power today to turn old ideas out quicker at low cost or do your innovate and produce new ones even though they may not be price competitive. Both can be profitable uses of today’s technology and approaches to doing business, but one is obviously easier than the other, and unfortunately stifles and threatens the other economically.
Everybody’s searching desperately for business model innovation: Detroit, newspapers, record labels, banks. No market is left untouched, no value proposition sacrosanct.
Yet, the best business model in the world is also the simplest : make stuff that’s insanely great. Stuff that’s insanely great does what Prezi does — amazes, enriches, and inspires. That kind of stuff doesn’t need a hard sell, a new market, or a convoluted product range. It just needs to be .
In summary, the author is shocked by his fascination with a new online presentation tool into remembering that paying for quality makes sense. Buying by price alone is a losing game in a world where the bad can be, will be, and has been shipped, in bulk, for near zero cost.
There are a lot of examples in our world of these two approaches being used. Many would suggest that Apple Computer’s central premise is to produce innovation and quality, while their business nemesis, Microsoft profits by going for quantity over quality. All of the low cost computer manufacturers also form a good comparison to Apple Computer here.
I do not believe that one approach is superior to the other and think that there is a place for both to be useful, profitable, and effective in the Information Age. I do wish that more people would, like the author, remember that instead of always going to the Warehouse Club Store first and buying information technology by price alone. If we could reward the purveyors of innovation more, I think that we would be served by pushing our Information Age progress along even faster.
What do you think? What is the best business model for the Information Age? Can you think of examples of each to share?
That is my Information Technology Thought of the Day (ITTOD) for June 15, 2009 ©Scott Coughlin .
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The Paradox of the Information Age Business Models
Harvard Business Publishing: The Best Business Model in the World by Umair Haque
In summary, the author is shocked by his fascination with a new online presentation tool into remembering that paying for quality makes sense. Buying by price alone is a losing game in a world where the bad can be, will be, and has been shipped, in bulk, for near zero cost.
There are a lot of examples in our world of these two approaches being used. Many would suggest that Apple Computer’s central premise is to produce innovation and quality, while their business nemesis, Microsoft profits by going for quantity over quality. All of the low cost computer manufacturers also form a good comparison to Apple Computer here.
I do not believe that one approach is superior to the other and think that there is a place for both to be useful, profitable, and effective in the Information Age. I do wish that more people would, like the author, remember that instead of always going to the Warehouse Club Store first and buying information technology by price alone. If we could reward the purveyors of innovation more, I think that we would be served by pushing our Information Age progress along even faster.
What do you think? What is the best business model for the Information Age? Can you think of examples of each to share?
That is my Information Technology Thought of the Day (ITTOD) for June 15, 2009 ©Scott Coughlin .
No related posts.
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
This entry was posted by Scott Coughlin on June 15, 2009 at 4:00 am, and is filed under Information Age, Information Technology, News Commentary. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0.You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.