What do you think?
Rate this book
The Invincible Company: How to Constantly Reinvent Your Organization with Inspiration From the World's Best Business Models
The long-awaited follow-up to the international bestsellers, Business Model Generation and Value Proposition Design
Alex Osterwalder and Yves Pigneurs' Business Model Canvas changed the way the world creates and plans new business models. It has been used by corporations and startups and consultants around the world and is taught in hundreds of universities. After years of researching how the world's best companies develop, test, and scale new business models, the authors have produced their definitive work. The Invincible Company explains what every organization can learn from the business models of the world's most exciting companies.
The book explains how companies such as Amazon, IKEA, Airbnb, Microsoft, and Logitech, have been able to create immensely successful businesses and disrupt entire industries. At the core of these successes are not just great products and services, but profitable, innovative business models--and the ability to improve existing business models while consistently launching new ones.
The Invincible Company presents practical new tools for measuring, managing, and accelerating innovation, and strategies for reducing risk when launching new business models. Serving as a blueprint for your growth strategy, The Invincible Company explains how to constantly stay ahead of your competition.
In-depth chapters explain how to create new growth engines, change how products and services are created and delivered, extract maximum profit from each type of business model, and much more. New tools--such as the Business Model Portfolio Map, Innovation Metrics, Innovation Strategy Framework, and the Culture Map--enable readers to understand how to design invincible companies.
The Invincible Company:
● Helps large and small companies build their growth strategy and manage their core simultaneously
● Explains the world's best modern and historic business models
● Provides tools to assess your business model, innovation readiness, and all of your innovation projects
Presented in striking 4-color, and packed with practical visuals and tools, The Invincible Company is a must-have book for business leaders, entrepreneurs, and innovation professionals.
Alex Osterwalder and Yves Pigneurs' Business Model Canvas changed the way the world creates and plans new business models. It has been used by corporations and startups and consultants around the world and is taught in hundreds of universities. After years of researching how the world's best companies develop, test, and scale new business models, the authors have produced their definitive work. The Invincible Company explains what every organization can learn from the business models of the world's most exciting companies.
The book explains how companies such as Amazon, IKEA, Airbnb, Microsoft, and Logitech, have been able to create immensely successful businesses and disrupt entire industries. At the core of these successes are not just great products and services, but profitable, innovative business models--and the ability to improve existing business models while consistently launching new ones.
The Invincible Company presents practical new tools for measuring, managing, and accelerating innovation, and strategies for reducing risk when launching new business models. Serving as a blueprint for your growth strategy, The Invincible Company explains how to constantly stay ahead of your competition.
In-depth chapters explain how to create new growth engines, change how products and services are created and delivered, extract maximum profit from each type of business model, and much more. New tools--such as the Business Model Portfolio Map, Innovation Metrics, Innovation Strategy Framework, and the Culture Map--enable readers to understand how to design invincible companies.
The Invincible Company:
● Helps large and small companies build their growth strategy and manage their core simultaneously
● Explains the world's best modern and historic business models
● Provides tools to assess your business model, innovation readiness, and all of your innovation projects
Presented in striking 4-color, and packed with practical visuals and tools, The Invincible Company is a must-have book for business leaders, entrepreneurs, and innovation professionals.
304 pages, Paperback
Published April 14, 2020
About the author
Alexander Osterwalder
33 books527 followersDr. Alexander (Alex) Osterwalder is one of the world’s most influential strategy and innovation experts, a leading author, entrepreneur, and in-demand speaker whose work has changed the way established companies do business and how new ventures get started.
Ranked No. 4 of the top 50 management thinkers worldwide, Osterwalder is known for simplifying the strategy development process and turning complex concepts into digestible visual models. Together with Yves Pigneur, he invented the Business Model Canvas, Value Proposition Canvas, and Business Portfolio Map – practical tools that are trusted by millions of business practitioners from leading global companies including Microsoft, Coca-Cola, Nestlé, MasterCard, Sony, Fujitsu, 3M, Intel, Roche, Colgate-Palmolive, and many more.
Strategyzer, the company Osterwalder co-founded in 2010, is an innovation powerhouse, providing online courses, applications, and technology-enabled services to help organizations effectively and systematically manage strategy, growth, and transformation.
Osterwalder’s books include the international bestseller Business Model Generation, Value Proposition Design: How to Create Products and Services Customers Want and Testing Business Ideas, and his forthcoming book for senior leaders, The Invincible Company, to publish in spring 2020.
He holds the Strategy Award from Thinkers50 and the European Union’s inaugural Innovation Luminary Award. In 2019, Osterwalder chaired the prestigious Drucker Forum, the premier annual business management conference. A frequent and popular keynote speaker, Osterwalder travels the world discussing his ideas and strategies at Fortune 500 companies, premiere innovation conferences, and leading universities.
He holds a doctorate from HEC Lausanne, Switzerland, and is a founding member of The Constellation, a global not-for-profit organization connecting local responses to global issues around the world.
Ranked No. 4 of the top 50 management thinkers worldwide, Osterwalder is known for simplifying the strategy development process and turning complex concepts into digestible visual models. Together with Yves Pigneur, he invented the Business Model Canvas, Value Proposition Canvas, and Business Portfolio Map – practical tools that are trusted by millions of business practitioners from leading global companies including Microsoft, Coca-Cola, Nestlé, MasterCard, Sony, Fujitsu, 3M, Intel, Roche, Colgate-Palmolive, and many more.
Strategyzer, the company Osterwalder co-founded in 2010, is an innovation powerhouse, providing online courses, applications, and technology-enabled services to help organizations effectively and systematically manage strategy, growth, and transformation.
Osterwalder’s books include the international bestseller Business Model Generation, Value Proposition Design: How to Create Products and Services Customers Want and Testing Business Ideas, and his forthcoming book for senior leaders, The Invincible Company, to publish in spring 2020.
He holds the Strategy Award from Thinkers50 and the European Union’s inaugural Innovation Luminary Award. In 2019, Osterwalder chaired the prestigious Drucker Forum, the premier annual business management conference. A frequent and popular keynote speaker, Osterwalder travels the world discussing his ideas and strategies at Fortune 500 companies, premiere innovation conferences, and leading universities.
He holds a doctorate from HEC Lausanne, Switzerland, and is a founding member of The Constellation, a global not-for-profit organization connecting local responses to global issues around the world.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
November 9, 2021
State of the art business thinking.
April 21, 2020
Why your business needs this book...
I bought the paperback. There are many reasons I like this book...it's way different from your average business how-to or management book. Here's why you probably need it:
1. Your business needs to reinvent itself. Now.
Let’s face it. COVID-19 has changed the world as we know it. There is no better time for this book. It’s about how a business that constantly reinvents itself becomes invincible.
This is playing out now. We will see many businesses fail…this is something like a $30 investment. Well worth it IMO.
2. This book will make you the smartest person in the room.
Often in business meetings, a CEO says something like, “How does Amazon do it?” Well, in this book, there are case studies of just about every company your leaders are going to ask about. I flipped to the index and found a ton of references to Amazon, for example. There’s even a whole timeline on them. Amazing.
I can’t wait for the next time someone asks me “how does X do it?”!
3. There’s a plan to follow.
Page xii has a plan for how you should read the book based on whether you’re a senior leader, innovation/team leader, or entrepreneur. I followed the entrepreneur path…
A) Explore Map (p. 18)- this lets you test ideas for potential and risk. Wish I had a tool like this ages ago. At first, it may seem a bit overwhelming but they include an example of how Bosch used the map. They use it to weed out about 90% of ideas that won’t scale. Imagine having that kind of tool for your business.
B) Pattern Library (p. 130) - 9 different kinds of business models you could apply. Again, you are going to look super smart.
C) Entrepreneurial and team (p. 310) - tells you how to build your team based on your situation. There's a culture map too.
4. The entire book is visual.
Lots of images, illustrations, photos. It’s a gorgeous book, actually. You know how many business books can be full of text and super dry? This is not that. I will happily keep it on my desk in view.
5. The pattern library is worth the price of the book alone.
This is where you can see how the world’s most successful companies (Tesla, Microsoft, etc) created opportunity or disrupted others.
There's a ton of value in this book. Well done.
I bought the paperback. There are many reasons I like this book...it's way different from your average business how-to or management book. Here's why you probably need it:
1. Your business needs to reinvent itself. Now.
Let’s face it. COVID-19 has changed the world as we know it. There is no better time for this book. It’s about how a business that constantly reinvents itself becomes invincible.
This is playing out now. We will see many businesses fail…this is something like a $30 investment. Well worth it IMO.
2. This book will make you the smartest person in the room.
Often in business meetings, a CEO says something like, “How does Amazon do it?” Well, in this book, there are case studies of just about every company your leaders are going to ask about. I flipped to the index and found a ton of references to Amazon, for example. There’s even a whole timeline on them. Amazing.
I can’t wait for the next time someone asks me “how does X do it?”!
3. There’s a plan to follow.
Page xii has a plan for how you should read the book based on whether you’re a senior leader, innovation/team leader, or entrepreneur. I followed the entrepreneur path…
A) Explore Map (p. 18)- this lets you test ideas for potential and risk. Wish I had a tool like this ages ago. At first, it may seem a bit overwhelming but they include an example of how Bosch used the map. They use it to weed out about 90% of ideas that won’t scale. Imagine having that kind of tool for your business.
B) Pattern Library (p. 130) - 9 different kinds of business models you could apply. Again, you are going to look super smart.
C) Entrepreneurial and team (p. 310) - tells you how to build your team based on your situation. There's a culture map too.
4. The entire book is visual.
Lots of images, illustrations, photos. It’s a gorgeous book, actually. You know how many business books can be full of text and super dry? This is not that. I will happily keep it on my desk in view.
5. The pattern library is worth the price of the book alone.
This is where you can see how the world’s most successful companies (Tesla, Microsoft, etc) created opportunity or disrupted others.
There's a ton of value in this book. Well done.
May 23, 2022
I'm a sucker for patterns, in this case, Business Model Patterns. I've learned so much from this book. It is highly practical, and it opened my mind to the innovation process and portfolio. I would note that I think it is more applicable in big companies and for people that don't have an extensive product management/strategy background. Highly recommended!
Read
May 14, 2020Stageboek
December 21, 2020
If you accept the visual design (not for everyone) and the many examples of large multinationals this book really is the next step after business model generation. It perfectly combines business model design, value prop design, experiment design and culture design.
August 26, 2022
Great book
Glad i bought it in physical form as it is a book you'd want to keep and revisit every now and then when you try to implement its guidelines
Any person with an entrepeneur mindset should read this
Glad i bought it in physical form as it is a book you'd want to keep and revisit every now and then when you try to implement its guidelines
Any person with an entrepeneur mindset should read this
February 7, 2021
The book reveals the secret of the longevity of large companies.
Exploiting and optimizing current business model + Exploring new businesses
This simple formula generates invincible company.
Book introduces portfolio map, a simple and interesting tool for managing business and converting it to an invincible company. It also examines other requirements for generating such kind of companies like culture, leadership, etc.
Book explains a lot of business model for exploiting current business model and generate new business.
Book is not suitable for startups and its target is mature businesses. For better understanding book, reading previous books form this series is necessary:
Business Model Generation
Testing Business Ideas
Value proposition Design
Exploiting and optimizing current business model + Exploring new businesses
This simple formula generates invincible company.
Book introduces portfolio map, a simple and interesting tool for managing business and converting it to an invincible company. It also examines other requirements for generating such kind of companies like culture, leadership, etc.
Book explains a lot of business model for exploiting current business model and generate new business.
Book is not suitable for startups and its target is mature businesses. For better understanding book, reading previous books form this series is necessary:
Business Model Generation
Testing Business Ideas
Value proposition Design
April 21, 2020
A new dawn in exploring and exploiting business models and after the trilogy by strategyzer this 4th book hits the mark of being pragmatic, thoughtful, rich in thinking yet simple to read on many levels. Still need to dig deeper but I think this book will be my new swiss army knife of business model innovation for the 21st Century. Thanks to Alex Osterwalder, Yves Pigneur, Alan Smith and the full team at Strategyzer for sharing your insights so skillfully.
June 25, 2020
Good book! Not one to sit down and read cover to cover, but more as a reference, once skimmed, to go back to when engaged in specific projects. I think that the best audience for this book would be innovators inside established companies and the executives who manage such projects. It integrates well with the other three Strategyzer books. It seems to borrow some principles from Christensen; from Dual Transformation and Lead and Disrupt.
Read
May 27, 2020Great book - I loved the practical examples and tools and the balanced and realistic view that to be truly great, you have to get the right balance of skills, leadership, tools, and dedicated resources to both exploring new things while executing with excellence on those parts of the organization that keep the engine running. Highly recommended!
November 4, 2021
Another very interesting book of the Strategyzer series. Note that this book is clearly targeted towards big, established organizations and therefore makes it much less essential for startup entrepreneurs than the previous books. I put 4/5 because the book, despite very interesting, is pretty thick and verbose, which makes it much less fun to read than the previous instalments.
November 24, 2020
Überraschend gut für das Genre. Allein der letzte Teil zur "culture map" erschließt sich mir nicht.
Sinnvolle Lesezeichen:
- pp 98f: Hypotheses log
- p 213: Idea assessment
- pp 280f: Business model shifts
- p 105 i.V.m. p 337: Project staffing and goals per stage
Sinnvolle Lesezeichen:
- pp 98f: Hypotheses log
- p 213: Idea assessment
- pp 280f: Business model shifts
- p 105 i.V.m. p 337: Project staffing and goals per stage
May 17, 2021
Highly recommended!!
Easy to read with practical example. Full of ways to apply the methods in the book, bringing together the business canvas model, value proposition, design thinking & growth strategy.
Easy to read with practical example. Full of ways to apply the methods in the book, bringing together the business canvas model, value proposition, design thinking & growth strategy.
July 16, 2021
Cette dernière itération de Strategyzer met en cohérence tous leurs outils développés depuis 10 ans au service du management de l'innovation de l'entreprise afin de la rendre résiliente et adaptative.
July 15, 2020
Fun to read, simple and powerful content. Great reference books with plenty of actionable concepts.
August 5, 2020
Fantastic book, I got a lot of inspiration to manage the product portfolio and shift the current business model from this book.
October 6, 2020
Good ideas but not the best book that Strategyzer ever published. It's still worth the read though.
October 24, 2020
The best book about innovation management I've ever read! If you need a book that will actually teach you pragmatic practices to manage innovation in your company, this is the right one.
December 11, 2020
I don't think a book was the right format for this content. But the content itself was interesting, especially the case studies.
February 6, 2021
A pillar for each and every business man!
February 20, 2021
Nice approach and cases, as always from Osterwalder. Great addition to the business design toolkit. Not _that_ much new content, if you're already familiar with the previous Strategyzer books.
March 15, 2021
This is a Must read
These book alongside the rest of the Strategyzer series should be in the must read list of every business school
These book alongside the rest of the Strategyzer series should be in the must read list of every business school
May 1, 2021
GREAT book. Another great set of tools from Strategyzer.
September 15, 2021
The Holy Bible of Business Modelling
August 22, 2022
Concetti di progettazione organizzativa molto pratici utili per gestire l'innovazione in aziende medio grandi
May 7, 2021
https://www.thegeniusworks.com/wp-con...
Business model canvas
Business model canvas
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 8, 2021
I’ve just finished ‘The Invincible Company’ which is part of the Strategyzer series published by Wiley.
The book references an insane amount of business models tied into real life company examples. This in itself leaves you with a lot to ponder, particularly when transformation has occurred.
The suggested commitment to innovation by the CEO or Co-CEO at 50-100% of their total time is interesting, but less interesting than a proposed matrix structure of a Chief Entrepreneur, Chief Venture Capitalist and Chief Risk Officer with all the same powers of the traditional executive team - the Chief Entrepreneur actually being the same level as the CEO but not focused on core business.
Super visual and easy to work through.
The book references an insane amount of business models tied into real life company examples. This in itself leaves you with a lot to ponder, particularly when transformation has occurred.
The suggested commitment to innovation by the CEO or Co-CEO at 50-100% of their total time is interesting, but less interesting than a proposed matrix structure of a Chief Entrepreneur, Chief Venture Capitalist and Chief Risk Officer with all the same powers of the traditional executive team - the Chief Entrepreneur actually being the same level as the CEO but not focused on core business.
Super visual and easy to work through.
December 28, 2020
Great practical book for innovation. Wished I had this a couple years ago when managing a portfolio of startups. But in this book you get what’s needed to manage a portfolio of innovation within a company. Many things might not apply in Panama but eventually will (2-3 years from now). Knowing these tools and adapt them locally (but to be ready to use them as they are when the time comes) will make a huge difference.
Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews