The Disruption of Revenue Models

I was working with one of my cohorts this week on generating disruptive blockchain business models. One model that was presented identified a particular customer group and when we asked the question “How will revenue be generated from this customer group” we hit a pause as the intention was for the segment to add value to the network model not through generation of revenue but rather through the the benefit of their knowledge and experience… and subsequent inputs into the actual application idea. 

This questioned the convention of ‘Revenue’ . Must revenue always be a direct economic benefit? … this was a great question for the cohort as everyone agreed that their participation in the model was certainly valuable… and did have an indirect impact on revenues from other segments. 

The thing about business models is that for disruptors and innovators, there really are very few rules. So where did we end up with this dilemma?

The cohort rightly came to the conclusion that this was a new category of revenue and definitely had a place as part of the Revenue Model for the business model. The contribution of knowledge and experience would be considered as form of ‘currency’.

This is the thing about disruptive business models, in particular using blockchain value drivers, is that it frees innovators and entrepreneurs of traditional thinking and models, allowing them to build models that have more than economic impacts. The thinking from this cohort was that this particular model not only enabled social impacts by ‘including’ a particular segment… it was this inclusion that created a powerful competitive advantage for the overall business model.

I can’t wait to see how this model plays out…