Isolate and SEAL: two steps to designing an innovative and potent business model

Purpose A systematic and repeatable process – Isolate and SEAL – can enable strategists to identify such potentially game-changing operational actions that will support significant business model innovations. Design/methodology/approach The end-to-end Isolate and SEAL process can be demonstrated using a historical review of the emergent strategy that produced the highly successful business model of Southwest Airlines. Findings Instead of trying to decide “what to do” to create an operational advantage, businesses attempting to innovate should first identify the core objective that operationalizes the winning profit logic. Practical implications Southwest fortuitously discovered its innovative profit logic when … Kelleher’ had to exhort his team to figure out how to deliver a four-plane schedule with three planes. Originality/value The potenrially game-changing two-step process: 10; Step 1 – Isolate: split the value chain’s elements into its component parts. 10; Step 2 – SEAL: Reconstruct the value chain using the four actions that effectively deliver the core objectives (Shift in space and time, Eliminate, Alter/Add, Leverage). 10;