终极创新难题：你敢于卓越吗

    商业模式创新始于人们意识到自己正投身于一个比自身宏大得多的运动，那是全球性的、自组织的和变革性的运动。只有跳出自我，才能领导革新。这是商业模式创新过程的第一步，也是最重要的一步，需要人们换个角度看待自己和组织。从现有的商业模式出发，人们所能达到的最佳结果也不过是逐步的改良。商业模式创新则需要全新的视角，甚至需要用一整套新的方法去检视新的机会。这始自于意识到变革性的机会比我们自己和组织都要重大。商业模式创新就像一场划时代的旅程，需要有小孩子第一次探索新世界那样天真的热忱。

    商业模式创新必须是一个战略性的目标，否则根本无从实现。我最不能忍受将战略切割成琐碎的临时策略。有些人或者组织认为只要埋头苦干，战略方向和目标就会自动浮现，遇到这种人简直能让我疯掉。这虽然似乎是世界的常态，但大家没有意识到它的效率是何其低下。有多少人和组织只知道奋力前行，却从未到达任何目的地。他们的反应就是更加努力，希望发生奇迹。看着就累。为什么不把商业模式创新作为一个战略目标，一个专门的目的地，然后专注于那些有助于实现目标的工作。就那么简单。设定一个战略目标之后，就能知道哪些策略是和战略一致的，能帮助达成最终的目标。途中，目标可能会改变，会需要不同的策略，这些都没问题，但如果完全没有目标，我们将一事无成。

    1961年，肯尼迪总统说：“我们要登上月球”。随后，美国人民齐心协力，为这个目标而奋斗。我们都相信这个目标是可以实现的，而登月的目标激励了整个国家，进一步巩固了我们的全球科技领先地位。学习数学和科学是新潮流，而创新是推动美国繁荣昌盛的经济引擎。8年后，尼尔•阿姆斯特朗8年后终于踏足月球并发表其著名感言：“这是我个人的一小步，确是整个人类的一大步”。我们都为之欢欣鼓舞，仿佛那是我们自己的成就一样，彼时我们坚信没有什么不可能实现。我们一直试图找回那种感觉。但今天，我们没有明确的目标，不管是在太空，还是在地球上。

    Business model innovation starts by realizing you are contributing to a movement that is bigger than you. It's global, self-organizing, and transformative. Lead by letting go. The first and most important step in the business model innovation process requires a change in perspective for both you and your organization. Looking through the lens of your current business model will most likely result in incremental changes at best. Business model innovation requires a different perspective. It requires a different set of lenses to examine new opportunities. It starts by realizing transformational opportunities are bigger than you and your organization. Business model innovation must be treated like an epoch journey with all the wide-eyed enthusiasm of a young child exploring new territory for the first time.

    Business model innovation must be a strategic objective or it won't happen. One of my biggest pet peeves is setting strategy one tactic at a time. It drives me crazy to be surrounded by people and organizations that think if they just work hard enough and do more things that a strategic direction and destination will emerge. It seems that most of the world works this way. It is terribly inefficient. How many people and organizations do you know that pedal the bicycle like crazy but never seem to arrive anywhere. They just keep pedaling harder hoping that something will eventually stick. It is exhausting watching them. Why not establish business model innovation as a strategic objective, a specific destination, and work hard on those things that help you get there. It seems so simple. Setting a strategic direction provides a way to know which tactics are aligned and contribute to reaching the destination. The destination may change along the way requiring different tactics, and that is OK, but not having a destination at all is a ticket to nowhere.

    When John F. Kennedy said, "We choose to go to the moon" in 1961, Americans rallied around the destination. We believed it was possible and the goal of setting foot on the moon rallied a country to advance its global science and technology leadership. It was cool to study math and science and clear that innovation was the economic engine that would drive American prosperity. When Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon eight years later and said, "That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind", we celebrated his achievement as if it was our own and knew at that moment that anything was possible. We have been trying to get that feeling back ever since. Today, we have no clear destination, in space or on earth.