Overview
Business Model Canvas is a way to visualise your business. You can use this to map, discuss, design, and invent new business models.
The tool
The tool can be used to describe, design, and develop a service. The canvas breaks the business down into chucks that help you to visualise the business model in its entirety.
The nine components serve as a checklist to assist you in considering all aspects of a business.
Key Partnerships
- Which partners and suppliers can help you deliver the model?
- What activities do they do for you?
Key Activities
- What things do you need to be able to do in order to perform well?
Value Propositions
- For each of your customer segments, what is the ‘value ‘proposition’ that you offer?
- What is it that you provide them with?
Customer Relationships
- What type of relationship do you have with your customers?
- How do you want to interact with your customers?
Customer Segments
- Who does your service?
- Who values what you offer?
- To whom are you offering something of value?
Key Resources
- What infrastructure do you need to create, deliver and capture value?
- Which assets are indispensable in delivering value (e.g. funding, space, infrastructure, people)?
Channels
- How do you deliver value?
In other words, how do you deliver your service (e.g. face-to-face, delivery, collection, online, etc). This also includes ‘touchpoints’ where the user interacts with the service.
Cost Structure
- What does the cost structure of your organisation look like?
- What are your outgoings?
- What are the costs of your key activities and key resources?
Revenue Streams
- How, and through which pricing mechanisms, does revenue come in?
- How much are customers prepared to pay for the service?
Why use it
Using the method can highlight where gaps in knowledge exist and can be used to identify areas which require further research.
Weaknesses
One potential pitfall of this method is compartmentalising the nine components of the Business Model Canvas in this way fails to show how they interlink and where the co-dependencies are.