Financial Meltdown: A Management Perspective - Business Model?

Business Model?
Men and women of vision who are leading according to values that emphasize the long run and making decisions based on the knowledge inherent in our knowledge economy will need the right business model. It will be one fashioned around information and knowledge. All these “things” at the root of the game were essentially just information.

This will be a holistic model–one that knows the doings of customers, competitors, regulators and the economic environment; that can bring that knowledge inside and act on it in a timely, intelligent way; and that harmonizes the conflicting desires of various divisions and functions in a way that supports the enterprise’s mission. You say we do all that now? Did Lehman Brothers? Did Merrill Lynch? All the brilliant graduates these firms hired, and all the millions they threw at technology, can’t put these Humpty Dumpties together again.

Business is complex, especially the finance business. These are rather simple suggestions–difficult in the execution to be sure–but not so complicated that we can’t consider them as we try to put together the future.

Faisal Hoque is chairman and CEO of BTM Corporation and author of forthcoming book Convergence Scorecard to be published by Harvard Business Press.  BTM innovates business models and enhances financial performance by converging business and technology with its unique products and intellectual property. © 2008 Faisal Hoque