ASCI 2×2: Embracing the business model

The other day, A Smart Bear wrote about leverage thru embracing differentiated, long-term strengths; “do you” was the idea. If you like that line of thinking, see the book called Good Strategy / Bad Strategy.

The upshot is embracing your business model in your messaging. Imagine that your business falls somewhere on this matrix below.. wherever it falls, strengths and weaknesses come with it.

               Types of B2B Business Models


             slow     decision-speed    fast

 deep        |    Type A    |    Type B    |

insight      ---------------+---------------

shallow      |    Type X    |    Type Y    |

But wait, who wouldn’t want to be Type B: fast on decisions and deep on insight?

And who in their right mind would choose Type X, slow on decisions and shallow on insight??

A lot of businesses actually; let’s take a quick tour of the matrix.

Type A has a lot going for it:

• Develops tailored and innovative solutions
• Long-term profitability based on deep relationships

But… slow decisions can mean missed opportunities, misunderstanding of new trends – plus high cost research and analysis work.

Examples: R&D teams, strategy consulting.

Type B can respond more quickly to opportunities and stack profits quickly – but they also incur the most risks, for their clients and their own firms.

Examples:  agile software shop, a real-time analytics product for equities traders.

Type X  might not be such a bad deal if you like predictable revenue, an easier selling cycle and lower overall risk, in exchange for lower growth potential.

Examples:  a standardized CRM, a bookkeeping package.

And Type Y has revenue flexibility and solution agility – the only issue is the solution might fall flat and do little for customers.

Examples: a rapid prototyping service, curated dataset-for-sale.

I’m guessing you know which quadrant you fall in – if so, you know your strengths and weaknesses. If so, how to embrace that in your messaging?