The Difference Between Membership and Subscription Membership is an attitude, an emotion. A subscription is a financial arrangement. It’s quite possible for something to be both a subscription and a membership organization. In fact, the Membership Economy is the logical extension of subscriptions.

The sharing economy is a model based on sharing (or renting) assets not currently being used—a car, a spare bedroom, a vacation home. While there is a lot of interest in the sharing economy right now, the idea itself is not new.

Value stream mapping (VSM) is a lean manufacturing technique to analyze, design, and manage the flow of materials and information required to bring a product to a customer. It uses a system of standard symbols to depict various work streams and information flows. Items are mapped as adding value or not adding value from the customer’s standpoint, with the purpose of rooting out items that don’t add value.

First coined in the mid 20th century, the term “speculate to accumulate” refers to the need invest (at some degree of risk) in order to make meaningful gains. In other words; roll the dice, take a punt, have a gamble.

This is a risky strategy for product managers, and if your gambling skills are anything like mine you’re far more likely to end up backing the three-legged donkey that never makes it over the finishing line.

However, this approach seems to be used time and time again when it comes to product development – blindly investing hundreds of thousands of pounds, if not millions, into products and services in the hope that some pay off. It’s like playing pin the tail on the (three-legged) donkey… in a field.

But it doesn’t need to be this way.

Sadly, I don’t have any secret formula to beat the bookies, but what I can share are some practical tips on how to ensure your products and services are more likely to succeed.

Het dwaze seizoen van de retail staat voor de deur. Vorige week was de grootste Black Friday ooit en blijft de drukste winkeldag van het jaar. Het enige probleem is dat Black Friday een opvallend voorbeeld is van alles wat er vandaag mis is met de detailhandel.

Parijs - Black Friday, een fenomeen afkomstig uit de Verenigde Staten, is in Frankrijk sinds 2013 progressief gegroeid. De dag wordt met spanning tegemoet gezien door consumenten vanwege de vele kortingen, niet alleen op kleding maar ook op andere producten zoals elektronica. In Frankrijk werd een recordomzet van 5,9 miljard euro voorspeld, vier procent meer dan in 2018.

The crowded world of subscription businesses offers ongoing opportunities to screw up your relationship with subscribers.

The key to scaling: building relationships with customers who’ll help you decide where to look for your next product.

Een auto leasen is in trek. Meer dan de helft van de nieuwe verkochte wagens is een leaseauto, zo blijkt uit cijfers van brancheorganisatie VNA. Veelal betreft dit een auto van de zaak, maar het privé leasen van een personenauto is de afgelopen jaren sterk in opkomst. Inmiddels is een vijfde van de geleasede personenauto's voor eigen rekening.

Zuora brings businesses together at the event Zuora Subscribed in order to inspire and learn about the subscription economy. Johan Trip, founder of HVMNS and program manager Subscriptions at Philips, was invited to Zuora Subscribed Amsterdam and Zuora Subscribed London to share his learnings from leading ventures in the subscription economy at Philips, Alliander and PON.

The job of a strategist is no longer to do with adding, subtracting, or polishing links in the value chain. It is about re-configuring the roles, actions, and interactions of the many actors in the company’s value-creating system.

At HVMNS we talk about falling in love with the problem, and not the solution. When companies become obsessed with a solution, they invest millions to prove that it’s the right strategy. Instead, we’re obsessed with problem, and we use solutions as ways to learn about how that problem should be solved. By keeping our emotional distance from the solution, we protect ourselves from the unconscious bias which drives people to prove something right at all costs. For example, rather than ask, ‘how can we get Concorde to work?’ we might ask ‘how can we get people to their destination faster?’

Brick-and-mortar retailers are reinventing their business models amid changes in consumer preferences and the emergence of the sharing economy. IKEA, which is known for selling flat-packed furniture from 276 locations in 25 countries, is experimenting with a subscription offering in Switzerland. The pilot, which is set to start “as soon as this month,” is said to encompass multiple furniture types, according to a Financial Times report.

Philips has expanded their offerings with the addition of a subscription module in their e-commerce website. Subscription forms for products are not new, we stream films and music en masse via Netflix and Spotify. However, Philips is a pioneer in offering personal care products as a subscription. For example, the subscription module offers the possibility to try a Lumea IPL hair removal device before paying the full amount. The reception of Sonicare toothbrush attachments can also be arranged via this new module.

Misschien wel het allerbelangrijkste advies ter verbetering van de cashflow: verdiep de relatie met je klant. Dat zegt Johan Trip, specialist op het gebied van abonnementen. ‘In het ‘oude’ model is de relatie tussen webwinkelier en klant puur transactioneel van aard: de klant kiest een product en rekent het af. In principe is het na die ene transactie, afgezien van incidentele aanbiedingen en upselling, vaak afgelopen. De winkelier verliest zijn klant uit het oog en is alweer bezig met de volgende verkoop.’

Alphons are a footnote of science history. They are a reminder of the way science actually works. No concept is a fait accompli. The available data can be interpreted many different ways, and many ideas that seem so promising are actually wrong turns. Everything is a hypotheses waiting to be validated.

Being Lean is a mindset, going deeper than the build, measure, learn paradigm that is frequently referred to. It’s the concept of employing scientific thinking to problem solving.

Validate to succeed.

How can you stay hungry for growth when things are going excellent? Remember this: Great ideas are a dime a dozen, but great execution determines your long-term success and growth. 

To that end, the potentially unglamorous parts of building a business, from knowing your numbers well, understanding what metrics matter most to a given business, and being able to keep inertia moving are often undervalued, but can mean the difference between rocketship growth and rapid deceleration.

The most significant barrier to innovation is fear. The fear of introducing your idea and being laughed at, the fear of failure and being wrong. Innovation is not about technology, it's about vulnerability.

Our 2018 reading list features suggestions from different segments, business, psychology, theology etc. We hope that, whether you’re a CEO or a student, you will find something to enjoy.

It’s no surprise that John Doerr’s latest book, Measure What Matters is already a New York Times bestseller. In it he shares the two secrets behind many of the successful businesses he has invested in and helped build over the years. His secret is that OKRs and CFRs are, in fact, what matters most.

Meer dan de helft van de online shoppers heeft zich aangemeld voor een of meer (online) abonnementen. Het grootste gedeelte van de inkomsten daarvan gaat naar digitale diensten zoals Spotify en Netflix en zeker 15 procent gaat naar abonnementen waar fysieke producten (scheermesjes, voeding, kleding) tegenover staan. Hoe ontwikkelt de markt zich, welke modellen zijn er en wat is er nodig om succesvol te zijn?

There are at least two kinds of games. One could be called finite, the other infinite. A finite game is played for the purpose of winning, an infinite game for the purpose of continuing the play.

Ambidexterity is the state of being equally adapted in the use of both the left and the right hand. Only about one percent of people are naturally ambidextrous. Ambidexterity is often encouraged in activities requiring a great deal of skill in both hands, such as typing, juggling, musicianship, surgery, sports and martial arts.

Een groot aantal organisaties die “Agile” vormen van werken hebben toegepast komen terug op hun schreden en druipen teleurgesteld af. Allerhande coaches die teams moesten helpen de techniek onder de knie te krijgen staan weer op straat. Wat is er gebeurt en waarom gaan we voorbij aan het echte probleem?