The Risk-Driven Business Model - by Karan Girotra & Serguei Netessine (Hardcover)

About the Book

"Innovation isn't always about new products or services. In fact, many new ideas are realized--and then brought to market--thanks to a disruptive business model that challenges the conventional operating logic of an industry. In The Risk-Driven Business Model, Karan Girotra and Serguei Netessine--both professors at INSEAD--introduce a toolkit to help innovators better conceive the disruptive business models that create wealth and revolutionize industries. In the book, they outline how to transform a company by revisiting the assumptions around the firm's key decisions. Business model innovation, the authors say, essentially is about WHAT key decisions get made in a business, WHEN they get made, WHO makes them, and WHY those individuals make the decisions they do. So by changing a company's approach to these choices, you can fundamentally alter the risks involved and invent new, superior business models. Girotra and Netessine also describe the kinds of processes companies should have in place to help them imagine and explore these changes. With numerous examples of well-known companies in many different countries that are using the framework, this book serves as a toolkit for anyone--from entrepreneurs to executives--involved in the dynamic decisions that move industries forward"--

Book Synopsis

How to outsmart risk

Risk has been defined as the potential for losing something of value. In business, that value could be your original investment or your expected future returns.

The Risk-Driven Business Model will help you manage risk better by showing how the key choices you make in designing your business models either increase or reduce two characteristic types of risk--information risk, when you make decisions without enough information, and incentive-alignment risk, when decision makers' incentives are at odds with the broader goals of the company. Leaders who understand how the structure of their business model affects risk have the power to create wealth, revolutionize industries, and shape a better world.

INSEAD's Karan Girotra and Serguei Netessine, noted operations and innovation professors who have consulted with dozens of companies, walk you through a business model audit to determine what key decisions get made in a business, when they get made, who makes them, and why we make the decisions we do.

By changing your company's key decisions within this framework, you can fundamentally alter the risks that will impact your business.

This book is for entrepreneurs and executives in companies involved in dynamic industries where the locus of risk is shifting, and includes lessons from Zipcar, Blockbuster, Apple, Benetton, Kickstarter, Walmart, and dozens of other global companies.

The Risk-Driven Business Model demystifies business model risk, with clear directives aimed at improving decision making and driving your business forward.

Review Quotes

"Executives seeking to maximize opportunities while minimizing risk will find substantive ideas." -- Publishers Weekly

"Girotra and Netessine examine business model innovations (BMI's) delivered by companies from Blockbuster to Zipcar, and point out a surprising discovery: BMI's might not be as flashy as new product innovations, but they can give companies an even greater competitive advantage--at a much lower cost." -- BizEd magazine

"At a time when business model innovation is flourishing, as never before, The Risk-Driven Business Model by Karan Girotra and Serguei Netessine, both professors at Insead, reveals how companies can design their business models to unlock value and game-changing competitive advantage." -- Consulting Magazine

ADVANCE PRAISE for The Risk-Driven Business Model:

Hermann Simon, founder, Chairman, and former CEO, Simon-Kucher & Partners; author, Hidden Champions of the 21st Century--
"The Risk-Driven Business Model's powerful framework and great examples show you how to create a disruptive business model and make the right decisions for your company and products. A must-read for executives and entrepreneurs alike."

Frances X. Frei, UPS Foundation Professor of Service Management and Senior Associate Dean, Harvard Business School; coauthor, Uncommon Service--
"Karan Girotra and Serguei Netessine have a powerful partnership that results in first-rate conceptual ideas. Simply put, this book changed the way I viewed the world."

Karl T. Ulrich, Vice Dean of Innovation, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania--
"Girotra and Netessine have crafted a spectacular book that guides executives and entrepreneurs through a structured process for creating a disruptive business model. I highly recommend it."

Hugh Mason, cofounder and CEO, JFDI.Asia--
"Welcome to the new opportunity in risk. Karan Girotra and Serguei Netessine's four W's are empowering as entrepreneurs like me start to imagine new businesses and innovations. An impressive and important book."

About the Author

Karan Girotra is Professor of Technology and Operations Management at INSEAD. His research has appeared in top academic journals and has been featured by the Financial Times, Businessweek, Sloan Management Review, and Harvard Business Review. A former entrepreneur himself, Girotra continues to engage actively with start-ups, largely as an instigator, adviser, and mentor.

Serguei Netessine is the Timken Chaired Professor of Global Technology and Innovation at INSEAD and the Research Director of the INSEAD-Wharton Alliance. His research has received extensive media coverage in CIO Magazine, the Economist, Forbes, and the New York Times. He consults and advises companies ranging from start-ups to Fortune 100 corporations and US governmental agencies.