The Business Model Canvas: the definitive article with template

What is a Business Model Canvas?

The Business Model Canvas (BMC) is a strategic tool that helps businesses and consultants visualise, design, and refine their business models in a simple, structured way.

It breaks down a business model into nine key building blocks, allowing companies to see how various parts of their business fit together.

This is particularly useful for startups and established businesses alike, as it provides a clear overview of both internal operations and customer-facing processes.

It is particularly useful in its ability:

1. to provide multi-disciplinary teams with a common language for talking about and analysing a business in holistic terms.
2. to enable startup founders to move beyond a great product idea towards a great business idea.

What is a business model?

A business model is a strategic blueprint that explains how a company creates, delivers, and captures value. A business model is the engine that drives a company, showing how all its parts work together to achieve success and profitability.

The Layout of the Business Model Canvas

The Business Model Canvas is typically laid out as follows:

Descriptions of the 9 categories in the Business Model Canvas

There is no implicit order in the Business Model Canvas. However, for several reasons, it is advised to start from the top right, move towards the left and finish with the two categories at the bottom.

Navigation

1. Customer Segments
2. Channels
3. Customer Relationships
4. Value Proposition
5. Key Activities
6. Key Resources
7. Key Partners
8. Cost Structure
9. Revenue Structure

Customer Segments

This is where you identify, segment and describe your target customers - the different groups of people or organisations a business aims to serve.

Segmentation can be based on needs, attitudes, behaviours, demographics or other attributes.

Segments can be broad (i.e. mass market) or narrow (i.e. niche).

The description should include their needs (or jobs to be done) and how they will use the product or service to meet them. It should also include estimates of the numbers of customers in the segment, and the rate of growth of the segment.

Customers can be individuals or businesses.

Organisations can pursue some blend of:

• a resource-based strategy where they seek to identify customer segments which want the capabilities, products and services where the organisation has a competitive advantage. This would typically involve a larger number of target segments, or
• a marketing-led strategy where they choose a specific customer segment and then provide it with the products and services it needs. This would typically lead to a smaller number of target segments.

Markets can be single or double-sided markets. In single-sided markets, organisations acquire inputs from suppliers and sell these to customers. In double-sided markets, organisations match buyers and sellers, typically retaining a commission on each transaction between them.

It is sometimes useful for organisations to say who is not in the target market. Which segments they will ignore. That is not to say they would turn such a customer away. But it does mean they won't devote scarce resources to addressing their specific needs where these are different from those of the target market.

See also:

• The Customer Value Map
• What is segmentation and how does it work?
• Personas

Channels

This is where you describe how an organisation will reach and communicate with its customers.

This should cover all stages of the customer interaction: marketing, sales and servicing.

Channels may be:

• physical or digital. Physical channels include high-street retail stores. Digital channels include websites and social media.
• owned or not owned. Organisations may own their own physical retail stores, or distribute through third-party physical stores like department stores. Similarly, they may own their own website or distribute through third-party sites like Amazon or eBay.
• direct, intermediated or wholesale. Organisations may market, sell and/or provide services directly to their customers. Or they may operate through intermediaries like brokers and agents. Or they may wholesale to large distributors like supermarkets.

Organisations can choose a single-channel, multi-channel strategy or omni-channel strategy.

The choice of channels may be based on

• customer preferences like cost, speed and convenience,
• organisational considerations like cost, and
• relational considerations like how involved and complex the customer interactions are.

Customer Relationships

This is where you describe what kind of relationship the organisation will have with its customers.

As with channels, this should cover all stages of the customer interaction: marketing, sales and servicing.

Customer Relationships may be:

• transaction or relational. In transactional relationships, the customer and organisation engage only briefly for each transaction, like buying an ice cream at a cafe when you're on holiday. In relational, or long-term relationships, the relationship is sustained over a long period and across multiple interactions, like the relationship you have with your bank.
• self-service, assisted or automated.
• personal or impersonal. Organisations can personalise their products and services for individual customers, or provide a uniform product or service to all.
• community-based: Many organisations now try to engage with their customers as communities, such as athletes. The community members often help each other to get the most out of the organisation's products and services.
• co-creative: Organisations engage their customers in helping to develop and improve their products and services.

Customer relationships can be used to build loyalty and/or increase switching costs.

Value Proposition

This is where you describe the actual value the organisation delivers to its customers.

This value added is usually the solution to the problems or jobs-to-be-done identified for the customer segments (see above). Value add can be expressed in terms of product or service benefits.

You can describe your value proposition components as:

1. Value Creators: These deliver gains your customers hope to achieve
   or
2. Pain Relievers: These solve problems that your customers hope to avoid.

The Value Creators and Pain Relievers will then integrate with the Value Creators and Pain Relievers on your Customer Value Maps.

The value proposition should also clearly show how what the organisation offers is different from what its competitors or substitutes offer. That is, why the target customer segments should choose this organisation's value proposition above all others. (See also: Examples of Strategy Canvases.)

Value propositions can deliver:

• Performance: by providing a better solution to the customer's problem or job-to-be-done.
• Cost reduction: by solving the customer's problem or job-to-be-done more cheaply.
• Risk reduction: by reducing the risk to the customers.
• Convenience: by make the solution more flexible, or more easily accessible to or convenient for the customer.
• Status: by conferring greater status or a greater sense of well-being on the customer.

They can address:

• positives: gain creators, or
• negatives: pain relievers

Gain Creators and Pain Relievers created on a Customer Value Map will also appear here.

Key Activities

This is where you describe what the organisation must do to deliver its value proposition through its customer relationships and channels to its customer segments.

Types of activities include:

• Core operations: acquiring inputs, producing outputs, selling them and serving customers.
• Support operations: other necessary functions such as financial, personnel, office/premises and supply chain management, administration and supporting technologies.
• Improvement: such as strategy development and execution, research and development, training and innovation.

See also: Porter's Value Chain Analysis.

Key Resources

This is where you describe the key resources the organisation needs to support its key activities.

Key resources can be:

• Physical: plant and machinery, access to resources.
• Legal: contracts and exclusive rights, patents and trademarks.
• Human and intellectual: special skills, knowledge, systems and processes.
• Digital: proprietary systems and data sets.
• Financial: financial resources, capital, credit lines guarantees, options.
• Brands and the trust with which they are imbued.

Key Partners

This is where you describe the key partners and suppliers on which the organisation relies.

When adding Key Partners, you have options to add them as:

1. Organisations: Individual named organisations, such as 'ABC Corporation'.
   or
2. Groups: Categories of partners, such as 'farms' or 'spare parts manufacturers'. You can also use a group as a placeholder for where you know you will need a partner, but have not yet identified which organisation it will be.

As you continue to develop and execute your strategy, the system will provide different options and capabilities depending on whether you add a Kay Partner as and Organisation or a Group.

Partners and Suppliers can provide raw input for your products or service, or support Key Activities or Resources with which you create and deliver them.

It is a key consideration for any organisation how much it chooses to do itself versus how much it relies on partners and suppliers. This has a significant impact on costs and risks. In particular, many suppliers can reduce both costs and risks through increased specialisation and economies of scale. But they might also reduce an organisation's ability to differentiate itself within its market and/or innovate.

Partnerships vary from arms-length supply to strategic partnerships and joint ventures. They may be between competitors or non-competitors. They may or may not be exclusive in either direction.

Cost Structure

This is where you describe the main costs to the organisation, their magnitudes, and the basis on which they are incurred.

Costs can be fixed or variable. They can benefit from economies of scale, scope and experience. The timing of payments, especially relative to revenues, can be an important factor in cash flow management.

Organisations can pursue low-cost or high-value strategies.

You can also itemise costs, which will then be incorporated into your financial projection.

Revenue Structure

This is where you describe how the organisation makes money. Revenue typically comes from customers. This is the lifeblood of any sustainable commercial organisation. But it can come from donors or other sources. It does not include loans or investments.

Revenues may be earned for:

• Sales, e.g. of a physical asset
• Usage, e.g. consumption of a service.
• Licensing
• Brokerage fees
• Advertising revenue

Payments may be:

• In advance or in arrears.
• One-off or recurring. Subscription models are a recurring revenue model which has gained in popularity. (See Why the Subscription Model Will Be Your Company's Future - and What to Do About It)
• Fixed, discounted (based on volume or loyalty, etc.) or variable (for example, if set at auction).

You can also itemise revenues, which will then be incorporated into your financial projection.

Where to find the Business Model Canvas template

To find your Business Model Canvas template:

1. Log in to StratNavApp.com.
2. Select the project you want to work with.
3. Click on "Analysis" on the main menu.
4. Click on "Business Model" on the drop-down menu that opens up.
5. Select "Business Model Canvas" on the model selector on the page that follows.

Origins of the Business Model Canvas

The Business Model Canvas was popularised in the book "Business Model Generation" by Alexander Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur, and released under Creative Commons license by Strategyzer.com.

See also:

• The Enhanced Business Model Canvas
• The Lean Canvas
• #StratChat about the Business Model Canvas
• How to use the Business Model Canvas

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)