- Business Model Design
- Business Model Canvas
Process:
It was the third lesson of the technopreneurship course by Mr Chia. Today's lesson was about business model design and how to make use of a business model canvas.
What is a business model?
A business model is a description of the operations of a business including the components of the business, the functions of the business, and the revenues and expenses that the business generates. There are different types of business models, such as a franchise, a company selling products, or a company selling a service. Each of these different business models have their own needs.
Product:
- Branding
For a company selling a product, it is important to establish a brand for the product. Branding of a product consists of many different aspects as can be seen in the picture below. It is the unique image and reputation of the product or company and is extremely instrumental for success.
An example of a company with successful branding is Coca Cola:
Coke’s strength is that is always finds a way to connect with its current customers. The brand has had to make a lot of changes since 1886 to keep up with their audience, including changing their logo over the years to become more modern and thinking of creative campaigns to keep up with the times.
The best example of a successful Coca-Cola campaign was their 2012 Super Bowl commercial. Coke is always very forward thinking about how to create a brand that can relate to their audience. Their commercials pictured two polar bears: one rooting for the New York Giants, and the other rooting for the New England Patriots. The commercials that would play depended on who was winning the game. This is a great example of how the 125-year-old brand is still able to stay current.
Marketing takeaway: Relate to your audience and connect with your customers.
Service:
- Knowledge and experience
Knowledge and experience is necessary because it is the basis of selling a service. To be able to provide a good service, the technical know-how is extremely important. It is the crux of your service and it can determine your quality of service, and the success and failure of your company.
- Labour
Another need when selling a service is additional labour compared to selling a product. Labour is needed to be able to offer services to the consumer. In some cases, it can be human labour or in other cases, machinery. An example of such is a tuition center, which has to hire teachers to conduct lessons and sell the service of teaching.
Real World Examples:
Several companies seem like they sell services or products, but it can be the opposite of what it seems. Companies can be creative and innovative in their business model, setting them apart from the rest.
When Xerox created the photocopier, not many companies could afford to buy it. Hence, Xerox turned from selling a product to a service, placing their photocopiers in office for free. Companies would pay based on the amount of pages printed, and leasing and servicing would be provided by Xerox at no cost.
- Business Model Canvas
The Business Model Canvas is a strategic management and lean startup template for developing new or documenting existing business models. It is a visual chart with elements describing a firm's or product's value proposition, infrastructure, customers, and finances. It assists firms in aligning their activities by illustrating potential trade-offs.
Mr Chia also introduced us to the Business Model Canvas, which is used as a template to plan businesses. The template is filled with many different categories with many questions to fill. This allows us to look and set up a business model from many different perspectives, not missing out any major part of the business model that could potentially prove fatal.
Reflection:
In this lesson, I have realised that there is much more to business that i originally thought. I was exposed to more of the running of a business and it is not as shallow and easy as it seems to run a business. I was also exposed to the many ways business make themselves stand out and end up more successful than other similar ones. It has inspired me to think and find out more deeply about brands and businesses we see daily, because many of them have a different business model to what it seems. An example of this is Macdonald's. Many, including me in the past, thought that it was a food-and-beverage business. However, much to my surprise, it actually is a real estate business. Many of the business we see in our lives have unique business models we usually do not assume they have. However, after we research and learn about them, our perspective on the world is greatly changes, just like our assumptions of their business model has.
Personal Development:
I am also aware about personal branding of a person, and after this talk, it has influenced me to further learn and understand personal branding. It is a very important skill to have and to know, and I feel that it can be applicable for me in the future too. Having good personal branding can allow prospective employers and others to get a better idea of you and hence it can increase your chances of landing a job or scholarship etc. I will attempt to learn about and might embark on personal branding after this lesson.
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