258 At least one person on the organizational strategy team—if not a new team—should be assigned responsibility for business models and their long-term evolution. Consider organizing regular workshops with cross-functional teams to evaluate your business model. This will help you judge whether a model needs minor adjustments or a complete overhaul. Ideally, improving and rethinking the organization’s business model should be every employee’s obsession rather than something that preoccupies only top management. With the Business Model Canvas you now have a formidable tool with which to make business models clear to everybody throughout the enterprise. New business model ideas often emerge from unlikely places within an organization. Proactive response to market evolutions is also increasingly important Consider managing a “portfolio” of business models. We live in the business model generation, a time when the shelf life of successful business models is shrinking quickly. As with traditional product life- 1 2 3 4 5 activities • Scan the environment • Continuously assess your business model • Rejuvenate or rethink your model • Align business models throughout the enterprise • Manage synergies or conflicts between models critical success factors • Long-term perspective • Proactiveness • Governance of business models key dangers • Becoming a victim of your own success, failing to adapt Manage Adapt and modify the business model in response to market reaction For successful organizations, creating a new business model or rethinking an existing one is not a one-time exercise. It’s an activity that continues beyond implementation. The Manage phase includes continuously assessing the model and scanning the environment to understand how it might be affected by external factors over the long term. bmgen_final.indd 258 6/15/10 6:01 PM