Learning from digitalised industries: designing value propositions for disruption

Digitalisation changes the way business is made. In some industries, digital disruption has been caused by companies like AirBnB and Netflix, whereas in other industries the opportunities stemming from digitalisation have still not been fully utilised. In this article, we explore how companies from less digital industries may create digital business opportunities by learning from successful digital companies in other industries. A 3-hour workshop set-up is developed and the findings from two workshops with 17 participants from the construction industry are described. It is shown how an analysis of the customer profiles of well-known companies facilitate cross-industrial learning and aid the creation of new ideas for digital value propositions. Although substantial further work is necessary before the full potential of the ideas may be harvested, we believe the described workshop method represents a tangible first step in creating digital business model innovation.