I had the pleasure of obtaining the first edition of this book that was shipped to the US. In 2009, I took the Management Consulting MBA course at NC State University from Susan Hewitt Schaper, which was arguably one of the best courses in the MBA program. Susan's reading list for the class was so cutting edge that it was a novelty I was even able to obtain a copy of the book. As a designer taking MBA classes, Business Model Generation was a breath of fresh air for me, providing the visual tools to allow the design thinking skill set to have a canvas upon which to engage otherwise analytical conversations. For a while, I had a massive business model canvas printed out and posted on the wall of my office with dry erase markings and sticky notes all over it. Today, we simply use a digital whiteboard via Mural to track the many iterations of the Trig BMC and that of our clients'.
“A business model describes the rationale of how an organization creates, delivers, and captures value. Business model innovation is about new ways of creating, delivering, and capturing value.” - Alex Osterwalder
The genius of this book is that the authors helped converge many conflicting definitions of a business model into nine discrete elements:
Key Partners - What business, people, or organizations can support you?
Key Activities - What activities will your business support, improve, or make possible?
Key Resources - What key resources do you need to make your business a reality? If you don't have them, how do you plan to get them?
Value Proposition - What bundle of goods and services do you provide to your customers? What makes your business different from competitors?
Customer Relationships - How will you interact with customers? How will you communicate your value proposition?
Channels - What methods of delivery do you currently provide the products and services to customers?
Customer Segments - What segments or customer personas are you targeting with your value proposition
Cost Structure - How much does it cost to deliver value to your customers?
Revenue Streams - How will your business make a profit and generate cash?
If your organization needs to adapt to harsh new realities, but you don't yet have a strategy that will get you out in front of your competitors, you need Business Model Generation.
Co-created by 470 "Business Model Canvas" practitioners from 45 countries, the book features a beautiful, highly visual, 4-color design that takes powerful strategic ideas and tools, and makes them easy to implement in your organization. It explains the most common Business Model patterns, based on concepts from leading business thinkers, and helps you reinterpret them for your own context. You will learn how to systematically understand, design, and implement a game-changing business model--or analyze and renovate an old one. Along the way, you'll understand at a much deeper level your customers, distribution channels, partners, revenue streams, costs, and your core value proposition.
Business Model Generation features practical innovation techniques used today by leading consultants and companies worldwide, including 3M, Ericsson, Capgemini, Deloitte, and others. Designed for doers, it is for those ready to abandon outmoded thinking and embrace new models of value creation: for executives, consultants, entrepreneurs, and leaders of all organizations. If you're ready to change the rules, you belong to "the business model generation".
If you would like to pick up a copy of the book, I highly recommend the paperback version. The illustrations are incredible: Business Model Generation
