Alex Osterwalder, a leading management thinker and co-founder of Strategyzer.com, shares insights on building invincible organizations. He delves into the balance between exploration and exploitation in innovation. Discover the five myths about the innovation journey, including the misconception that finding a perfect idea is key. Osterwalder emphasizes the importance of experimentation and evidence-based decision-making. He also discusses how constraints can spark creativity and drive company reinvention, using real-world examples to illustrate his points.
39:26
forum Ask episode
web_stories AI Snips
view_agenda Chapters
menu_book Books
auto_awesome Transcript
info_circle Episode notes
insights INSIGHT
Exploration vs. Exploitation
Divide your company into two parts: exploitation (managing what you have) and exploration (inventing the future).
Most companies overemphasize exploitation and underemphasize exploration.
volunteer_activism ADVICE
Test and Adapt, Don't Just Pick Ideas
Test and adapt your ideas to find a value proposition customers care about and a scalable business model.
Don’t just pick a bold idea and assume it will work; test your assumptions, especially during times of uncertainty.
question_answer ANECDOTE
Strategizer's Pricing Experiment
Strategizer tested different price points for their virtual masterclass via email.
The highest price point converted best, showing customers' willingness to pay for valuable content.
Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode
This book introduces the Business Model Canvas, a visual tool that helps organizations create, deliver, and capture value. It is co-created by 470 practitioners from 45 countries and is highly recommended for executives, consultants, entrepreneurs, and leaders. The book covers nine essential building blocks of a business model: customer segments, value propositions, channels, customer relationships, revenue streams, key resources, key activities, key partnerships, and cost structure. It also explores business model patterns, design techniques such as ideation and prototyping, and the process of implementing and managing business models.
Seeing Around Corners
How to Spot Inflection Points in Business Before They Happen
Rita McGrath
Loon Shots
null
Safi Bahcall
Safi Bahcall's "Loon Shots" explores the dynamics of innovation within organizations, examining why groundbreaking ideas often face resistance and how to foster environments where they can thrive. The book uses real-world examples from various industries to illustrate the challenges and opportunities in nurturing disruptive innovation. Bahcall introduces concepts like the "barbell structure" to highlight the tension between creative exploration and efficient execution. He emphasizes the importance of balancing risk-taking with responsible scaling, advocating for a system that supports both "artists" and "soldiers" within an organization. The book offers practical strategies for leaders to cultivate a culture of innovation and overcome the obstacles that stifle groundbreaking ideas.
A Beautiful Constraint
Mark Barden
Adam Morgan
Alex Osterwalder: The Invincible Company
Alex is obsessed with making strategy, innovation, and entrepreneurship simple, practical, and applicable. He invented the Business Model Canvas, co-founded Strategyzer.com, and lead authored Business Model Generation which sold a million copies in 30 languages. He’s one of the top-ranked management thinkers in the world by Thinkers50.
He is the author of the book, The Invincible Company: How to Constantly Reinvent Your Organization with Inspiration From the World's Best Business Models*.
In this conversation, Alex and I explore the distinction between exploration and exploitation that invincible organizations must hold in tandem. Alex teaches us the five most common myths of the innovation journey and what leaders can do to compete and stay relevant in a changing world.
Key Points
Myths of the innovation journey:
Myth 1: The most important part of the innovation and entrepreneurship journey is to find and execute the perfect idea.
Myth 2: The evidence will show you a clear path forward why you systematically test ideas. The solution will magically emerge if you just test and adapt your idea often enough.
Myth 3: A small number of big bets will lead to a large return.
Myth 4: The skills required to explore a new business and to manage an existing one are pretty similar. Business is business.
Myth 5: Innovation teams are renegades or pirates that are out to disrupt the old business. They need to operate in stealth mode to survive inside a company.
Invincible Companies constantly reinvent who they are and where and how they compete in order to stay relevant and ahead.
Resources Mentioned
The Invincible Company: How to Constantly Reinvent Your Organization with Inspiration From the World's Best Business Models* by Alex Osterwalder
Innovation Project Scorecard: Evidence Trumps Opinion
Related Episodes
How to Transform Your Limitations Into Advantages, with Mark Barden (episode 207)
The Way to Nurture New Ideas, with Safi Bahcall (episode 418)
How to Start Seeing Around Corners, with Rita McGrath (episode 430)
Discover More
Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic.
Coaching for Leaders 
