Посты с тэгом: RIM

The Remaking of Netflix

Published date: November 28, 2011 в 3:00 am

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Netflix needs urgent change to stop the bleeding and rebuild its business model. It is running out of cash and losing support from customers and shareholders.  Management must re-establish its credibility with bold moves.  Here is a series of steps and techniques to do that.

1.  Reframing:  Use the Subtraction Tool to reframe and see new possibilities.  Make a list of the major components of the company (patents, products, brand, employees, customers, network, etc.).  Now imagine Netflix will merge with a company from another industry.  Create a phrase something like this: “Netflix cannot stream movies to customers, but it has all the other components.  What company has the ideal set of products that would best fit the remaining resources of Netflix?”   For example, would a company in the retail sector have products that would find new growth within the Netflix enterprise? Companies like Path Intelligence might be a good candidate.  Perhaps Netflix could merge with a brick and mortar movie theater company like AMC Entertainment and leverage the strengths of each.  Perhaps Netflix links up with Research in Motion to leverage its proprietary Blackberry network for streaming data.  Use this same approach for all the components, one at a time, to envision new possibilities.

2.  Reverse Assumption:  This technique helps “break fixedness” about assumptions.  List the key business assumptions about Netflix and its industry.  For example:

  • Netflix streams content to customers
  • Consumers want more options
  • Netflix sends DVDs to customers

Reverse the assumptions one by one.  “Customers stream content to Netflix.”  Perhaps the new business model is to offer a service allowing customers to stream information to Netflix which is then re-streamed to others.  Perhaps Netflix uses its streaming skills to enter the business-to-business market, servicing banks or other companies that need to move digital content in a unique way.  Perhaps customers send DVDs to other customers instead of sending it back to Netflix, saving time and money.

The Remaking of Blackberry

Published date: September 19, 2011 в 3:00 am

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Research in Motion, the maker of Blackberry, must reinvent its business model.  Otherwise, it’s the end of the road as many market analysts are predicting.  Time is of the essence, so the management team needs to accelerate its search for new directions and pursue them aggressively.  Here is a series of steps and techniques to do that.

1.  Reframing:  Use the Subtraction Tool to reframe and see new possibilities.  Make a list of the major components of the company (sales force, products, brand, employees, customers, network, etc.).  Now imagine that the company will merge with another company from any industry.  Create a phrase something like this: “RIM has no products, but it has all the other components.  What company has the ideal set of products that would best fit the remaining resources of RIM?”   For example, would a company in data-mining or other information-based services have products that would find new growth within the RIM enterprise? Companies like LexisNexis, Authernative, and Lifelock come to mind.  Continue searching for more insights by doing the same exercise for each component.

2.  Reverse Assumption:  Assumptions get outdated, and this technique helps “break fixedness” about them.  List all the obvious business assumptions about RIM and its industry.  For example:

  • Blackberry is for enterprises
  • Consumers want more functionality
  • Cellphones are the dominate form of communication

Reverse the assumptions one by one.  “Consumers want less functionality.”  Perhaps the new business model is to create stripped down products used by a different market segment.  Perhaps Blackberry becomes a system strictly for young people, not enterprises.  Cellphones are replaced by Internet technologies.  Imagine if RIM developed a Blackberry approach to Skype.

The LAB: Innovating the Blackberry with S.I.T. (November 2010)

Published date: November 8, 2010 в 3:00 am

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Blackberry is taking a shellacking from iPhone and Android.  It’s market share has declined 4% in four months.  Why?  The company drifted from a strategy built around its core competency and is frantically chasing its app-crazed competitors. Though Blackberry defined the smart phone category, it will lose its lead unless it changes.

Blackberry needs innovation.  This month’s LAB outlines an approach for using the corporate innovation method, S.I.T., to Blackberry.  The focus is how to disrupt iPhone and Droid and re-assert dominance in the smart phone category.

The first step is to pick the core benefit that Blackberry can lead with.  Using the Big Picture marketing framework, we need to identify a “dynamic variable” that is tied directly to RIM’s core competency – secure communications.  Blackberry uses powerful codes to encrypt messages as they travel between a BlackBerry server and the BlackBerry device.  All BlackBerry traffic runs through RIM data centers and servers which encrypt and unscramble messages.  The iPhone and Droid communicate directly with ordinary email servers – unsecured.

My recommendation is to compete on privacy (NOT security which is more of the “how,” not the “why”).  Blackberry cannot compete with iPhone and Droid on functionality (apps) and design.  Instead, it needs to raise the Importance and Perception of privacy in the minds of the market.  Privacy is highly desired by people and organizations, and Blackberry is the only technology that can do many functions securely.  The trick is to extend the idea of privacy management beyond just emailing.  Blackberry wants to convince the market that privacy is more important than apps and desgin.

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