Leading Business Model Innovation

Build the capabilities to transform how your company competes.

Generative AI, supply chain upheaval, and rapidly evolving customer demands are forcing leaders to rethink how their companies create and capture value. Success requires both strategic vision and the organizational capabilities to make it happen. Yale’s Leading Business Model Innovation program will equip you to lead that transformation.

Over five intensive days, you’ll learn to spot opportunities to change your business model, design a viable solution, and confront the messy realities of implementation. Led by Professor of Operations Management Sang Kim, this program will help you tackle the human side of innovation: how to get buy-in, overcome resistance, and embed change into your company’s DNA.

You’ll examine how other companies have succeeded and failed, connect with other leaders facing similar challenges, and leave with a practical roadmap for your own organization.

Opportunities for business model innovation arise when market dynamics shift due to technological advances, evolving customer needs, or competitive disruption. From startups to established companies, leaders must be able to critically assess the strengths and limitations of their current business model, identify emerging gaps or inefficiencies, and recognize patterns that signal opportunities for transformation. Participants gain frameworks and tools to analyze their existing business models and uncover innovation opportunities that align with strategic intent.

Business model innovation does not come in a uniform shape or form. To develop and commit to a business model that will succeed and endure, it is critical to architect its components—value proposition, revenue model, customer engagement, and operational structure—in a coherent and strategically aligned way. Participants explore frameworks and real-world examples to design innovative, viable, and scalable business models tailored to their strategic goals and market realities.

Many great ideas for business model innovation fail to take off because resource constraints and scaling challenges are often underestimated. While startups may be nimble, they often struggle with market penetration; established companies, though well-resourced, may find it difficult to overcome entrenched norms and organizational inertia. Participants explore the execution side of business model innovation: how to translate a promising concept into a viable product or service, scale it effectively, and build an operating system that supports sustained growth and consistent value delivery.

Even the most promising business model innovation can falter without effective change leadership. Participants will examine the human and organizational factors that determine whether innovation efforts gain traction or lose momentum. They will learn to assess readiness for change, engage key stakeholders, and cultivate a culture that supports new ways of working. The emphasis is on practical strategies for overcoming resistance, sustaining progress, and embedding innovation into daily operations—ensuring that change is not only implemented, but endures.

Participants will reflect on their own business model challenges and opportunities, clarify priorities, and define next steps for applying new ideas within their organizations. The goal is to leave with a clear sense of direction, renewed leadership focus, and a practical roadmap for driving business model innovation in their own context.

Below is a sample of what you can expect in Leading Business Model Innovation.Content and schedule are subject to change.

Day One

Day Two

Day Three

Day Four

Day Five

This program is designed for mid- to senior-level professionals who are experiencing pressures like:

Job titles may include: