Business Models For Teams: See How Your Organization Really Works and How Each Person Fits in Paperback – 27 Jun. 2017

The whole series is really good and very different from other stuff on Business Models - fits in well with Service design as a change concept and methodology

Thanks

Over the last years the ‘Business Model Canvas’ proved to be a great tool for organisations to be realistic about their present business concepts, but also to create insights on where they could be going. An extension of this model was the ‘Value Proposition Canvas’ as it covered in detail the pain and gain points, and how-to-make-the-job-easier for clients and potential clients, allowing a proper match of products and services, and by doing so re-inforcing the enterprise business model. These enterprise models worked fine but did overlook the team and individual level. To actually make a nice alignment possible, between the enterprise business model and those working in these organizations, these two additional levels of insights are needed and very crucial to make any organisation move forward.Over the last couple of years, both Tim Clark and Bruce Hazen, managed to close that gap between enterprise, teams and individuals, through two publications. Their publication of ‘Business Model You’ in 2012 (by Tim Clark, Alexander Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur) covers the individual level nicely, as it models the personal needs-and-wants of those creating and co-creating their own life and business.Their new publication ‘Business Models for Teams’ aims at the team level itself, allowing insights in how your organisation really works and how each person fits in. For myself, it's been a blast to contribute to this book. It started with a small group in Amsterdam in November 2015, growing to a group of 225 professionals around the globe. All contributed to the co-creating, writing, editing and production of Business Models for Teams.A pre-view sample of this new publication is available for free at the book website.

One of Tim Clark and Bruce Hazen’s most valuable insights is the “Me to We” approach that guides and informs the adoption of what they characterize as a “Bigger Theory of Work.” Case in point: They wrote this book in collaboration with 225 contributors from 38 countries. It is no coincidence that most of the companies that are annually ranked among those most highly admired and best to work for are also annually ranked among those most profitable with the greatest cap value in their industry segment. This is no coincidence. However different these companies are in most respects, all of them are governed by a mindset based on third-person PLURAL pronouns.The “Me-to-We” approach accelerates a transition from asking “What’s in it for me?” to asking “What’s best for us and our company?” More specifically, here’s what the approach involves:1. Participants design personal business models.2. They then design their team model.3. Next, they integrate individual contributions within their team model.Clark and Hazen explain HOW. (Check out the presentation of “The Business Model Canvas” on Page 27.) With regard to the aforementioned ““Bigger Theory of Work,” it does not define work to be done in terms of jobs; rather, in terms of [begin italics] roles [end italics].Moreover, this theory views work not in terms of organizational structure but in terms of [begin italics] business models [end italics] that “describe what am organization actually does, for whom, and how its elements are related.” These elements may be separate but they are also interdependent.One of the most substantial benefits of “The Business Model Canvas” is that it can be used to create a “systems view” of organizations at three levels: enterprise, team, and individual. “An [begin italics] enterprise business model [end italics] shows how an entire organization creates and delivers value to customers outside the organization. A [begin italics] team business model [end italics] shows how a group creates and delivers value. A [begin italics] personal business model [end italics] shows how an individual creates and delivers value...Think of the three levels as a stacked tier with the enterprise model on top. Viewing an organization this way reveals workplace interdependencies and begins imparting a sense of relatedness to people who may be accustomed to thinking of work in terms of proscribed ‘jobs’ that rarely transcend group or functional boundaries. This is where people begin discovering how an organization really works – and how they fit in.”That’s terrific advice for business leaders who now struggle to avoid or dismantle so-called “silos”...most of which are usually disguised as human beings...as well as for business leaders within organizations that are increasingly more multicultural and/or more international in nature and scope.I presume to suggest that the information, insights, and counsel that Tim Clark and Bruce Hazen provide in collaboration with 225 contributors from 38 countries – and the brilliant way in which this material is organized and presented — can accommodate teams that consists of people in the same company, of course, but also teams with members from outside the given company such as customers, strategic allies, and even (yes) competitors.Also, Perhaps most important of all, this material can also be relevant, indeed invaluable to all manner of teams that consist of people in collaboration with machines.I offer a hearty "Bravo!" to Keiko Onodera whose contribution of design skills is of the very highest quality and value.Most human limits are usually self-imposed so it would be a serious mistake, perhaps a fatal mistake, to limit the nature and extent of the “We” when adopting a “Bigger Theory of Work.”Those who share my high regard for this book are urged to check out Enterprise Architecture As Strategy: Creating a Foundation for Business Execution, co-authored by Jeanne W. Ross, Peter Weill, David Robertson and published by Harvard Business Review Press.

Llegó muy maltratado

Parfait

There are multiple reasons that this is an extremely important book on how organizations work and how to maximize the productivity of the teams in them. I have chosen five of those reasons to describe in this review.First, it was co-created by 225 professionals from 38 countries. You get a global perspective regarding how to generate positive organizational results.Second, the book provides dozens of real examples from around the world to support the points that have been made. You meet real people who tell their real organizational success stories.Third, the authors “focus on using business models to better serve internal customers. This is operations. Operations is where most people work.” The approach to using these business models is 1. Participants draw personal business models. 2. Participants define their model. 3. Participants map individual contributions onto their team’s model.A foundational part of the learning in this book regards how to create The Business Model Canvas that includes Key Partners and Key Activities as two of the nine elements central to creating impactful teamwork. The author’s and contributors show you, using pictures and graphics and explanations devoid of jargon, exactly how the process works. The nine elements cover all aspects of business operations required to gain positive results from the work of your team.The authors discuss the rationale for their use of graphics and visuals and pictures and the Business Model Canvas this way, “To get people to understand and follow a strategy, it must 1) be explained in easily understood terms, and 2) guide actual behavior.” The charts and visuals in this book make it much easier to accomplish that than if it was a typical business book that is mostly words. The authors further explain this focus when they write, “There is nothing wrong with words of course. But words alone cannot handle the task of explaining or understanding a complex multi-dimensional system such as an organization.”Fourth, this book is extremely practical and actionable. This is not a professor in an ivory tower postulating deep thoughts. These are leaders in a variety of organizations from around the world showing you exactly how they created the kind of change necessary to be successful. The book begins with Defining Your Team’s Why. By page 17 you have drafted your team’s Why Statement. To help you start teambuilding, each chapter in this book ends with Things to Try on Monday Morning.Fifth, any manager at any level can use the business models outlined so clearly in this book to help their team move forward effectively. The author’s state, “You may not be in a position to ensure organization-wide teaching of the enterprise model. But you may be in a position to define your own team’s business model and ensure that every member understands it – and more important, uses that team model to guide everyday action.”Bottom line, this book provides a powerful addition to organizational literature about team building and fills a gap regarding how that subject has been dealt with to date. I have been a leadership development consultant for over thirty years and have helped leaders on five continents improve the quality of the results of the teams they lead. This book comes with the highest possible recommendation.

Wonderful book. A must read for all the Entrepreneurs or if you are managing a team. Book delivered in good condition. Print is good, paper quality is good, nicely presented.

If you have read the other books and you work with the approach, than this book is a great further development. Its a pity that trainings are currently not offered in Europe, but the book is full of best practice and therefore helpful.It is absolutely worth reading it.