Lean Scaleup- Part 4: Why most business model innovations fail

This is the fourth part of a FIVE-part series, featuring chapter 2, “The Problem”, of my new book ‘Lean Scaleup: A proven framework for building new businesses from innovation’. In this book, I show a Best Practice framework that I co-created with 20+ leading companies that helps corporates to build new – in most cases, Digital – businesses from Innovation.

Chapter 2 nails down the “WHY” – why is it so hard for companies to achieve business impact and corporate transformation from their corporate startups/ventures (short: EBOs for “emerging business opportunities”). The book is scheduled for May 2021. You can get in contact with me here on The Digital Transformation people community and on LinkedIn.

In the first part of this article series, I highlighted that a company’s innovation activities need to insure it against irrelevance. Statistical data shows that the average life span of companies has been decreasing steadily. Five forces accelerate this trend. The second part highlighted the corporate business-building problem. Part 3 helped you understand the magnitude of your company’s business-building problem.

This fourth part traces the business-building problem back to one particular phase of the innovation journey: Scaling-Up. So in essence, the business-building problem is a Scaling-Up problem. The article will also highlight the root causes why companies are not good in Scaling-Up. 

The business building problem is a Scaling-Up problem

Scaling-Up is an indispensable part of the innovation journey, which runs from idea to business impact. When the innovation should become a sizable and sustainable new business, it needs to scale. Customers have to buy, value creation and delivery must be managed, and an organization that handles business operations has to be created.

 

Figure 1: Scaling-Up, a part of the innovation journey from idea to scale.

The Scaling-Up phase begins when the EBO is “worthy to be scaled” and “ready to be scaled.” The phase ends with……….

To continue reading this article and the rest of this exclusive series by Frank Mattes you’re invited to follow the link to access  The Digital Transformation People Community & Learning Platform. Described as “an incredible buffet of knowledge” and “the content hub of my dreams” you won’t be disappointed. See you on the inside!