A viable business model is essential for venture success. This Guide introduces resources to help you develop knowledge and skills for designing a viable business model and powerful value proposition. As you learn extensively about Business Model Canvas, pay attention to the Odyssey 3.14 Approach and Three Levels of Business Models Tool as well.

The courses selected can be audited for free and you can find the audit instructions for Coursera and Edx courses.

Planning: Principled, Proposing, Proofing, and Practicing to a Success Plan | Coursera (Michigan State University)

According to Steven Blank, a business startup or any new venture startup is essentially a proto-type. Thus the startup process essentially becomes a learning process to refine that business prototype into a scalable, replicable finished "product". At the end of this course learners will be able to:

• Complete a business model summarizing assumptions about what value they will offer to whom, and how they will make money.

• Systematically test and validate these assumptions within the constraints of their available resources, and

• Use these validated assumptions to generate financial projections that are based on actual resources and efforts expended.

How to Design a Successful Business Model (Delft University of Technology -DelftX)

In this business and management course, you will learn the key steps to take to design or innovate your own business model. You will learn about the trade-offs to be made, and the design issues that are critical for a viable and sustainable business model. And follow-up courses include:

• Business Model Testing: Learn how to stress test your business model to help you anticipate change and harness your business model’s success.

• Business Model Implementation: Learn how to successfully implement a new business model by creating a practical action plan and roadmap.

Business Model Canvas (The Kauffman Foundation)

The Kauffman Foundation, in collaboration with the founders of Strategyzer – the makers of the best-selling book Business Model Generation and the inventors of the breakthrough Business Model Canvas methodology – developed the animated, short videos to boost executives’ and entrepreneurs’ chances of success in their search for a scalable and profitable business model. The video series teaches entrepreneurs how to go from having a business idea to pitching a validated business model and value proposition.

Innovating with the Business Model Canvas (The University of Virginia)

You’ll learn key tools from the worlds of design thinking and Lean Startup to approach the Canvas with thoughtfulness, focus, and above all, a test-driven approach to business model innovation.

How to Use the Lean Canvas to Validate Your Business Model (Coursera Project Network)

The Lean Canvas serves as a tactical planning tool to guide entrepreneurs in navigating their way from ideation to building a successful business. By the end of this self-guided project, you will be able to use the Lean Canvas to test your startup business model hypothesis and validate the key assumptions.

Business Model Canvas: A Tool for Entrepreneurs and Innovators (Project-Centered Course) (University System of Georgia)

In this project-centered course, you will use the Business Model Canvas innovation tool to approach either a personal or corporate challenge or opportunity. You’ll learn to identify and communicate the nine key elements of a business model: Customer Segments, Value Proposition, Channels, Customer Relationships, Key Resources, Key Activities, Key Partners, Revenue Streams, and Cost Structure.

Business Model Innovation (HEC Paris) and its Quick Reference Guide to Odyssey 3.14 Approach

This course gives you access to the Odyssey 3.14 approach, a pioneering framework that will help you invent or reinvent business models. It offers a practical and highly effective framework and toolbox to create, invent or reinvent business models in a very disciplined way.

Reinvent Your Business Model: Unlocking Transformational Growth (Harvard Business Review)

Mark Johnson, co-founder of strategic innovation consultancy Innosight led a live, interactive HBR webinar and explored how organizations in any industry can build a repeatable business model. He will show how to develop the capability of relentlessly focusing on unmet customer needs, keeping the influence of the core model in check to give new models a chance, and responding quickly to market shifts and platforms.

Three Levels of Business Models (Engage // Innovate)

Rita McGrath, a Professor at Columbia Business School; World’s Top 10 Business Thinker. Christian Rangen is a strategy & transformation advisor, Co-Founder of Engage // Innovate. The “Three Levels of Business Models” provides an easy-to-grasp design that would shift how leaders at all levels think about shifting from one to many business models.

Becoming An Entrepreneur: The Different Paths to Founder and CEO (eCornell)

Join this webinar co-hosted by the Johnson eClub at Cornell and Cornell SC Johnson College of Business to examine the pros and cons of the various types of entrepreneurship. You will get insider insight from successful founders and CEOs managing companies representing a variety of business models.

Startup Secrets: Vision, Mission, Culture Workshop featuring 3 case studies (Harvard i-lab)

Vision, mission, and culture are vital to your company - even at this early stage - do you know how to set yourself up for success? Michael Skok, a serial entrepreneur turned venture capitalist, will share best practices and case experiences for this foundational area of your venture. Viewers will learn: What it takes to form and build an enduring company. Understanding the crucial aspects of establishing a vision and mission. Establishing and operationalizing your culture to ensure your team has the tools to win.

Value Proposition Canvas Best Practices (Strategyzer)

The Value Proposition Canvas helps you design products and services that customers really want because it gets you to focus on what matters most to them. You won't find success with the tool though if you don't learn how to use it properly. In this session, Strategyzer co-founder Alex Osterwalder walks you through key best practices and techniques for getting the most out of the tool.

Mastering Value Propositions (Strategyzer)

Strategyzer co-founder Alex Osterwalder leads you through an exclusive session on the Value Proposition Canvas and our new online course on Value Proposition Design.

Ask Us Anything About Value Proposition Design (Strategyzer)

Value Proposition Design co-authors Alex Osterwalder & Gregory Bernarda answer audience questions on designing great value propositions.

The Basics of Testing Business Ideas (Strategyzer)

Strategyzer co-founder Alex Osterwalder shares some crucial basics to testing. This session includes important elements like how to select the best hypothesis, how to design experiments, how to run them, and how to learn from them.

Webinar with Steve Blank: Business Model Design For Mission Driven Organizations (Strategyzer)

Strategyzer co-founder Alex Osterwalder and Steve Blank chat about the Mission Model Canvas, a tool for organizations that value impact over revenue.

Ways to Present the Business Model Canvas (Strategyzer)

In this webinar recording, we walk you through best practices for using the Business Model Canvas when presenting your business ideas.

Get From Big Idea To A Validated Business Case (Strategyzer)

Testing Business Ideas co-authors, Alex Osterwalder, and David J. Bland are challenging themselves in front of a live audience. Alex and David will be coaching an entrepreneur to map, design, and assess a testing roadmap for a startup business model.

• Business Model Canvas Template (Download)(Strategyzer)

• Business Model Canvas Template (Online) (Miro.com)

You can search Harvard Business Review to learn more articles on this topic. You can also check if your university library has a subscription to the Business Source Complete database, which provides full-text access to Harvard Business Review articles, or use the library’s interlibrary loan service to access the article.

• Schlesinger, Len, et al. “BUSINESS MODELS: Reinventing the Direct-to-Consumer Business Model.” Harvard Business Review Digital Articles, Mar. 2020, pp. 1–5.

• Byrnes, Jonathan, and John Wass. “How to Create a Winning Post-Pandemic Business Model.” Harvard Business Review Digital Articles, Mar. 2021, pp. 1–7

• Kavadias, Stelios et al. “The Transformative Business Model.” Harvard Business Review, vol. 94, no. 10, Oct. 2016, pp. 90–98

Click the link to find a Worldcat book record; enter a zipcode to check which library nearby has the book you can borrow. When the record is not available, a link to Amazon is provided.

• Lewrick, Michael. Design Thinking for Business Growth: How to Design and Scale Business Models and Business Ecosystems. Wiley, 2022. Print.

• Osterwalder, Alexander, and Yves Pigneur. Business Model Generation: A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers, and Challengers. Hoboken, N.J: Wiley, 2013. Print.

• Osterwalder, Alexander, Yves Pigneur, and Greg Bernarda. Value Proposition Design: How to Create Products and Services Customers Want. Wiley, 2015. Print.

• Bland, David J, Alexander Osterwalder, Alan Smith, and Trish Papadakos. Testing Business Ideas. 2020. Print.

• Collins, James C. Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap...and Others Don't. New York, NY: Collins, 2009. Print.

• Collins, James C, and Jerry I. Porras. Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies. New York, NY: Collins, 2009. Print

• Osterwalder, Alexander. The Invincible Company: How to Constantly Reinvent Your Organization with Inspiration from the World's Best Business Models. Wiley, 2020. Print.

Find More Details or More Books on This Topic.

• Dr. Alexander Osterwalder invented the “Business Model Canvas,” the strategic management tool to design, test, build and manage business models used by companies like Coca-Cola, GE, P&G, Mastercard, Ericsson, LEGO, or 3M. He is a frequent keynote speaker in leading organizations and top universities worldwide, including Stanford, Berkeley, MIT, IESE, and IMD.

• Dr. Michael Lewrick (Zurich, Switzerland) holds an MBA and Ph.D. from Stanford and is Head of Deloitte Labs. His research interests center on the management issues related to the design, development, and commercialization of technological and business model innovation.

• Dr. Rita McGrath is a globally recognized expert on innovation and growth strategies with an emphasis on corporate entrepreneurship. She received the #1 achievement award in Strategy from the prestigious management rankings group Thinkers50 and is consistently ranked in the Top10.

• Laurence Lehmann-Ortega is an affiliate Professor of Strategic Management at HEC Paris. Her research focuses on strategic innovation (also called business model innovation), especially within incumbent firms in mature and low-tech industries. She is the co-author of “Odyssey 3.14 Reinvent your business model”, an original approach combining innovation and strategy.

SCORE mentors offer business model-related consultation via video, email, phone, or in-person.

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