Enhancing Innovation in Business

Business Model Canvas

Organizational growth is a dream for all organizations. The growth is achievable with the adoption of different strategies such as investing heavily in the development of a product to create better offerings, to develop deep consumer insights to win their loyalty, and/or concentrating in strategy formulation by acquiring new markets. Underlying these strategies is the need for adoption of the business model that will guide the organization in realizing its objectives. One of the models that a business can adopt to foster successes in its ventures is the Business Model Canvas. The model provides the organization with insights on the needs of the consumers (Trimi & Berbegal-Mirabent, 2012). Therefore, this essay discusses various aspects of the model, including its genesis, unique features, and benefits and limitations of using the model in the business.

Generation of the Business Model Canvas

The Business Model Canvas is a key strategic tool used by businesses in creating new or documenting the existing models used by the organization. Alexander Osterwalder basing on his research on Business Model Ontology proposed the model. The model has visual charts and elements that provide a description of the business's value proposition, finances, infrastructure, and customers. The Business Model Canvas represents the business using nine blocks that its business logic when viewed from a strategic standpoint. At the center of the business model is the value proposition that describes the ways of solving customer's problems. Customer segments offer analysis relating to the different customers, behaviors, and demographics.

Distribution channels show the ways in which the customers want the business to reach them. The infrastructure represents the key resources, activities, and partner networks required for ensuring the success of the organization. The finances as stated in the model entail the costs' structure of the organization that describes the monetary results of operating under different business models. It provides the different categories of the business structures that include cost-driven and value-driven classes. The cost structures that make up an organization have unique features such as cost variability; fixed costs, economies of scale, and economies of scope (Osterwalder & Pigneur, 2013).

Unique features of the Business Model Canvas Approach

The business model is a statement, representation, description, architecture, a conceptual tool and structural template that describe the value of the business at the market place. The model is intuitive and a tool that is easy to use. It establishes the initial vision of the company and facilitates the creation of possible alternatives that an organization can adopt in the formulation of effective strategic objectives. The business model emphasizes on the sale of use of the products and services to the consumers rather than the selling the product system. Moreover, the emphasis of the model is on not only the services and products provided by the organization but also identification of the consumer needs and desires alongside defining the required responsibilities and relationships.

While the traditional business models focused on customer becoming responsible for acquiring and monitoring the performance of the product, the Business Model Canvas earns from the client's use of the provided function. The feature shows that, the producer remains with the responsibility of maintaining and monitoring the product use along its life cycle. The model has a precise focus on four key areas that influence the performance of the organization. These include customers, infrastructure, financial viability, and offer. The areas of focus provide the model with a broad spectrum of applicability differentiating it from the other business models (Michelini & Fiorentino, 2011).

How the Business Model Generation Compare/Contrast to other Business Models.

The model shares a number of similarities with other business models like the Porter's Five Forces and the Six-sigma approach. For instance, the model develops a heuristic logic, which connects the technical potential of the business to ensure the realization of its economic value. The model also shares similarities with other models such as unlocking the organizational latent value by promoting the realization of consumer value and technology in ensuring organizational success. In addition, the model provides organizations with avenues for systematic and comparative growth and change in the nature of operations from the traditional methods of product and service provision to the modern consumer focus and adoption of principles of quality.

The difference of the model from the other models arises from its diverse nature. The model focuses on multiple elements, a factor that is not common with the other models. Its lack of adequate use by most of the organizations globally also contributes to the difference of the Business Model Canvas from the other business models (Leschke, 2013).

Benefits and limitations of using the Osterwalder's Business Model Canvas