Intelligent design is a huge discredited furphy perpetrated by Christian fundamentalists in the US on sections of the school system.

But, taking the notion of viewing something through an entirely different lens a bit further, intelligent re-design becomes a notion that offers the thought that business models can sometimes be, and often should be, turned on their heads as a way of evolving.

Often I find myself between things, having time to kill before the next commitment, and I sometimes spend that time in a café having a coffee, and reading, thinking, and generally just contemplating.

It occurred to me the other day whilst indulging in such a contemplation, that I was not buying a coffee, I was buying a pleasant location to spend time, the coffee was just the excuse.

In effect, I was paying for time, not buying a coffee.

In most cases, there is the apparent reason stuff happens, then when you scrape away, the real reason sometimes becomes apparent. People who buy expensive cars are not buying transport, they are buying an object that says something about them to others, just as my coffee is an excuse to sit quietly in a cafe.

It is the articulation of this “real reason”, difficult as it usually is to articulate, where great value can be created. The breakthrough over the last few years that is enabling much of the development is the two sided market capability enabled by the web. Participants in the so called “collaborative economy” a term popularised by Jerry Owyang are all busily re-designing business models all over the place.

Related posts:

“Design” is a verb The design of inefficiency Design doing Design thinking: wasted hype?