Having just gone through the ordeal of the Black Forest Fire, including being evacuated for 8 days without being allowed back to check on house or property, it made me wonder if even something as stalwart as our first responder firefighter business model could benefit from some BMI thinking.

To set the stage, let me first say how AMAZING these heroes are in what they do. They managed to save all the homes in our development, despite the 150 ft firestorm that came barreling towards / into our little bit of paradise. Take a look at what the crew faced below:

And here is a sampling of the aftermath:

So, clearly these guys faced the dragon and eventually beat it down. However, that does not mean there isn’t room for improvement. Furthermore, I wonder if these heroes ever get the chance to engage management consultants to take a fresh look at what they do, or more specifically, HOW they run their business / underlying business model. DISCLAIMER: we are not going anywhere near the actual fire fighting – these guys have that stuff nailed – but we want to take a look at the some of the stuff surrounding their heroic core.

In the coming weeks, we hope to debate this topic, put pen to paper, and hopefully even come up with something that could be considered useful. We will also pay very close attention to this business model problem from a not-for-profit perspective and how that manifests itself into business model design.