Looking back to the future: 20 years of business model innovation (theory)

In summer 2001, I published my doctoral thesis on “Business Models in the digital Economy” in German (big mistake!). 20 years later, the topic is hotter than ever, however still very little understood and executed in traditional companies, while the most valuable firms on earth are all newcomers with innovative business models.

I wrote my thesis for incumbents like my sponsors Siemens or Bertelsmann to make them aware that digitalization is not just making the old business model better, but it’s all about radical new business models that are build on the digital technologies. As we all know in hindsights, they did not take the warning seriously since my predication were pretty dismal since I predicted that they only constant will be the needs of customers, but not the product even in a digital form. 

Quiet on the blog. Why?

I did not write much in the last years, actually nothing in the last 3 1/2 years. Sorry. My focus was on the German market where I published in 2015 my book “Das Richtige gründen: Werkzeugkasten für Unternehmer” or “Founding the Right Thing: Toolbox for entrepreneurs”. It’s in its 4th revised edition.

My focus shifted to startups away from incumbents which I still believe are in desperate need of business model innovation, however, they still think with a bit of Digital Transformation they can bring their classic business model to the future. 

I also had the great honor to be part of the team to launch the Gründerplattform or Founders’ platform in 2016 that was sponsored by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy and KfW, a German promotional bank. 

The Dilemma: German vs. English

When I started to write my blog in 2009 in English, I got great international feedback par

What comes next?