The Business Model Canvas

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Get a clearer perspective of your business model with a high level view.

Do you know what your company's business model is? How well do you understand it? And why does this matter?

A company's business model determines how it generates its revenue, operates successfully, and makes a profit. If your company's business model is out of date or wrong for its market, then it's likely to fail.

Understanding your company's business model is an important part of developing the "commercial awareness"   you need to solve problems effectively, make good decisions, and become known as a trusted leader in your organization.

This article explores a useful model that you can use to think about your business model.

What Is the Business Canvas Model?

Alex Osterwald and Yves Pigneur developed their Business Model Canvas in 2010.

They collaborated with 470 members of the Business Model Innovation Hub – an online forum for business professionals and researchers – who contributed case studies, examples, and critical comments to their research. As such, the Business Model Canvas represents the collective experience of a community of business people.

It appears as a template of nine basic building blocks, as shown in figure 1, below. These form a blueprint, based on which business models can be systematically designed, explained and challenged....