There are two resources that I would like to recommend that provide some insight on how to prepare for what looks like another difficult year in 2010. One has an unconventional title and the other is unconventional in almost every way you can think of, but both offer important ways to help entrepreneurs sharpen their saws.
Due to the worries and challenges of the prolonged recession, consumers are looking things that create better value for their spending. The first resource is a book looks at how to create better value through customer service.
Barry Moltz and Mary Jane Grinstead’s book B-A-M!: Delivering Customer Service in a Self-Service World may have an unconventional title, but it presents recipe for customer service that can help entrepreneurs differentiate their businesses.
Moltz and Grinstead fill the book with clear, concise lessons that can help entrepreneurs truly add value to their offerings through excellence in customer service.
The second resource is both a book and a blog that were developed in an unconventional way and is presented in an unconventional format. Getting business models right has never been more important than during this long and difficult recession.
Business Model Generation is the book version of a project that helps capture the very best thinking on developing a business model that has a better chance of entering the market and staying relevant during the turbulent and dynamic times ahead. It was co-authored collaboratively by 470 (that’s right, 470) strategy practitioners from around the globe. From their website:
Business Model Generation will teach you powerful and practical innovation techniques used today by leading companies worldwide. You will learn how to systematically understand, design, and implement a new business model — or analyze and renovate an old one.
The book is visually different than most traditional books — it if full of colorful graphics that help use visual learners see the processes that these experts from around the globe agreed upon as a set of processes that can help any business — from start-up to large corporation — develop more effective business models.
The original book is already out of stock, but their will be a new edition that will be available soon through Amazon. You can get on their waiting list at the website.
In the meantime, one of the leaders of the project, Alexander Osterwalder, offers a lot of the pertinent information from the project at his blog called the Business Model Alchemist. There is more than enough information there to get started in defining or redefining your business model. But, I would still suggest you order the book when it becomes available through Amazon.
Thanks for the callout- hope to see you at Belmont in FEB!