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Business Model Generation : Blog | Executive Coaching | CO2 Partners

CO2

B usiness Model Generation caught my eye in a book store in December – It is rare I find myself in book stores anymore given how many books are sent to me as a blogger and my preference in reading on Kindle or IPad. I could see there was something new about this book and how the authors thought about business models.

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Groupon Doomed by Too Much of a Good Thing

Harvard Business Review

This is the essence of Groupon's declaration last week that it will remove the controversial accounting metric called Adjusted Consolidated Segment Operating Income (ACSOI) from its financial statements. ACSOI essentially measures Groupon's profits before subtracting its subscriber-acquisition costs and stock option-based compensation.

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Is Rooftop Solar Finally Good Enough to Disrupt the Grid?

Harvard Business Review

The costly and complex operations of transporting energy have made utilities natural monopolies, while regulatory barriers and the high fixed costs of building and maintaining regional electrical grid infrastructure have also kept much competition at bay. This story of disruption should feel familiar.

Energy 8
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We Can’t Study Short-Termism Without the Right Metrics

Harvard Business Review

While a laudable effort in principle, measuring a company’s tendency to make myopic operating and investing decisions is fiendishly complex. But the other indicators probably pick up legitimate differences in how companies in the sample operate, as opposed to whether they are myopic.

EPS 8
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Don’t Compare Virtual Reality to the Smartphone

Harvard Business Review

Unfortunately, Zuckerberg’s “platform” reference has elicited many comparisons of Oculus to Google’s purchase of Android , the company that would provide Google with its own smartphone operating system. While Virtual Reality may one day be pervasive, the disruption of VR is nothing like disruption of mobility.

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What BMW’s Corporate VC Offers That Regular Investors Can’t

Harvard Business Review

Talented founders know that corporations simply cannot replicate the deep experience private VCs have in starting companies, nor their expertise in assisting startups with complex challenges such as deal making, business modeling, resolving disputes among founders, executing a successful IPO, and so on.

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What Could Amazon’s Approach to Health Care Look Like?

Harvard Business Review

While Amazon’s collaboration with Berkshire Hathaway and JP Morgan Chase would obviously leverage the purchasing power of three massive employers and could lead to innovative insurance models, it seems that the bigger opportunity would be in improving how care is delivered to patients. Making routine transactions seamless and reliable.