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Now is the Time for Business Model Innovation

February 19, 2011

Every organization in the Middle East should be questioning the who, what and how of their current approach to business, and finding a better way to offer value to customers and constituents. I’ll give you not one but four reasons why now is the time for business model innovation.

1. The demonstrations in Tunisia, Egypt and around the Middle East show how out of touch governments can be with what their people want. The business world is no different — only instead of protesting, customers just go someplace else. One way to keep this from happening is to examine your value proposition and uncover new ways to serve customers. This is the essence of business model innovation. [Read more...]

Changing Tides: Dubai Port World Achieves Market Leadership through Business Model Innovation

January 30, 2011

Dubai Port World (DP World) is one of the largest marine terminal operators in the world, with 49 terminals and major expansions in 31 countries. Formed in 2005, with the merger of Dubai Ports Authority (DPA) and DPI (Dubai Ports International), the organization is young in name but rich in experience.

Since its inception, DP World has sought to understand cargo shipping from the customer’s viewpoint and provide innovative solutions, especially in the areas of optimized port operations and automation. In addition, it has established a track record of recognizing advantageous partnerships and acquisitions that has propelled it from humble beginnings to a driving force in global logistics.

In this Leadership Interview conducted by Innovation 360 Institute President and CEO Kamal Hassan, Mohammed Al Muallem, DP World’s SVP & Managing Director for the UAE, discusses how the company has evolved its business model over the years to become a market leader, and how it has innovated to meet the demands of growth. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Business Model Innovation, Leadership Tagged With: al muallem, business model innovation, cargo, dp world, Dubai, dubai port world, ports management, supply chain, UAE

The First Step to Business Model Innovation

December 15, 2010

Business model innovation is en vogue, with many websites and publications capitalizing on interest in the topic. The first step to business model innovation is to describe your current business model to provide a baseline from which to start innovating. Unfortunately, many managers and business owners don’t understand exactly what a business model is, nor how to describe their own.

There are many frameworks that help with this task by attempting to break a business down to a manageable number of building blocks. Some propose four blocks (e.g. Johnson) others have nine (e.g. Osterwalder) or ten (e.g. de Mey and de Ridder). No matter what framework you prefer (and at the end of the day they are all variations of the same thing), I believe the building blocks can be summarized in three categories:

Who is your customer?
What are you offering your customer?
How are you doing this?

Assessing Your Company’s Open Innovation Capabilities

November 20, 2010

Open innovation is an approach to developing new products, services, processes and innovation capabilities by leveraging input, ideas and expertise from outside the organization as well as from within. Open innovation can provide a company with many advantages including:

• Accelerating time-to-market
• Reducing risk in the innovation process
• Lowering R&D and operating costs
• Supplementing internal R&D capabilities

Even though open innovation has permanently changed the innovation landscape, in NineSigma’s 2009 benchmark study on open innovation practices, we discovered something interesting. Of the more than 100 companies polled, nearly 50% identified themselves as being in the “early stages” of open innovation. This was more than six years after Henry Chesbrough coined the term “Open Innovation” and the practice began to achieve widespread adoption. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Execution, Methodologies and Tools Tagged With: assessment, collaborate, collaboration, external network, NineSigma, OI, open innovation, R&D, tool

Beyond Capital: How Khalifa Fund Enables Economic and Social Change Through Entrepreneurship

November 10, 2010

Three years ago, the Khalifa Fund for Enterprise Development opened its doors in Abu Dhabi, UAE. Its mission was not unlike other agencies in the region, set up to aid SME (Small-to-Medium Enterprises) and enable regional economic gains by encouraging entrepreneurship among UAE nationals.

Today, Khalifa Fund is the source of an enormous amount of startup capital in Abu Dhabi. Although initially funded by the Abu Dhabi government, after only three years the fund now procures financial backing for startups – a major accomplishment for the young organization, especially given the recent financial turmoil in the region.

Even more impressive is how Khalifa Fund has designed a system that not only educates entrepreneurs and finances unique and feasible SMEs, but also contributes to social sustainability. Through innovative programs targeted at specific groups, including home-based female entrepreneurs, former inmates and recovered drug addicts, Khalifa Fund demonstrates that both economic and social development can co-exist in any organization’s strategic vision.

In this Leadership Interview, conducted by Innovation 360 Institute CEO Kamal Hassan, Ibrahim Ahmed Al Mansoori, Khalifa Fund’s DCEO, explains the values that differentiate his organization, and how those values contribute to the success of SMEs and entrepreneurs in the region. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Leadership Tagged With: abu dhabi, al mansoori, business model innovation, economy, emirati, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, funding, Innovation, khalifa fund, new business, sme, start-up, startup, UAE

5 Reasons Middle East Companies Miss Disruptive Innovation

November 2, 2010

What do cell phones and Amazon.com have in common? Both are popular technology in wide use today – but it wasn’t always that way. When cell phones and Amazon.com were introduced, they served the needs of a few people who were eager to try them, even though they had a few shortcomings. In the case of cell phones, users had to tolerate lower voice quality in exchange for the ability to call anyone from any place. In Amazon’s case, not everyone was ready to browse a store online and send their credit card information over the Internet.

Today online stores like Amazon.com are extremely popular with shoppers all over the world. And cell phone usage has exploded to 5 billion users as of July 2010. This number is expected to rise exponentially, as the industry average is currently 60 million new users every month. Compare that to the 74 years it took for the telephone to reach 50 million users, and you see the power of technology in action – as well as the influence of disruptive innovation. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Innovation, Strategy Tagged With: Amazon.com, disruptive innovation, MENA, Middle East, Steve Jobs, technology

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