Not for free : Revenue strategies for a new world

Saul J. Berman

Harvard Business Review Press

2011

Abstract

It used to be only dotcom start-ups lacked workable business models. But now the ubiquity of cheap communications and computing is deeply wounding business models across the board. Combined with rapidly changing customer expectations, the rules for how value is delivered, and what, when, and how much customers will pay are in flux.

What can you do to ensure that you have a business model that will work today and in the future? Create new revenue models, advises Saul J. Berman in Not for Free. The most important strategy now is wringing new income streams from existing assets, physical and digital, by exploiting new segments, new uses and new value additions.

Using the media industry, the canary in the coalmine for business model disruption, as a starting point, Berman explores the revenue strategies that are working, and the ones that are failing, in this new world. Drawing on examples from a variety of industries like Progressive Insurance, Rent the Runway, Castrol, Redbox, Mint and many others, Berman guides you through the opportunities and pitfalls of new revenue strategies.