Revisiting the Business Model Canvas as a Common Language

With the use of design thinking to address strategic business challenges, the concept of business model has gained traction. The business model canvas, introduced by Pigneur and Osterwalder in 2011, is a visual language for communicating about strategy. It helps structuring gained insights and transforming them into knowledge. It supports designing and validating strategic options efficiently and effectively. Early in the strategy design process, the lightweight business model, a simplified version of the business model canvas, supports the identification of the high-level characteristics on which a firm’s competitive positioning is defined. It helps identify what makes a firm in particular, competitors in general, and an industry as a whole, valuable and unique. The detailed business model, an extended version of the lightweight business model, supports successfully defining the details on how the strategy delivers value to customers in particular, and stakeholders in general. It simplifies the strategy design process and ensures that resources are focused on those aspects that matter most and non-value adding analysis are avoided.