paTTerns 58 John Hagel and Marc Singer, who coined the term “unbundled corporation,” believe that companies are composed of three very diΩerent types of businesses with diΩerent economic, competitive, and cultural imperatives: Customer Relationship businesses, product innovation businesses, and infrastructure businesses. Similarly, Treacy and Wiersema suggest that companies should focus on one of three value disciplines: operational excellence, product leader- ship, or customer intimacy. On the following pages we show how the idea of unbundling applies to business models. In the fi rst example, we describe the confl icts and undesirable trade-oΩs created by a “bundled” business model within the private banking industry. In the second example we show how mobile telecom operators are unbundling and focusing on new core businesses. Bundled Unbundling Unbundled! 1 3 2 Hagel and Singer describe the role of Customer Relationship businesses as fi nding and acquiring customers and building relationships with them. Similarly, the role of product innovation businesses is to develop new and attractive products and services, while the role of infrastructure businesses is to build and manage platforms for high volume, repetitive tasks. Hagel and Singer argue that companies should separate these businesses and focus on only one of the three internally. Because each type of business is driven by diΩerent factors, they can confl ict with each other or produce undesirable trade-oΩs within the same organization. unbundling business Models bmgen_final.indd 58 6/15/10 5:33 PM