The business model innovation cycle: from environmental framing to implementation

Alex Osterwalder
April 1, 2006
#
 min read
topics
Business Strategy
Innovation Culture
Corporate Innovation
Innovation Management

After some reflections on the business model innovation cycle this evening, I came up with the following draft (beta) illustration.

The Business Model Innovation Cycle contains 4 phases: Environmental Framing > Business Model Innovation > Organizational Design > Business Model Implementation> Environmental Re-Framing.

1. Environmental framing

The first step to business model innovation is building a multi-disciplinary “business model innovation team” with people from business, process, technology, customer segments, design, R&D, HR, etc.

Get the team to understand the business model environment (Social, Legal, Competitive, and Technological Landscape). Then frame the business model design space.

2. Business model innovation

Within this design space the team can start generating different business model prototypes. I offer a metamodel with 9 business model building blocks that can help describe business models. This can serve as a basis for iterative business model design thinking and innovation.

The team and a number of designated executives can then select one or several of the business model prototypes for implementation and testing. If several business models are selected I call this a business model portfolio that can be like in the financial world (portfolio management with risks, returns and investments).

3. Organizational design

After that, based on the business model portfolio the company should reflect on how to best translate the models into business units and business processes. I call this the organizational design. At the same time the underlying Information Systems are designed to support the implementation of the selected business models (e.g. e-business systems, balanced scorecards, data mining, etc.).

Then the right people have to be brought in to implement the design, the business processes and the supporting technologies.

4. Business model implementation

Now comes the sleeves-up-part of transforming models (business model, organizational model, process model, information systems model) into reality. After securing the external (e.g. venture capital) or internal (e.g. budgets) financial funding, the business has to be built and run. Based on my experience with organizations, this is the most challenging (and often neglected) part.

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Alex Osterwalder
Entrepreneur, speaker and business theorist

Dr. Alexander (Alex) Osterwalder is one of the world’s most influential innovation experts, a leading author, entrepreneur and in-demand speaker whose work has changed the way established companies do business and how new ventures get started.

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Alex Osterwalder
April 1, 2006
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The business model innovation cycle: from environmental framing to implementation
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The business model innovation cycle: from environmental framing to implementation

The business model innovation cycle: from environmental framing to implementation
Insights

The business model innovation cycle: from environmental framing to implementation

April 1, 2006
#
 min read
topics
Business Strategy
Innovation Culture
Corporate Innovation
Innovation Management

After some reflections on the business model innovation cycle this evening, I came up with the following draft (beta) illustration.

The Business Model Innovation Cycle contains 4 phases: Environmental Framing > Business Model Innovation > Organizational Design > Business Model Implementation> Environmental Re-Framing.

1. Environmental framing

The first step to business model innovation is building a multi-disciplinary “business model innovation team” with people from business, process, technology, customer segments, design, R&D, HR, etc.

Get the team to understand the business model environment (Social, Legal, Competitive, and Technological Landscape). Then frame the business model design space.

2. Business model innovation

Within this design space the team can start generating different business model prototypes. I offer a metamodel with 9 business model building blocks that can help describe business models. This can serve as a basis for iterative business model design thinking and innovation.

The team and a number of designated executives can then select one or several of the business model prototypes for implementation and testing. If several business models are selected I call this a business model portfolio that can be like in the financial world (portfolio management with risks, returns and investments).

3. Organizational design

After that, based on the business model portfolio the company should reflect on how to best translate the models into business units and business processes. I call this the organizational design. At the same time the underlying Information Systems are designed to support the implementation of the selected business models (e.g. e-business systems, balanced scorecards, data mining, etc.).

Then the right people have to be brought in to implement the design, the business processes and the supporting technologies.

4. Business model implementation

Now comes the sleeves-up-part of transforming models (business model, organizational model, process model, information systems model) into reality. After securing the external (e.g. venture capital) or internal (e.g. budgets) financial funding, the business has to be built and run. Based on my experience with organizations, this is the most challenging (and often neglected) part.

related reads
No items found.
The business model innovation cycle: from environmental framing to implementation

After some reflections on the business model innovation cycle this evening, I came up with the following draft (beta) illustration.

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The business model innovation cycle: from environmental framing to implementation
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