Alumna
Related Expertise: Business Strategy, Social Impact, Innovation Strategy and Delivery
What keeps business leaders up at night? If it’s not their company’s ability to streamline operations and lower costs, it’s whether their teams have the vision to see future opportunities and the flexibility to pursue those opportunities faster and more profitably than competitors.
Companies aim to improve their performance every day, but in many cases, doing business a little better is not enough. Bold, game-changing moves are risky, however, so many companies wait until their backs are against the wall before they start rethinking their business models. But by then, they may lack the cash flow, capabilities, and customer goodwill to turn things around or optimize the value of a growth opportunity.
The good news is that business model innovation (BMI) is a capability that can be developed. BMI involves changing multiple components of a business with the goal of redefining how it operates or delivers value. (See “Value Proposition + Operating Model = Business Model.”) In many cases, looking beyond one’s own sector can provide new insights and inspiration. Private-sector companies can learn much from the social sector because nonprofits frequently need to reinvent themselves in the face of significant challenges and constraints.
The challenges that nonprofits tackle can be enormous. Whether they are striving to eradicate malaria, end hunger, or eliminate the inner-city achievement gap, the best nonprofits continually rethink how they pursue their missions and achieve impact. Necessity is the mother of reinvention.
Successful business-model innovators typically progress through four stages: uncover opportunities, convert ideas into business models, prepare and test the models, and scale and iterate. Nonprofits, despite the fact that they focus on “program models” rather than business models, follow a similar path. On the basis of extensive work with the social sector, The Boston Consulting Group has distilled ten lessons that span the four stages of BMI. (See the exhibit “Ten Lessons from Successful Nonprofits.”) In all of the examples that follow, nonprofits reinvented their program models in fundamental ways. We’ll focus on specific elements of these reinventions to illustrate key lessons for companies in the private sector.
Authors
Zhenya Lindgardt
Wendy Woods
Vice Chair, Social Impact, Climate & Sustainability; Managing Director & Senior Partner
Boston
Brenda Thickett
Global Practice Management Director, Social Impact
New York
ABOUT BOSTON CONSULTING GROUP
Boston Consulting Group partners with leaders in business and society to tackle their most important challenges and capture their greatest opportunities. BCG was the pioneer in business strategy when it was founded in 1963. Today, we work closely with clients to embrace a transformational approach aimed at benefiting all stakeholders—empowering organizations to grow, build sustainable competitive advantage, and drive positive societal impact.
Our diverse, global teams bring deep industry and functional expertise and a range of perspectives that question the status quo and spark change. BCG delivers solutions through leading-edge management consulting, technology and design, and corporate and digital ventures. We work in a uniquely collaborative model across the firm and throughout all levels of the client organization, fueled by the goal of helping our clients thrive and enabling them to make the world a better place.
© Boston Consulting Group 2024. All rights reserved.
For information or permission to reprint, please contact BCG at permissions@bcg.com. To find the latest BCG content and register to receive e-alerts on this topic or others, please visit bcg.com. Follow Boston Consulting Group on Facebook and X (formerly Twitter).