A telecommunications firm in Latin America instituted the rule of forcing managers to come up with three nonprice actions before making price cuts. A board member of the company stated afterward: “This simple rule had the highest impact we have ever seen and instilled the right discipline we were seeking. It was simple and everybody understood it.”

Porsche's masterstroke was thinking about monetization long before product development for the SUV was in full speed, then designing a car with the value and features customers wanted the most, around a price that made sense. The result was total corporate alignment: Porsche knew it had a winner, and had the confidence to invest accordingly.

The broader lesson is that in innovation, less is more. Having a deeper and more specific knowledge about fewer products is superior to knowing only general information about a multitude of new offerings.

There is no “move fast and break things,” but there is a lot of “look before you leap.”

Alternative Metric Pricing/Pay As You Go

As management guru Peter Drucker once said: “Customers don't buy products. They buy the benefits that these products and their suppliers offer to them.”

In other words, the recommendation tied the four critical elements together—price (WTP), value (to customers), volume (the expected demand at those price points), and costs in delivering the service (including the risks based on probability of car failure within the warranty period). That

features but not benefits.

In fact, establishing a favorable monetization model can be as important as the new product itself and the price you charge for it. A highly innovative monetization model can make a new offering take off like a rocket. A number of innovative—yet proven—monetization models are in use today: subscription, dynamic pricing, and freemium to name just a