Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Jitender Miglani on March 30, 2012 at 6:51am

Hi Gijs,

Here is the secret sauce for quickly drawing the business model of a company over the Canvas.

Firstly, Canvas is a great tool because it helps you ask the right questions related to a business model and provides you the space to capture the answers to those questions. So, Thanks to Alex Osterwalder for developing it.

Once you know what questions to ask, finding answers is not very tough. For public companies, the place to start is the SEC filings (10-Ks, 10-Qs) for the firms listed in US stock exchanges and the annual reports of the companies. Investor presentations also provide useful inputs. Then, one should use appropriate Google queries and search over websites such as Slideshare, Scribd, Quora, and Wikipedia.

I used this process for “tracing” the business model of Google over the Canvas. However, this process could not be applied to Pinterest because it is a startup. Hence, I was not so quick in drawing the Pinterest business model.

Having said all this, I believe there are 3 levels at which business model analysis can be done:

1. Basic. Here we try to “trace” the business model of a company, as I did for Google.

2. Intermediate. Here we analyze their numbers and try to assess the attractiveness of a business model from the investment perspective

3. Advanced. Here we try to differentiate or innovate a business model. For differentiation aspects, we need to study competition business models as well. For innovation aspects, we need to have a good knowledge of business model patterns and different Innovation tools and Design thinking techniques.

And one more thing. In order to do such kinds of business model analysis, one needs to have both time and interest in doing them. I had both. So, I was able to quickly do the basic analysis of the Google business model.

Regards,

Jitender

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Permalink Reply by Gijs Molsbergen on March 30, 2012 at 1:31pm

Thanks! I'll give it a try sometime. I'm also running a self employed start-up. So it's really interesting to experiment, creating a business model I'd like to see now, in a few years and in the further future. :)

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Permalink Reply by Arunagiri Visvanathan on April 23, 2012 at 3:16pm

I have posted in My Blog the BM canvas for e-Choupal of ITC Ltd.

Appreciate your rating this canvas and your comments

http://businessmodelhub.com/profiles/blogs/e-choupal-of-itc-ltd-ind...

Regards

Arunagiri

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Permalink Reply by Erwin Fielt on March 31, 2012 at 11:54am

This always raises with me the question what do we define as best? Based on the most profitable company? (But has this been caused by the business model?) Business models that go beyond the monetary benefits? (But is the triple bottomline already widely accepted?)The most innovative business model? (But will this also result in success?)

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Permalink Reply by Nuno Miguel Marques Couto on April 16, 2012 at 9:47am

I agree. The biggest and the brightest is always presented to us like the success company or the success man; But like everything in life, not everything that shines is gold.

Cleary to define the top we need to have a multi criterion matrix; Even if you insist to define profit has the only drive, you have to agree that this model has proven his bugs in today’s history i.e. you can raise todays profits at the expenditure of the company survival at the long run.

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Permalink Reply by Andrew Jennings on April 3, 2012 at 12:09am

I have to say, I really like the Southwest business model. It is built on strictly adhered to core values and the belief that happy and highly motivated employees results in better customer service and higher returns for the company.

The combination of Leadership, Culture and Dynamic strategy are what set the best performing companies apart from the rest.

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Permalink Reply by Gert Steens on April 15, 2012 at 9:16pm

A bit late to the discussion, but I do feel that it is worth the effort to check age-old (and I mean truly age-old!) business models against a background of the canvas and modern commentators, be that Bill Gurley, Clayton C or leading force AO.

What about the business model of accident insurance, as established in Genoa in the 14th century, when cargo/vessel financing and insurance were unbundled. Highly sophisticated value proposition for very diverse customer segments, channels and relationships narrowly defined, predictable and convenient revenue mechanics, sustainable incremental margins, network effects galore and generally supportive and dependant partnerships.

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Permalink Reply by Gert Steens on April 15, 2012 at 9:38pm

And 650 years later still going strong, I should have added...

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Permalink Reply by Gert Steens on April 15, 2012 at 9:31pm

As for modern models, Amazon's set is top for me: 

The internet leads to an explosion of new business models as it is history's first invention that combines within itself a mode of communication, a mode of transportation and a mode of production. Very very few internet enabled businesses make an integrated use of all three distinct characteristics and the truly revolutionary combination aspect. Apple rides the waves (and is in this early stage the cash generator) better than anyone else, but has yet to get to the combi-core. Amazon is much deeper into it, although it lacks Apple's clever and valuable linkage of the "electronic" and the "physical" life.  I am thinking of Amazon's role in many-to-many commenting, retailing of electronic content, re-employment of data generated by usage and facilitation of cloud computing. Can't help admiring it.

But you weren't looking for yet another endorsement of Amazon of course.

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Permalink Reply by Jitender Miglani on April 18, 2012 at 7:59pm

Hi Patrick,

I think after a long time since you posted this question, I have cracked a good answer to your question on the ’10 best business models’. Whenever somebody asks a question on naming companies with best business models, the discussions can go haywire. Everybody has their own opinion on what is best. So, we need a list of criterion on the basis of which we can judge what is best. The list of criterion should be acceptable by the people. This is very similar to the discussion on Business Models. Before Canvas came, everybody had a different opinion on what a business model is. But, now people are thinking Canvas when they are talking business models.

In this discussion thread earlier, I pointed to Bill Gurley’s 10-point criteria for assessing the attractiveness of a business model. Then, I presented the 10-point criteria over the Canvas. The link to that post is as follows: http://bmimatters.com/2012/04/04/assessing-a-business-model-attract...

Now, I have attempted to compare the business models of Facebook and Google using the Gurley’s Test. I call this approach as ‘Visual Assessment of Business Models using the Canvas’. Please refer to the following post for details: http://bmimatters.com/2012/04/18/comparing-facebook-and-google-busi...

As you will see, I have given both Facebook and Google 9.5 out of 10 points.

Coming back to our discussion on the best business models to learn from, I believe the best business models are those that score higher in the Gurley’s Test. So, if somebody tells that some business model is the best, we should apply Gurley’s Test onto it and see how much it scores.

Regards,

Jitender

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