Concerning anticipated results, which are subject to business, economic and competitive uncertainties and contingencies, many of which are beyond the control of the Company and which may or may not prove to be correct. Difference between business plan and business model. The business model is the mechanism through which the company generates its profit while the business plan is a document presenting the company's strategy and expected financial performance for the years to come. As you can see, the business model is at the center of the business plan.
- April 29, 2013
- Posted by: Paul Foster
- Category: Business vision, Small business strategic planning
Why do most business owners create a business plan? The vast majority reluctantly prepare one as a requirement to get financing.
Is a business plan a good management tool? I don’t think so.
I will agree that preparing a business plan can help a business owner think strategically about their business. A business plan will also provide some structure as it requires a business owner to document their current assumptions and guesses about the future of their business.
Compared to ‘doing nothing’, the business plan process is valuable. But I think the Business Model Canvas developed by Alexander Osterwalder is an option worthy of consideration for existing small business owners. The Business Model Canvas was developed to be used in conjunction with the Lean Startup methods that are described very well in Steve Blank’s Harvard Business Review article I mentioned last week.
Here are the reasons why I think the Business Model Canvas is a better fit for existing small business owners rather than a business plan:
1) It’s more visual – Most business owners I know think visually. Planning their strategy seems to work better moving sticky notes around a wall than writing out a ten page document.
2) It’s more dynamic – The business plan is a static document, but the business model canvas evolves as the business owner experiences the world around them.
3) It’s about actions as well as thinking – The activity of ‘validating’ the static guesses is more about actions and experiences than just thinking. While thinking is important, I find the following statement to be more applicable: “You can’t think your way into a new way of acting, but you can act your way into a new way of thinking.” The experiential learning obtained from ‘getting out of the building’ and validating assumptions is key.
4) It’s about key activities more than results – A business plan usually includes a projected income statement. Income Statements report the results after the activity of business takes place. Business owners need to focus on activities in order to get better results.
Since the Business Model Canvas is not a common tool in the business owners’ toolbox, you probably haven’t seen one in action. It’s a pretty good guess that your business plan hasn’t seen much action lately either! My guess is that a more visual, more dynamic, more action focused and more activity driven tool would be valuable to business owners.
In true Lean Startup fashion, as of today, I am accepting that my above statement is just a guess or hypothesis only in my mind. Now should I write that statement down into my business plan and file it away or should I go out and validate my hypothesis with some real small business owner customers?
Business Model Canvas: nine business model building blocks, Osterwalder, Pigneur & al. 2010
Business Model Canvas is a strategic management and lean startup template for developing new or documenting existing business models.[1][2] It is a visual chart with elements describing a firm's or product's value proposition, infrastructure, customers, and finances.[3] It assists firms in aligning their activities by illustrating potential trade-offs.
The Business Model Canvas was initially proposed by Alexander Osterwalder[4] based on his earlier work on business model ontology.[5] Since the release of Osterwalder's work around 2008,[6] new canvases for specific niches have appeared.
Description[edit]
Formal descriptions of the business become the building blocks for its activities. Many different business conceptualizations exist; Osterwalder's 2010 book[3] and 2004 thesis[5] propose a single reference model based on the similarities of a wide range of business model conceptualizations. With his business model design template, an enterprise can easily describe its business model. Osterwalder's canvas has nine boxes; the name of each is given in bold below.
- Infrastructure
- Key Activities: The most important activities in executing a company's value proposition. An example for Bic, the pen manufacturer, would be creating an efficient supply chain to drive down costs.
- Key Resources: The resources that are necessary to create value for the customer. They are considered assets to a company that are needed to sustain and support the business. These resources could be human, financial, physical and intellectual.
- Partner Network: In order to optimize operations and reduce risks of a business model, organizations usually cultivate buyer-supplier relationships so they can focus on their core activity. Complementary business alliances also can be considered through joint ventures or strategic alliances between competitors or non-competitors.
- Offering
- Value Propositions: The collection of products and services a business offers to meet the needs of its customers. According to Osterwalder (2004), a company's value proposition is what distinguishes it from its competitors. The value proposition provides value through various elements such as newness, performance, customization, 'getting the job done', design, brand/status, price, cost reduction, risk reduction, accessibility, and convenience/usability.
- The value propositions may be:
- Quantitative – price and efficiency
- Qualitative – overall customer experience and outcome
- The value propositions may be:
- Value Propositions: The collection of products and services a business offers to meet the needs of its customers. According to Osterwalder (2004), a company's value proposition is what distinguishes it from its competitors. The value proposition provides value through various elements such as newness, performance, customization, 'getting the job done', design, brand/status, price, cost reduction, risk reduction, accessibility, and convenience/usability.
- Customers
- Customer Segments: To build an effective business model, a company must identify which customers it tries to serve. Various sets of customers can be segmented based on their different needs and attributes to ensure appropriate implementation of corporate strategy to meet the characteristics of selected groups of clients. The different types of customer segments include:
- Mass Market: There is no specific segmentation for a company that follows the Mass Market element as the organization displays a wide view of potential clients. e.g. Car
- Niche Market: Customer segmentation based on specialized needs and characteristics of its clients. e.g. Rolex
- Segmented: A company applies additional segmentation within existing customer segment. In the segmented situation, the business may further distinguish its clients based on gender, age, and/or income.
- Diversify: A business serves multiple customer segments with different needs and characteristics.
- Multi-Sided Platform / Market: For a smooth day-to-day business operation, some companies will serve mutually dependent customer segments. A credit card company will provide services to credit card holders while simultaneously assisting merchants who accept those credit cards.
- Channels: A company can deliver its value proposition to its targeted customers through different channels. Effective channels will distribute a company's value proposition in ways that are fast, efficient and cost-effective. An organization can reach its clients through its own channels (store front), partner channels (major distributors), or a combination of both.
- Customer Relationships: To ensure the survival and success of any businesses, companies must identify the type of relationship they want to create with their customer segments. Various forms of customer relationships include:
- Personal Assistance: Assistance in a form of employee-customer interaction. Such assistance is performed during sales and/or after sales.
- Dedicated Personal Assistance: The most intimate and hands-on personal assistance in which a sales representative is assigned to handle all the needs and questions of a special set of clients.
- Self Service: The type of relationship that translates from the indirect interaction between the company and the clients. Here, an organization provides the tools needed for the customers to serve themselves easily and effectively.
- Automated Services: A system similar to self-service but more personalized as it has the ability to identify individual customers and their preferences. An example of this would be Amazon.com making book suggestions based on the characteristics of previous book purchases.
- Communities: Creating a community allows for direct interactions among different clients and the company. The community platform produces a scenario where knowledge can be shared and problems are solved between different clients.
- Co-creation: A personal relationship is created through the customer's direct input to the final outcome of the company's products/services.
- Customer Segments: To build an effective business model, a company must identify which customers it tries to serve. Various sets of customers can be segmented based on their different needs and attributes to ensure appropriate implementation of corporate strategy to meet the characteristics of selected groups of clients. The different types of customer segments include:
- Finances
- Cost Structure: This describes the most important monetary consequences while operating under different business models. A company's DOC.
- Classes of Business Structures:
- Cost-Driven – This business model focuses on minimizing all costs and having no frills. e.g. Low-cost airlines
- Value-Driven – Less concerned with cost, this business model focuses on creating value for products and services. e.g. Louis Vuitton, Rolex
- Characteristics of Cost Structures:
- Fixed Costs – Costs are unchanged across different applications. e.g. salary, rent
- Variable Costs – Costs vary depending on the amount of production of goods or services. e.g. music festivals
- Economies of Scale – Costs go down as the amount of goods are ordered or produced.
- Economies of Scope – Costs go down due to incorporating other businesses which have a direct relation to the original product.
- Classes of Business Structures:
- Revenue Streams: The way a company makes income from each customer segment. Several ways to generate a revenue stream:
- Asset Sale – (the most common type) Selling ownership rights to a physical good. e.g. retail corporations
- Usage Fee – Money generated from the use of a particular service. e.g. UPS
- Subscription Fees – Revenue generated by selling access to a continuous service. e.g. Netflix
- Lending/Leasing/Renting – Giving exclusive right to an asset for a particular period of time. e.g. Leasing a Car
- Licensing – Revenue generated from charging for the use of a protected intellectual property.
- Brokerage Fees – Revenue generated from an intermediate service between 2 parties. e.g. Broker selling a house for commission
- Advertising – Revenue generated from charging fees for product advertising.
- Cost Structure: This describes the most important monetary consequences while operating under different business models. A company's DOC.
Application[edit]
The Business Model Canvas can be printed out on a large surface so groups of people can jointly start sketching and discussing business model elements with post-it note notes or board markers. It is a hands-on tool that fosters understanding, discussion, creativity, and analysis.[7] It is distributed under a Creative Commons license[8] from Strategyzer AG and can be used without any restrictions for modeling businesses.
The Business Model Canvas is also available in web-based software format.
Business Model Canvas Printable
Alternative forms[edit]
The Business Model Canvas has been used and adapted to suit specific business scenarios and applications.[9][10][11] Examples include:
Criticism[edit]
The Business Model Canvas was characterized as static because it does not capture changes in strategy or the evolution of the model.[12] Some limits of the template are its focus on organizations and its consequent conceptual isolation from its environment, whether this is related to the industry structure[13] or to stakeholders such as society and natural environment.[14][15]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^Barquet, Ana Paula B., et al. 'Business model elements for product-service system'. Functional Thinking for Value Creation. Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2011. 332–337: They stated that 'The Canvas business model was applied and tested in many organizations (eg IBM and Ericsson), being successfully used to easily describe and manipulate business models to create new strategic alternatives.'
- ^De Reuver, Mark, Harry Bouwman, and Timber Haaker. 'Business model roadmapping: A practical approach to come from an existing to a desired business model'. International Journal of Innovation Management 17.01 (2013): They described the business model canvas as the 'Most prominent... popular tool that makes it simple for practitioners to design business models in a creative session.'
- ^ abOsterwalder, Alexander; Pigneur, Yves; Clark, Tim (2010). Business Model Generation: A Handbook For Visionaries, Game Changers, and Challengers. Strategyzer series. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN9780470876411. OCLC648031756. With contributions from 470 practitioners from 45 countries.
- ^Osterwalder, Alexander (2005-11-05). 'What is a business model?'. businessmodelalchemist.com. Retrieved 2019-06-19.
A business model is nothing else than a representation of how an organization makes (or intends to make) money. This can be nicely described through the 9 building blocks illustrated in the graphic below, which we call 'business model canvas'.
- ^ abOsterwalder, Alexander (2004). The Business Model Ontology: A Proposition In A Design Science Approach(PDF) (Ph.D. thesis). Lausanne: University of Lausanne. OCLC717647749. See also: Osterwalder, Alexander; Pigneur, Yves; Tucci, Christopher L. (2005). 'Clarifying business models: origins, present, and future of the concept'. Communications of the Association for Information Systems. 16 (1): 1. doi:10.17705/1CAIS.01601.
- ^Osterwalder, Alexander (2008-07-02). 'What is a business model?'. business-model-design.blogspot.com. Archived from the original on 2008-09-06. Retrieved 2018-10-17.
- ^'Business Models: Do the right thing'. blog.bizzdesign.com. Archived from the original on 2015-04-02. Retrieved 2015-03-28.
- ^'Can I use the Business Model Canvas or Value Proposition Canvas in my own teachings or public projects?'. support.strategyzer.com. Retrieved 2015-03-22.
- ^'Business Model Canvas for User Experience'. grasshopperherder.com. 2012-06-19. Retrieved 2012-06-20.
- ^'Lean Model Canvas vs. Business Model Canvas'. practicetrumpstheory.com. Archived from the original on 2014-04-26. Retrieved 2014-04-25.
- ^'Internal Communication Canvas'. eee.do. 2016-04-28. Retrieved 2016-05-28.
- ^Sinkovics, Noemi; Sinkovics, Rudolf R.; Yamin, Mo (2014). 'The Role of Social Value Creation in Business Model Formulation at the Bottom of the Pyramid – Implications for MNEs?'. International Business Review. 23 (4): 692–707. doi:10.1016/j.ibusrev.2013.12.004.
- ^Nicola, S.; White, G. (2013). Towse, Ruth; Handka, Christian (eds.). 'Business Models'. in Handbook on the Digital Creative Economy. Cheltenham, UK and Northampton, MA, USA: Edward Elgar Publishing: 45–56.
- ^Bocken, N.M.P.; Rana, P.; Short, S.W. 'Value mapping for sustainable business thinking'. Journal of Industrial and Production Engineering. 32 (1): 67–81. doi:10.1080/21681015.2014.1000399.
- ^Sparviero, Sergio (2019). 'The Case for a Socially Oriented Business Model Canvas: The Social Enterprise Model Canvas'. Journal of Social Entrepreneurship. 10 (2): 232–251. doi:10.1080/19420676.2018.1541011.
External links[edit]
- Media related to Business Model Canvas at Wikimedia Commons
- Alexander Osterwalder: Tools for Business Model Generation, a 53-minute video discussing the Business Model Canvas in detail. Stanford Entrepreneurship Corner, 26 January 2012
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