Evaluating your business model


TL;DR


Notes

Industry Attractiveness

  • To what extent does the business model address markets with limited competitive rivalry?
  • To what extent is the business model likely to create new demand in uncontested spaces?
  • To what extent is the business model likely to satisfy a customer segment that is strategically desirable for the organization?

Competitive Advantage

  • To what extent does the business model deliver a competitive advantage – e.g., lowest cost or unique differentiation?
  • To what extent will other organizations find it difficult to implement this business model or provide a substitute value proposition?
  • To what extent are the clients locked in—does it foster recurring transactions with the same client?
  • To what extent is the business model likely to provide the ability to attract, retain, and develop world-class talent?

Desirability

  • To what extent does the business model meet or exceed the needs of our current customers or open possibilities for future customers?
  • To what extent does the business model consider the unmet needs (pains) of customers?
  • To what extent does the business model provide novel offerings—value proposition (anticipating what customers need before they know what they need)?

Stakeholder Support

  • To what extent is the business model likely to gain top management commitment?
  • To what extent is the business model likely to gain organizational support (e.g., aligns with organizational purpose and identity)?
  • To what extent is the business model likely to be supported by stakeholders and ecosystem partners (e.g., suppliers, communities, government agencies)?
  • What is the potential for the proposed business model to create conflicts among existing or new stakeholders? (negative factor)

Technology Readiness

  • To what extent is the business model based on production ready and mature (but not antiquated) technology?
  • To what extent do the evolving technology trends and projections provide sufficient confidence in the readiness of any critical new technology?
  • If the primary technology is not ready on time, is there a viable technology that is "good enough" as a back-up?
  • To what extent are we confident that our organization has the capabilities to manage the technology development and/or its application through its evolution?

Disruption Robustness

  • To what extent is the proposed business model disruptive?
  • To what extent is the business model robust or resilient to disruption?
  • To what extent does the proposed business model idea build in capability (i.e., activities, partners, and resources) to respond to the likely range of disruptive competitor reactions?

Feasibility

  • To what extent does the business model align to our existing resource and capability portfolio or our potential portfolio?
  • To what extent is the business model implementable given the leadership, systems, and culture of the organization?
  • To what extent will it be difficult to acquire, develop, or access the necessary resources, partners, and capabilities to implement the business model (also see technology readiness)?

Flexibility

  • To what extent can we quickly change the business model to cater to changing requirements of the marketplace?
  • To what extent does the business model build in agility, resilience, and future readiness into the organizational capabilities, processes, and systems?
  • To what extent does the business model build in peripheral vision, scenario thinking, and vigilant learning into the system?
  • To what extent are the business model components malleable in a manner that permits quick response to exogeneous changes and new advancements?

Activity Interdependencies

  • To what extent does the business model require tightly-coupled (e.g., optimized-interconnected) components to be successful?
  • To what extent does the business model exhibit complementary, cohesive, and coherent activity components?
  • To what extent will the imitation of our organization’s business model create compatibility and cannibalization issues within competitors’ business models?

Viability

  • To what extent can the organization remain financially viable using this business model over time?
  • How strong is the value capture mechanism? To what extent will the business model meet or exceed the fundamental objective of the organization—profit or client benefit?
  • To what extent does/can the business model address non-financial performance demands on organizations—such as sustainability and ESG (which may have financial implications)?

Acceptable Risks and Assumptions

  • To what extent are the key (e.g., riskiest) assumptions in the business model acceptable to the organization given the potential return?
  • To what extent does the business model redress the current challenges and risks of the organization?
  • To what extent are the risks of business model failure acceptable/low?

External Resources

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