Be Less Zombie

32Your Great Idea Isn't Enough

Great ideas only work with a great business model. Here's how to start designing one.

A zombie's favourite bloom must be the corpse flower, so-called because of the smell of rotting flesh that it exudes (really).

© Elvin Turner.

It only flowers once every 40 years and is only found in the equatorial rainforests of Sumatra. It only shows up in a very specific context.

Ideas are the same: they need a specific context in which to work.

But often, our excitement about an idea overshadows the need to explore and design the unique context in which that idea can thrive.

One crucial dimension of context is the business model. The best idea in the world is almost useless without the right business model. I say ‘almost’ because even at the early stages, some ideas can have potential value as intellectual property that can be licensed.

Three Exchanges

If your idea is customer-facing, it is very likely that a three-way value exchange needs to take place:

• Creating value for customers
• Distributing value to customers
• Exchanging value with customers.

The key to discovering solution/market-fit for an idea is designing a business model that allows these three value exchanges to show up simultaneously, efficiently and profitably.

But this doesn't only apply to ...