In my work with non-profit organiza- tions, the biggest obstacles to business model innovation are 1. inability to understand the existing business model, 2. lack of a language to talk about business model innovation, and 3. counterproductive constraints on imagining the design of new business models. Jeff De Cagna, United States The management of an SME (wood manufacturing industry-WMI) did not begin changing its business model until the bank no longer wanted to give them credit. The biggest obstacle to business model innovation (in the WMI case and likely every case) is the people who resist any changes until problems appear and need corrective actions. Danilo Tic, Slovenia Ev E ry o NE L ov ES INN ov A t I o N u N t IL I t A ff E ct S th E m. The biggest obstacle to business model innovation is not technology: it is we humans and the institutions we live in. Both are stubbornly resistant to experimentation and change. Saul Kaplan, United States I have found that the management and key employees in many SME companies lack a common framework and language for discussing business model innovation. They do not have the theoretical background, but they are essential to the process because they are the ones who know the business. Michael N. Wilkens, Denmark METRICS OF SUCCESS: They can direct the scope and ambition of behavior. At best they can allow for the agility that brings truly disruptive innovation; at worst they reduce vision to near term iterative cycles of evolution that fail to take opportunity from changing environments. Nicky Smyth, U.K. Fear to take risks. As a CEO you need courage to take a business model innovation decision. In 2005, Dutch telecom provider KP n decided to migr ate proactively to IP and thus to cannibalize its traditional business. KP n is now int ernationally recognized as an outperformer in the telco industry. Kees Groeneveld, Netherlands In my experience with a large archive, the biggest hurdle was to make them understand that even an archive has a business model. We overcame this by starting a small project and showed them this would affect their current model. Harry Verwayen, Netherlands GET EVERYBODY in V ol V ed and keep up the speed of change. For our disruptive meeting concept Seats- 2meet.com we trained the staff almost daily for a period of four months just on communicating this new business model to all stakeholders. Ronald van Den Hoff, Netherlands 1. Organizational antibodies that attack a project as resources drawn from their area conflict with their business objectives. 2. Project management processes that can’t deal with risks/ uncertainties associated with bold ideas so leaders decline or claw ideas back to existing comfort zones. John Sutherland, Canada The biggest obstacle is a belief that models must contain every detail— experience shows that clients ask for a lot but settle for simplicity once they have insight into their business. David Edwards, Canada W HAT STA n DS I n YOUR WAY ? 194 bmgen_final.indd 194 6/15/10 5:44 PM