The Importance of Business Models 3.0
The Importance of Business Models 3.0
The Importance of Business Models 3.0
INTRODUCTION
Once you’ve identified your opportunity, the next step is to devise a strategy to pursue that
opportunity. Although you’re probably familiar with the basic strategy categories from previous
coursework—differentiation, low cost, niche—many would-be entrepreneurs fail to grasp the
intricacies of devising and implementing their strategy. All strategies are driven by the company’s
business model. At the heart of any successful startup is a business model that generates enough
cash to sustainably grow and gain market share.
Many entrepreneurs focus too much on writing a pitch or business plan for the sole purpose of
raising money, rather than to prove out for themselves that there is a large and growing market
with an important need or problem to be addressed. When using this approach neither the pitch,
nor the business plan hold up to the scrutiny of investor inquiry because the most important
questions and analysis are being put off to some future time after ample cash has been raised.
While this approach might work well when money is in abundant supply, it ignores the most
important depleting asset of any entrepreneur, time. The desire to execute on an idea sometimes
outweighs the importance of discovering precisely what you should be building and for whom.
By putting the cart before the horse, you run the risk of building the wrong product for the wrong
market and having to “pivot,” which is a term that has become synonymous with “we screwed
up and will have to spend more time and money to do the right thing.”
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The Value Proposition addresses the reasons why customers will purchase whatever it is that you
are selling. It answers several key questions:
• What is it?
• Who is it for?
• Why do they need it?
• How does it work?
• What is unique or different?
The first four questions allow you to consider the product offering, the target audience, the
compelling reason for them to take action, and the experience that you hope for them to have
while using your product. Customers require a reason to purchase – an unmet need, a problem
to be solved, an experience they desire to have. Your value proposition can be thought of as a
collection of reasons as to why customers will part with their hard earned money. The benefits
of what you are providing must clearly outweigh the costs. In a world with endless possibilities
and businesses competing for a share of wallet, your solution must address the customer’s
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The Problem with Pivots problem in a manner that focuses on the most
Though there have been many successful high- important needs in new and different ways that yield
profile pivots namely Twitter, Paypal, Instagram, the best results.
and Pinterest, the truth is that most fail. The pivots
that do work usually occur during the customer
Differentiation is broken out as its own rather than
discovery phase of a startup’s life. This should be a
period when the company is rapidly and being lumped in with the value proposition even
inexpensively testing several ideas to determine though differentiation is an important part of the
which will resonate. During this phase when the overall value proposition. This was done specifically
company is in search of a repeatable, scalable to bring attention to one of the most overlooked and
business model, cash burn should be at a minimum.
misunderstood elements of the value proposition.
This ensures that if your first idea fails, you’ll have
time and money to try something else.
Your differentiation must be something that is truly
It’s when a company tries to pivot during the not easily copied in short order, or easily procured. It
execution phase that the chance of success become must be something that satisfies an important
less, because a lot of real and political capital has
customer want or need in a significantly unique and
been spent - the organization and operations have
already scaled and the initial product is fully beneficial way. To start, think of your differentiation
developed. At this point in the life of the company as addressing one or more of three needs – Air,
it has already raised two or perhaps three rounds of Aspirin, or Addiction. Air is a necessity. You need it to
funding, scaled sales and marketing, and the survive. Aspirin addresses a pain. Addiction is neither
company profile is higher than it would be in the
a necessity, nor a pain reliever, but something that
discovery phase.
you feel a strong desire to use. If you are addressing
Pivoting at this point presents several challenges: 1) a necessity, you should ask yourself how the
Investor fatigue and loss of confidence. Pivot once customer is solving the problem today and does your
during the discovery phase and it can be interpreted solution create enough of a benefit to convince them
as learning and adapting to the findings. Pivot two
to switch? If you are addressing a pain, a good
or three times and investors begin to wonder if it is
worth continuing, especially if the pivot comes too question to ask is, if you are addressing an issue that
late and after most of the capital has been used. 2) has, or will have, dire consequences if not addressed?
The best employees head for the door. There are In other words, are you solving a “top 3 problem”
two critical jobs in a startup – the people who make with adverse personal or economic ramifications for
things and the people who sell things. The first do
the customer? Addiction is more difficult to predict,
not enjoy scrapping everything that they have
worked on previously in favor of a new thing. Simply but if achieved can have enormous market potential.
put, developers hate to be whipsawed. You can For instance, who could have ever imagined that
usually sell one new vision, but too many times and billions of people around the world would have
they lose faith and move on. Salespeople, especially Facebook accounts, or post photos regularly to
the good ones, will not hang around if the prospect
Instagram?
of making money has once again been pushed off
into the future. They will also protect their
reputations with their best customers and not want Your differentiation must also resonate with the
to sell them and resell them a new story. Take too customer. It is not enough to say that your product
long to get the product right and once again the best has 25 features, while your competitor’s product only
people head for the door first.
has 15. What is important is to have those few key
The lesson here is do more experimenting and features that the customer can’t live without, or
hypothesis testing early and you might preserve perhaps have high switching costs. For example,
enough trust and money to try to successfully pivot media measurement firm Nielsen Holdings Plc,
once. moved 56,000 employees from Microsoft Corp.’s
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Value Proposition Example: Uber’s Unique Customer Value business software to the paid versions of
Proposition Google’s G Suite. Nielsen executives
realized that 60% of their employees
Although Uber is widely criticized for its work culture, corporate
were under the age of 35 and had years
governance, and treatment of its drivers, its Customer Value
Proposition is simple and easy-to-understand. The message, “Move the of experience using the free versions of
way you want,” which is taken from the company’s homepage conveys Gmail and Google Docs. Despite having
to drivers and passengers alike what the service is and for whom. fewer features, the Google’s products
focus on “new ways of working” and
more fashionable office trends, like
remote work and consumer-style
applications that millennials are more
accustomed to using. 1
1
https://www.itprotoday.com/collaboration/google-grabs-nielsen-business-apps-user-microsoft
2
Puffery: General, favorable statements of exaggeration that cannot be proven and are not likely to be relied upon
by consumers. Includes general claims of superiority that are understood by consumers as merely an expression of
opinion.
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For example, let’s assume that you are going to open a specialized fitness studio for women in
your town that you hope to expand in the future. You TAM would be the worldwide fitness
market. If you were the only game in town and had the ability to expand into every country, then
the TAM would be your market, but this is not realistic.
If you are starting off in your town then demand for your studio will be based upon certain
segments of the female population and their exercise habits. You might also make some
comparisons to similar types of studios in towns with similar demographics to yours. Therefore,
your SAM would be the estimated demand for your type of studio within your geographic area.
Since you are likely not the only exercise offering in your area, you would have to further segment
the market by taking into consideration how far women are willing to travel to your studio and
what other opportunities exist for them to get exercise. This narrower target would be your SOM.
The next three steps focus on outward customer facing elements of the business model. The
purpose here is to build atop the foundation that you created in steps 1 – 3 by further identifying
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your customer segments and considering how you plan to communicate with them to build
awareness, trial and purchase. Another element to consider is sales and distribution of your
product or service and the ongoing relationship that your customer wishes to have with you.
Finally, how to do you make money? What are the drivers of revenue and how will you price your
product or service?
Questions to consider:
• What is the Segmented Obtainable Market?
• Where do they purchase?
• How do they purchase?
• Why do they purchase?
• What and how do they pay?
• What relationship is required for each?
• What other products or services do they want you to provide?
• How profitable is each segment?
Depending upon the type of business, the cost of customer acquisition can be a significant
operating expense. Careful consideration and planning must be given to the target audience, the
message, the appropriate channels, content types, and frequency necessary to build awareness
of your brand.
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Questions to consider:
• What are the best ways to reach our target segments?
• What are their sources of information?
• Whom do they trust?
• What is the cost of customer acquisition (CAC)?
• What is the customer lifetime value (CLTV)?
These and other questions will cause you to think more about where you spend both your time and money to
capture each additional customer.
There are a couple of ways to calculate CLTV. The first is with the formula:
$6 x 24 = $144
CAC can be calculated using the formula:
CAC = Total Sales and Marketing expense / Number of New Customers
Let’s assume that you spent $5,000 on online marketing to attract 135 new customers. Therefore, your CAC
would be:
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Questions to consider:
• How will you reach the customer? Each segment?
• How are they reached today? Direct? Indirect? Owned? Partnered?
• What services/relationship is offered with each?
• Which channels work best?
• Are the channels integrated?
• Which channels are most cost efficient?
Revenue drivers, streams, pricing and margins need to be well understood and estimates based
on primary, as well as secondary, research and comparable data. What drives revenue is
customer demand. Customer demand is driven by market size and growth, and your ability to
best meet market needs at a price and place that is amenable to the customer. Other things to
consider are sales cycle time, frequency of purchase, volume of purchase, and breakeven points.
Streams of revenue relate to the variety of ways in which you make money by selling your product
or service. Having multiple streams is often preferred to a single stream of revenue. Following
are several examples of revenue streams:
Pricing must also be given careful thought and be market tested, as it will affect margins. Here
too there are a number of ways to determine the appropriate fixed or dynamic pricing methods.
Perhaps the best example of dynamic pricing is Uber’s “Surge Pricing.” Employing an algorithm
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to set price proportionate to demand, prices increase during peak periods to encourage more
drivers to go online.
As you can see there is a lot more to understanding revenue than the typical “hockey stick” graph
might imply.
Questions to consider:
• What are the drivers of revenue3?
• What are customers willing to pay? What are the pricing mechanisms?
• How do they pay? Are there alternative methods of payment?
• What is the average time to a sale? Frequency of purchase? Volume of purchase?
• What is the contribution margin?
• What are the breakeven points? (unit volume, sales volume)
• Where is there leverage in the revenue model?
RESOURCES (Step 8)
Understanding resource intensity is another important element of your business model.
Resources tend to cluster around four categories: 1) Human resources; 2) Physical resources; 3)
Intellectual resources; and, 4) Financial resources.
In some businesses people costs can add up to 70% to 80% of total operating expenses.
Understanding how and when to recruit and onboard people is an extremely important exercise
that can have a large impact on cash burn. As part of your overall operating plan, take time to
understand what human resource are required at the various phases of company launch and
growth. The hiring process takes time and finding the right fit is paramount for young companies.
Capital expenses can also weigh heavily on cash burn. Think about what assets truly need to be
owned, versus rented or borrowed especially in the early years. For instance, do you really need
to sign a two or three-year lease for space when you are just starting out? Or, would it make
more sense to sublet space from another company that over-estimated their space needs? Low
capital intensity can be a real advantage.
3
Revenue drivers refers to the financial metrics used to identify the sources of revenue generation in a business.
For instance, revenue drivers for a restaurant might include the number of diners, the menu items they choose,
and the amount paid for each item.
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Know what intellectual resources need to be protected. Patents can be expensive to file and
expensive to defend. In some industries (i.e., software) there is an ongoing debate over patent
reform. Be sure to stay up-to-date on changes to the laws and get legal advice.
Understanding the financial resources required to launch and grow your business is a necessary
exercise. Undertaking the task of building an integrated pro forma financial statement is well
worth the time and effort. It is imperative that you accurately estimate the total capital required
to get to breakeven and how you plan to source that capital over time. Too many startups
underestimate the capital requirements to achieve significant milestones that will allow them to
raise additional capital at a higher valuation. This can lead to significant dilution for the founders
at best, and bankruptcy at worst.
Questions to consider:
• What key assets are required to deliver on the value proposition? (Human, Financial,
Physical, Intellectual)
• Are these resources available to you at a reasonable cost?
• What can be rented, leased or borrowed rather than purchased?
PARTNERS (Step 9)
Knowing what alliances, joint ventures and agreements with outside entities are required to
deliver on the value proposition are important as they can affect time to market and cost to build
and deliver your product or service. Understand the activities that are worth outsourcing versus
those activities and capabilities that should be developed in house. Can you reduce risks and
uncertainties through partnering? Especially in the early stages of company development it is
helpful to understand what capabilities need to be owned and controlled and which are better
off done by a trusted partner.
Questions to consider:
• Who are your key partners?
• What value is delivered by each?
• How critical are partners to delivering the value proposition?
• What key resources or activities are delivered by each?
• What risks or uncertainties are reduced?
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to monitor those elements in near real-time. This will help you understand patterns in your
business that may help you address issues before they show up in your financial statements.
Questions to consider:
• What are the key measures of business model success?
• How will value delivery to the customer be measured?
• How are performance standards developed?
• How do these metrics inform your revenue and costs?
Dashboard Example
COST DRIVERS (Step 11)
Few startups cease to exist
because the product doesn’t
work. When most startups fail
it is because they ran out of
money before achieving
significant milestones that
gave investors the confidence
they needed to continue their
support. Similar to revenue,
you must understand what
activities and resources drive
costs. Unit costs to produce and deliver your product or service should be well understood. Every
entrepreneur should understand how to calculate breakeven, cost to acquire a customer, and
customer lifetime value, as well as other key metrics that drive costs and affect overall financial
viability.
Questions to consider:
• What are the cost drivers? (activities, resources, standards)
• What is the resource intensity of producing your product or service?
• What is the unit cost structure?
• Are there economies of scale or scope?
• What costs are fixed? Which costs are variable?
• Is the value proposition cost driven or value driven?
• Where is there leverage in the cost model?
• What is the cost to acquire a customer (CAC)?
• What are the working capital requirements?
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THE EXTERNAL ENVIROMENT AND FINANCIAL STRATEGY (Steps 12, 13, &14)
Questions to consider:
• Who are the known competitors?
• Who might enter the market?
• Are there possible substitutes to your product or service?
• What are their strengths, weaknesses?
• What resources do they have?
• What will the intensity of the rivalry be like?
• How might they react to competitive pressures?
Questions to consider:
• What if any contextual factors exist that are favorable/unfavorable for the business?
• Possible regulatory changes?
• Global economic changes?
• Consumer and business trends
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Questions to consider:
• How much capital is needed to execute the business model?
• Is this capital accessible and at a reasonable cost?
• What are the critical assumptions in our financial model?
• What is the financial impact of positive / negative changes to these assumptions?
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