4

Manage the Present

Because most businesses focus almost completely on the Box 1 present, I tend to emphasize disproportionately the work of Boxes 2 and 3 when discussing my framework. Indeed, I see them as the essential tools for creating future business. Yet, the Box 1 performance engine also plays an important role in enabling and supporting Box 3 creation. Consequently, the work of Box 3 becomes all the more difficult in a business where Box 1 is underperforming.

Operating at peak efficiency, Box 1 is the company cash cow. It produces sustaining revenues that are the seedbed for ongoing linear innovations meant to improve the current product mix or optimize the existing business model. Box 1 is also a significant source of funding for Box ...

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