Bonnie Gloris: Business Model Success

Week 10’s readings about “Creating a Business System and Organization that Delivers” was really helpful in thinking about iCraft Path, the enterprise I’m helping to develop through this Social Innovation Incubator, as well as through a Systems Synthesis project. The Systems team I’m a part of has devoted a lot of time to writing case studies about the potential platforms we could use to deliver iCraft Path, such as through workshops, a website, a brick-and-mortar store, a small-business consultant, etc. – and that distinction remains important – but we haven’t given much thought as to our organizational blueprint, or how business model trends could affect sustainability.

After reading Organizational Blueprints for Success in High-Tech Start-Ups, I definitely see iCraft Path as following the “Commitment” blueprint (while the article is not directly applicable to our organization, it still seems relevant on a broad level). Since the organization will rely on enduring customer relations with the crafters it will provide resources to, it makes sense that enduring employment relationships will also be a priority. It’s important to understand that there is a tradeoff between risk and reward – businesses utilizing the Commitment model tend to survive and prosper, though they can also be fragile and difficult to scale.

Likewise, 20 Business Model Innovations for Sustainability was helpful to me in articulating some of the emerging trends in our team’s research of best practices for the platforms we are considering. For example, the ‘Freemium’ financing innovation – offering free basic service while charging for advanced features – seems like a promising possibility for iCraft Path. 

I was amused to read point four of “Findings and Implications” in the 20 Business Model Innovations article (“4. Business model innovation doesn’t happen in a vacuum”), as I recently read an almost identical sentence (“Innovation doesn’t happen in isolation.”) in the “Entrepreneur” article: Warby Parker Co-Founder On the Next Generation of Social Entrepreneurship. The article is about the need for social enterprises to get more involved in the public sector, because “government and public policy are not moving at the pace of technology or even meeting expectations of constituents.” Do you see the social enterprise you’re developing as satisfying a need where government is falling short? Do you think any of the concepts in the 20 Business Model Innovations article could be utilized to improve the function of government?