Narrative
Mark Bonchek
How to Build a Strategic Narrative

Discover how to create a narrative that energizes your executives, inspires employees, excites partners, and attracts customers.

How to Build a Strategic Narrative
Thinking Styles, Styles-Featured
Mark Bonchek
What Kind of Thinker Are You?

You've probably taken personality tests like Myers-Briggs.  But how useful are they day to day?  It turns out understanding how people think is more useful than knowing their personalities. Discover a new way of thinking about thinking.  

What Kind of Thinker Are You?
Orbit
Mark Bonchek
Why Gratitude Trumps Loyalty

What does brand loyalty mean in a digital age? It’s not enough to have repeat transactions. You need reciprocity, advocacy and an ongoing relationship built around a shared purpose. How? With gratitude.

Why Gratitude Trumps Loyalty
Unlearn
Mark Bonchek
Selling a New Way of Thinking

Do you have an innovative idea or solution? Your value proposition won’t be enough to persuade buyers or users. You need to give them a new mental model. Learn the three steps to Shift Thinking.

Selling a New Way of Thinking
Orbit
Mark Bonchek
Marketing Can No Longer Rely on the Funnel

Does the funnel still work in a digital, social, mobile age? The funnel and Customer Decision Journey aren’t going away, but the buying process is no longer linear. We need new models of customer engagement that allow us, as marketers, to enable and empower, not just persuade and promote.

Marketing Can No Longer Rely on the Funnel

The Perils of Confusing Mental Models and Business Models

In today's NY Times, Farhad Manjoo writes about the financial struggles of Uber imitators like Luxe, Instacart, DoorDash and Postmates.  "The Uber Model, it Turns out, Doesn't Translate."

The article attributes many of the difficulties to the companies' business models. But the underlying problem is the mental model more than the business model.

As one venture capitalist said, "The industry went through a period where we said, "let's look at any big service industry, stick 'on-demand' on it, and we've got an Uber."

Uber has been successful not because it is "on demand" but because it leverage platform economics.  As a two-sided market, Uber can harness a network effect. More drivers attract more passengers; more passengers attract more drivers.

eBay and YouTube are also platform businesses.  For eBay, sellers attract buyers; buyers attract sellers.  For YouTube, creators attract viewers; viewers attract creators.

The parking and food delivery services are failing because they were trying to create "on-demand" businesses instead of platform businesses.  These "on-demand" businesses were built with mental models designed for incremental rather than exponential value creation.  They created pipes, not platforms. By having the wrong mental model, they ended up with the wrong business model.

To shift your thinking from about platforms and value creation, I recommend the work of Sangeet Chaudary and his book Platform Revolution.  

And remember the first principle of Shift Thinking:  

Before you decide what to do, 
first decide how to think.

Do You Have FOBO? (Fear of Becoming Obsolete)

Do You Have FOBO? (Fear of Becoming Obsolete)

Most of us have well-founded concerns about career obsolescence. Confront your fears and stave off FOBO by first changing how you think. With new mental models, we can be more resilient, more relaxed, and more relevant.

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What Kind of Thinker Are You?

,
What Kind of Thinker Are You?

You've probably taken personality tests like Myers-Briggs.  But how useful are they day to day?  It turns out understanding how people think is more useful than knowing their personalities. Discover a new way of thinking about thinking.