3.1 What is a business model?

Business models can be approached from two perspectives. A general perspective defines a business model as any type of conceptual framework explaining how to organize and evolve a business venture. On the other hand, specific circumstances guide business modeling. For instance, industries such as tourism, banking in the services sector, or automobile or shoe manufacturing demand specific models that take into account critical variables found within the industry’s specific environment.

One definition from the general perspective is provide by Alex Osterwalder:

“A business model is a conceptual tool that contains a set of elements and their relationships and allows expressing the business logic of a specific firm. It is a description of the value a company offers to one or several segments of customers and of the architecture of the firm and its network of partners for creating, marketing, and delivering this value and relationship capital, to generate profitable and sustainable revenue streams.” (Osterwalder 2005, (External Link) . Accessed November 25, 2007).

Models are simplified representations of things in the real world. You are already familiar with many kinds of models. You have played with a model air plane or boat when you were a child. You may have seen models of buildings, dams, or other construction projects built by architects to show the sponsors of a project how a completed building will look after it is built. In the same way, a business model lets an entrepreneur try out different ways to put together the components of his or her business and evaluate various options before implementing the one that looks the best. This technique is especially important in today’s business environment, where technology gives business people so many more options than ever before.

Osterwalder goes on to say:

“For managers and executives this means that they have a whole new range of ways to design their businesses, which results in innovative and competing business models in the same industries. Before it used to be sufficient to say in what industry you were for somebody to understand what your company was doing because all players had the same business model. Today it is not sufficient to choose a lucrative industry, but you must design a competitive business model. In addition increased competition and rapid copying of successful business models forces all the players to continuously innovate their business model to gain and sustain a competitive edge”.