Perspectives — strategy

Having a very clear view of your customers, their problems, the business you're in and how this may be restructured to deliver enhanced value has never been more critical. Agile startups are harnessing innovative technologies to disrupt, transcend and pick off the lucrative elements of businesses posing a threat to every industry. For Australian retailers, one of the greatest perceived threats is the imminent arrival of Amazon - no longer a startup but a behemoth - which continues to pursue a relentless program of agile, lean start up style experimentation as it strives to win across all categories of retail.  Amazon's ambition is to be the 'everything retailer', to generate more revenue that Walmart, and in order to do...

Alex Osterwalder is a man who, by his own admission, is somewhat obsessed with tools. And he's pretty adept at creating them. His 'Business Model Canvas' and 'Value Proposition Canvas' have been put into practice across the globe by start ups through to multinational corporations.  An understanding and application of these tools is often what separates the start ups that succeed from those that fail. And as much as they help a start up search for a winning customer value proposition and a viable business model, they are also used by established organisations to help them innovate, to develop new offerings that will ensure their future prosperity as old models are disrupted....

There's general consensus that today’s business environment is more volatile and unpredictable than ever. Disruption of products, services, channels, policies, talent, brands and supply chains is increasing as nimble start ups attack the component parts within the value chain of established incumbents across all industries. Organisations require a robust capacity to innovate in order to survive, and this requires that they have both creative leaders and a creative culture. The leadership challenge, well articulated by Tim Brown, CEO of renowned design strategy firm IDEO, is that most of today’s leaders achieved their position through having the right answer, whereas in our increasingly complex and interconnected world, it's nigh on impossible...