{"id":1753,"date":"2012-10-03T01:02:22","date_gmt":"2012-10-03T07:02:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/workingknowledge.com\/blog\/?p=1753"},"modified":"2023-03-02T21:27:31","modified_gmt":"2023-03-03T03:27:31","slug":"innovating-with-osterwalders-business-model-canvas-bif8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.workingknowledge.com\/blog\/innovating-with-osterwalders-business-model-canvas-bif8\/","title":{"rendered":"Innovating with Osterwalder&#8217;s Business Model Canvas #BIF8"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Point<\/strong>: Create new business models using a visual, collaborative tool like Alex Osterwalder&#8217;s Business Model Canvas.<a href=\"http:\/\/workingknowledge.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/IMG_1131AlexCanvas.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"right size-thumbnail wp-image-1758\" title=\"IMG_1131AlexCanvas\" src=\"http:\/\/workingknowledge.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/IMG_1131AlexCanvas-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<strong>Story<\/strong>:\u00a0 Business models are complex, which makes them hard to talk about. A business has many interrelated moving pieces.\u00a0 It&#8217;s easy for you and your team to miss something when creating one. And with so much complexity and so many possibilities, it&#8217;s easy misunderstand each other when we try to invent new business models.<br \/>\nLuckily, there&#8217;s a solution. Alex Osterwalder&#8217;s Business Model Canvas is a visual tool that helps structure our thinking about business models.<br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: 1px solid #CCC; border-width: 1px 1px 0; margin-bottom: 5px;\" src=\"http:\/\/www.slideshare.net\/slideshow\/embed_code\/2949075?rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" width=\"427\" height=\"356\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<div style=\"margin-bottom: 5px;\"><strong> <a title=\"Business Model Canvas Poster V.1.0\" href=\"http:\/\/www.slideshare.net\/Alex.Osterwalder\/business-model-canvas-poster\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Business Model Canvas Poster V.1.0<\/a> <\/strong> from <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.slideshare.net\/Alex.Osterwalder\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Alexander Osterwalder<\/a><\/strong><\/div>\n<p>At Osterwalder&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.businessinnovationfactory.com\/weblog\/bif-8-workshop-whiteboard-real-world\">Business Model workshop at BIF8<\/a> last week, I saw the power of his Business Model Canvas firsthand.\u00a0 Osterwalder outlined the Canvas method and gave the group the assignment to generate a business model for a specific startup.\u00a0 Small groups clustered around their canvas and the room buzzed with discussion and the squeak of markers as participants took turns sketching out ideas.\u00a0 As we worked, I was struck by three key features of Osterwalder&#8217;s approach.<\/p>\n<p>The first key feature was that Osterwalder encouraged sketching, not just making lists of words. &#8220;Any problem can be made clearer with a picture,&#8221; he said. The visual artifact lets people react to something concrete.\u00a0 To encourage people who think they can&#8217;t draw, Osterwalder pointed out that people can interpret a stick figure more easily than an abstract concept. &#8220;Drawing something, however badly, makes an abstract concept concrete, giving people an opportunity to react to it,&#8221; Osterwalder said. Visual thinking helps with understanding, dialogue, exploration and communication.<\/p>\n<p>The second key feature was that Alex had us make our sketches and notes on Post-It\u00ae notes.\u00a0 We then stuck these to the Canvas.\u00a0 The key part was that then we could move the notes around as we figured out where on the canvas they belonged. &#8220;Post-It\u00ae notes are like containers of ideas,&#8221; Osterwalder said, that can be easily picked up and moved around.\u00a0 Thus, we could reconfigure our ideas as we refined them.<\/p>\n<p>The third key feature was that the Canvas with its Post-It\u00ae notes ensures you don&#8217;t miss an important area. Because business models are so complex, with many interlocking pieces, it&#8217;s hard to hold all the pieces in memory and see their interactions and dependencies. The Canvas helps everyone see all the pieces and confirm that they work together and make sense. People can use different colors of Post-It notes for different business models, which lets them compare alternate models on the same Canvas. This side-by-side comparison can help to then pick the most promising model to test.<a href=\"http:\/\/workingknowledge.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/IMG_1127UsingCanvas.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"right size-thumbnail wp-image-1760\" title=\"IMG_1127UsingCanvas\" src=\"http:\/\/workingknowledge.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/IMG_1127UsingCanvas-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Action<\/strong>:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>If you&#8217;re working in a group, print the Canvas in large format (we used 3&#8242; x 4&#8242; at the workshop).<\/li>\n<li>Most people start on the righthand side of the Canvas, which is the customer side of your business model. It has the &#8220;Customer Segments,&#8221; &#8220;Channels,&#8221; and &#8220;Customer Relationships&#8221; areas. The lefthand side defines the infrastructure of the business with &#8220;Key Activities,&#8221; &#8220;Key Resources,&#8221; and &#8220;Partner Networks.&#8221; A central &#8220;Value Proposition&#8221; sits between the infrastructure areas that deliver on the proposition and the customer areas that receive the value. Finally, the &#8220;Cost Structure&#8221; and &#8220;Revenue Streams&#8221; areas on the bottom sit respectively under the infrastructure and customer sides of the canvas to define the financial side of the model.<\/li>\n<li>Play with different kinds of models. For example, Nestl\u00e9 (in its Nespresso business) tested a model in which Nestl\u00e9 sold its espresso machine through retail but sold the individual &#8220;pods&#8221; of coffee directly to consumers. Going direct was new to Nestl\u00e9 but proved to be very lucrative because Nestle didn&#8217;t have to share revenue with the retailer.<\/li>\n<li>Keep interdependencies in mind. Every revenue stream, for example, must have a customer segment with an accompanying value proposition that makes it clear why they would pay.\u00a0 And every activity, resource, or partner might incur costs.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Sources<\/strong>:<br \/>\nAlex Osterwalder&#8217;s bestselling<a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Business-Model-Generation-Visionaries-Challengers\/dp\/0470876417\"> Business Model Generation<\/a> book is a must!<\/p>\n<p>Alex Osterwalder&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.businessinnovationfactory.com\/weblog\/bif-8-workshop-whiteboard-real-world\">Business Model workshop at BIF8<\/a>.\u00a0 See his calendar of upcoming <a href=\"http:\/\/alexosterwalder.com\/speaking.html\">speeches<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/alexosterwalder.com\/workshops.html\">workshops<\/a>.<br \/>\nAlex Osterwalder&#8217;s slides on SlideShare, such as<br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: 1px solid #CCC; border-width: 1px 1px 0; margin-bottom: 5px;\" src=\"http:\/\/www.slideshare.net\/slideshow\/embed_code\/546052?rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" width=\"427\" height=\"356\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<div style=\"margin-bottom: 5px;\"><strong> <a title=\"Business Model Innovation Matters\" href=\"http:\/\/www.slideshare.net\/Alex.Osterwalder\/business-model-innovation-matter\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Business Model Innovation Matters<\/a> <\/strong> from <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.slideshare.net\/Alex.Osterwalder\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Alexander Osterwalder<\/a><\/strong><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Create new business models using a visual, collaborative tool like Osterwalder&#8217;s Business Model Canvas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[5,11,229,34],"tags":[323,324,280,235,371,322],"class_list":["post-1753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-how-to","category-innovation","category-software-tool","category-strategy","tag-bif8","tag-alex-osterwalder","tag-business-models","tag-collaboration","tag-innovation","tag-visual-thinking"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.workingknowledge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.workingknowledge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.workingknowledge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.workingknowledge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.workingknowledge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1753"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.workingknowledge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1753\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2235,"href":"http:\/\/www.workingknowledge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1753\/revisions\/2235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.workingknowledge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.workingknowledge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.workingknowledge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}