Business Model Canvas - Innovation through visual thinking.

A 2 minute overview of the Business Model Canvas, a tool for visionaries, game changers, and challengers. This method from the bestselling management book Business Model Generation is applied in leading organizations and start-ups worldwide.

I’ve been reading the book again and again without tiring. This video is the best way to understand quickly how the model is designed. Being able to get the big picture of your whole business plan into a 1 page document is not only wonderful, but also a very efficient way to develop and implement new business ideas.

TOMS: Philantropy & Business Model

I’ve just heard about TOMS. The concept?

Simple: for every pair of shoes you buy, one pair of shoes is given to a kid in need. I liked the idea so much that I can’t not writing about it. And this isn’t everything: they’re expanding! Browsing the site, you quickly discover they not only propose shoes, but glasses. Below is a marketing lesson from TOMS’ CEO Blake Mycoskie here in a video presentation:

“Four months after we started TOMS in the JFK airport, rushing to catch a flight, I get to the American Airlines counter and for the very first time, ever, I saw a stranger wearing TOMS. I played it cool and asked her ‘I love those red shoes, what are they?”, She said: they’re TOMS!

Mycoskie says she grabbed him by the shoulder and turned him around:

“No, you don’t understand, this is the most amazing company, when I bought these shoes, they gave a pair to a kid in Argentina,’ and she started telling me my whole life story, with more excitement than mom does.”

“That’s when I realized that TOMS did not have to focus on advertising, but in giving in a sustainable way so we can share a story, and make our customer share that story with their friends. Your customers become your marketers.”