Seizing the White Space: Business Model Innovation for Growth and Renewal.

• Author: Marshall, Jeffrey
• Position: Brief article - Book review

Seizing the White Space: Business Model Innovation for Growth and Renewal. By Mark W. Johnson. Harvard Business Press, 256 pages. $29.95.

This book builds on some familiar terms in the consultants' lexicon: The core, or fundamental businesses that a company operates in; and adjacencies, or related markets that a company could move into without great difficulty. "White space" is a j slightly farther extension, new territory or i an underserved market.

But Johnson, co-founder and chairman of Innosight, a strategic consulting firm, defines white space a little differently: "The range of potential activities not defined or addressed by the company's model; that is, the opportunities outside the core and beyond its adjacencies that require a different business model to exploit." These activities may require different expertise, new resources or new strategies, he writes.

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Using a series of...