What’s it like to be burned at the stake? If you were lucky it didn’t hurt much because you’d already been strangled before the first faggots were lit. (And no, faggots here are a bundle of wood, not a pejorative term.)
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This is the fate that Galileo faced when he declared that the Earth moved. I think that there is an awful lot of nonsense about Galileo being a hero. What his story does show us is that at that time the old idea of the sun and stars being encased in crystal spheres was starting to lose a lot of its storytelling power.
(Though for the true believers it’s worth pointing out that the old system was still a lot better at predicting the motion of the stars for decades after Galileo.)
Thomas Kuhn was fascinated by the process of how we (Western Europeans) changed the way that we saw the world in these decades. How did science take us from one view of the world to another?Â
It certainly wasn’t an orderly transition based on logic (if so you’d be going, “So who is QAnon?“)
It’s a transition based on emotion and belief. We see that same process happening with business models.
Most business models are like a five-dollar note. They have value because people believe that they have value. Think of the value of the triangle trade in slaves and the opium trade to China after people stopped believing in them.
We see the same things today as big oil and the automobile industry struggle with the fact that the weltanschauung is changing and their old business models are not included in the new world view.
So when we look at business models it’s worth considering what are the beliefs that give them power? How are those beliefs changing? What will replace those beliefs?
What are some truths that support industries worth billions of dollars? How are they changing? How can you hasten that change?
If you haven’t already been to one of our business model innovation webinars do come and join us.
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Entrepreneurs with Denis Oakley
I HELP BOLD LEADERS TRANSFORM THEIR BUSINESSES AND THE INDUSTRIES THEY COMPETE IN
By Denis Oakley
Changing World Views and Burning Heretics
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