Great IDEAS for Business
Contrary to popular belief it's not finding a great idea that is the most challenging part in a corporate or start-up venture. One of the most difficult tasks is the search for the right business model to support your idea. It's hard work and the threat of failure lurks around every corner.
There are many examples that show that the same idea, product, service, or technology may fail with one business model and succeed with another. Nespresso, the Nestlé-owned coffee company, is one of the most prominent examples. It almost went bankrupt with same espresso machine and pod system that is a multi-billion dollar business today. They nearly went out of business because their first business model didn't work. It took them a while to figure out the right business model, a brilliant one by the way, as we show on the Harvard Business Review blog.
Or consider the first photocopying machine, the Xerox 914. Xerox, then called Haloid, had the great idea of inventing a technology to make photocopies in 1959. However, the photocopiers were too expensive to sell, so the company had to invent a totally new business model to succeed with their idea. That lead to the creation of an entire industry (hat tip to Henry Chesbrough for that great example).
