---
id: "framework-origins-of-voids"
type: "framework"
source_timestamps: ["§ The Origins of Business Model Voids", "¶5", "¶6", "¶7", "¶8"]
tags: ["lifecycle", "market-dynamics"]
related: ["concept-business-model-void", "entity-michelin", "framework-strategic-steps-void"]
steps: ["Stage 1: Customers perceive a mismatch between the official business model and their operational reality.", "\\\"Stage 2: Customers begin to engineer workarounds", "complementing the business model at their own expense.\\\"", "\\\"Stage 3: Competitors step in to fill the void", "customers move on", "or the incumbent successfully preempts them by closing the void.\\\""]
sources: ["commercial"]
sourceVaultSlug: "hbr-seg-commercial"
originDay: 5
articleStem: "hbr-tier2-09-customer-workarounds"
sourceUrl: "https://hbr.org/2026/05/what-customer-workarounds-can-reveal-about-your-business-model"
sourceTitle: "What Customer Workarounds Can Reveal About Your Business Model"
---
# The Origins of Business Model Voids (3-Stage Lifecycle)

A three-stage lifecycle describing how a [[concept-business-model-void]] emerges and is eventually filled, illustrated by [[entity-michelin]]'s 2000 shift to selling tire performance.

**1. Mismatch Perception.** Customers realize the official offering does not align with their operational reality. Michelin's fleet operators needed tire data connected to fuel and routing, not just tire economics.

**2. Engineering Workarounds.** Customers stitch together their own solutions at their own expense — e.g., operators combining telematics vendors and manual data exports — signaling they are *complementing* the model rather than rejecting the product (this is [[concept-effort-as-payment]] in action, running a [[concept-shadow-business-model]]).

**3. Void Closure.** The stage companies want to avoid: competitors step in or customers move on. Alternatively, the incumbent preempts this by becoming the platform customers were assembling — Michelin launched **Connected Fleet in 2020**, eventually reaching over a million vehicles under contract.

This lifecycle is the diagnostic half of the argument; the prescriptive half is [[framework-strategic-steps-void]]. Note that in shifting-technology regimes the lifecycle compresses (see [[claim-tech-shifts-accelerate-voids]]).

**Related:** [[concept-business-model-void]] · [[entity-michelin]] · [[framework-strategic-steps-void]]