Practice This

If you need to build or renew your business model consider following an approach presented in the book by  Alexander Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur Business Model Generation: A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers, and Challengers. It provides prescriptive guidance and architecture how to build your new business model. The authors also provide several case studies where the approach effectively applied to Nintendo, Amazon.con, Apple, Google and many others. The core artifacts are The 9 Building Blocks and The Business Model Canvas.

The 9 Building Blocks

• Customer Segments. An organization serves one or several Customer Segments
• Value Proposition. It seeks to solve customer problems and satisfy customer needs with value proposition.
• Channels. Value propositions are delivered to customers through communications, distribution, and sales Channels.
• Customer Relationships. Customer relationships are established and maintained with each Customer Segment.
• Revenue Streams. Revenue streams result from value propositions successfully offered to customers.
• Key resources. Key resources are the assets required to offer and deliver the previously described elements…
• Key Activities… by performing a number of Key activities
• Key Partnerships. Some activities are outsourced and some resources are acquired outside the enterprise.
• Cost Structure. The business model elements result in the cost structure

The Business Model Canvas

The steps to use the canvas are pretty simple as outlined in the book:

• • Plot the canvas on the poster
  • Put the poster on the wall
  • Sketch out your business model

Easy, eh?

image by @boetter