Business Model You: A One-Page Method For Reinventing Your Career [Paperback]

Timothy Clark (Author), Alexander Osterwalder (Author), Yves Pigneur (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 27, 2012

A one-page tool to reinvent yourself and your career

The global bestseller Business Model Generation introduced a unique visual way to summarize and creatively brainstorm any business or product idea on a single sheet of paper. Business Model You uses the same powerful one-page tool to teach readers how to draw "personal business models," which reveal new ways their skills can be adapted to the changing needs of the marketplace to reveal new, more satisfying, career and life possibilities. Produced by the same team that created Business Model Generation, this book is based on the Business Model Canvas methodology, which has quickly emerged as the world's leading business model description and innovation technique.

This book shows readers how to:

• Understand business model thinking and diagram their current personal business model
• Understand the value of their skills in the marketplace and define their purpose
• Articulate a vision for change
• Create a new personal business model harmonized with that vision, and most important, test and implement the new model

When you implement the one-page tool from Business Model You, you create a game-changing business model for your life and career.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

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Q & A with Tim Clark, author of Business Model You

What inspired you to write Business Model You?
One day, on a whim, I decided to use the Business Model Canvas to diagram my career in the form of a "personal business model." The experience floored me, and I thought, well, if this helped me, it should help a lot of other people, too.

Who is this book for?
The book is for anyone who's keen to rethink how they work. It's especially helpful for people like me, who've long lacked a logical way to conceptually frame their careers.

What sets Business Model You apart from other career books?
BMY is the first book to apply a business model description, analysis, and innovation methodology to individuals. Other books exhort readers to think of themselves as "one-person enterprises" and "startups." BMY provides a specific method for doing so.

What is the one thing you hope readers get out of reading Business Model You?
I hope readers absorb BMY's career-tweaking methodology--it's something they'll find useful for the rest of their lives.

How has the response been to the book so far from readers?
Readers worldwide tell me they're delighted with BMY. The book is now slated for release in 11 languages besides English. It's wonderful knowing that the approach resonates globally.

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Review

'For customers who want an innovative and fun book on how to create a business model for their life and career'. The Bookseller, 16th December 2012 'It's not often that you come across a truly innovative, well-designed book. This is one...If you're in a career quandary, pick up a copy...this is guaranteed to kick start you into action.' (Management Today, June 2012) '...entertaining, thought provoking and, I suspect, effective...There are numerous helpful, insightful and very interesting exercises to help with the development process' (Financial Adviser, 30th August 2012)

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 264 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (March 27, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1118156315
• ISBN-13: 978-1118156315
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 0.8 x 7.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (58 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,631 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #46 in Books > Business & Investing > Job Hunting & Careers > Guides

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

66 of 71 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars You Inc. March 5, 2012

By [e-mail]

Format:Paperback

I just gave a presentation of this book to Master's students at a business school and they found the framework most interesting. In particular, seeing yourself as your own company gives you a holistic picture of what's important in any career move. The canvas identifies your strengths and weaknesses to your approach in reaching your career goals. It also provides an interesting handout to use in informational interviewing.

If I had only one book to pick for career hunting I would use "What Color is your Parachute". There is a reason it has sold 10 million copies. I've used it in three major career moves and the results I've achieved make it one of the most influential books I've ever read.

BMY is more useful for you the more work experience you have. It has good use cases based on individuals who have applied it in their own life. Do to its high-level approach I consider it a good addition to the "Parachute book", but not a substitute.

35 of 40 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Changed my Perspective - Changed my World March 1, 2012

By Bob Fariss

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Business Model Generation has been useful for me as a business consultant because I could easily communicate the "story" of any business a client who might be considering changing or buying it. When the community was asked if we wanted to participate in a project to apply this tool to individuals, I readily agreed.

I was expecting to be discussing the mechanics of things like defining Customer Segments for an individual as opposed to an organization. Yes we did that. Every organization has customers or they wouldn't exist. It's typical to start an organizational business model here. But people exist without customers, so where would we base an individual's model? Really interesting stuff; but not yet life changing.

Then the development of Business Model YOU totally surprised me when it began to take a Spiritual (not Religious) turn. Something is Spiritual in my life if it has personal meaning to me. That meaning started to surface when we considered every Business Model to be a kind of blueprint; and agreed that every blueprint is created by an architect to achieve some purpose. To really architect a Business Model for your career, there needs to be some understanding to of your life's purpose.

Suddenly finding, communicating, and creating attractive values for customers became simple compared to finding values that relate my career to my personal purpose. This is really hard work and Tim Clark, the book's author, never tried to dance around it. With surprising simplicity, he took us beyond the modeling world and into ways of looking at our careers as a fulfillment of our personal purposes.

I then realized this is what my clients really wanted when looking at a business. The answer to their concerns was more in their Personal Business Model than in the organization's under consideration. My perception of who I am and why I do things has changed. I am no longer the same person.

Funny, the Business Model YOU experience has changed my perspective on every organizational model as well. Having been through this work, you have an expanded intuition about changing the perspectives on all of the Business Model segments. You will never see personal careers or organizations the same way again. You will never be the same person either.

Bob Fariss - co-creator Business Model YOU, Fort Worth Texas

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars An architect's workbook! May 19, 2012

By D'Alexandros

Format:Paperback

People drifting from job to job may soon realize that they've visited the same crossroads too many times. Changing careers is tough, but some job seekers may be tired of compromises which would only lead to the same suboptimal choices they've experienced in the past. While others may seek to become just employable, these rare and brave souls seek to be remarkable and relevant.

The truth is that they already are. We all are, in fact. And now, there's a way to tap into that greatness and bring it into the present.

In the spirit of Alexander Osterwalder's successful book Business Model Generation (BMG), Tim Clark (who was also BMG's editor) has written Business Model You: A One Page Method for Reinventing Your Career. Clark shows that you can use the same business model thinking from BMG to unearth your greatest strengths, talents, and interests, and then paint them onto a powerful blueprint.

Business Model You was co-created between 328 entrepreneurial minds spread out over 43 countries. The book is a beautifully designed and succinctly written journey replete with each contributor's diverse experiences and insight. The common theme is that everyone involved in producing the book struggled, but ultimately succeeded, in reinventing themselves. Their stories will help you create your personal business model.

What's a business model? In short, it's "the logic by which any organization sustains itself financially." Likewise, the Business Model "canvas" is a structured but simple visual technique which shows how the nine most important components of any business model fit and flow together. First, the original canvas is introduced for enterprises before being translated to the world of the individual.

Business Model You is also an itinerary of thought experiments, anecdotes, and exercises to help align work with purpose. Some of the many experiments include the Lifeline Discovery and Holland's Six Tendencies. This journey of self-knowledge really counts, because aside from financial sustainability and survival, this is a book about thriving and doing the kind of work that resonates at your core.

It certainly takes a culture of change and innovation, but the first spark always begins with one person: You.