Business Model Generation: A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers, and Challengers

Chapter 1. Canvas

The Business Model Canvas

A shared language for describing, visulizing, assesing; and changing business models

Def_Business Model

A business model describes the rationale of how an organization creates, delivers, and captures value

The starting point for any good discussion, meeting, or workshop on business model innovation should be a shared understanding of what a business model actually is. We need a business model concept that everybody understands: one that facilitates description and discussion. We need to start from the same point and talk about the same thing. The challenge is that the concept must be simple, relevant, and intuitively understandable, while not oversimplifying the complexities of how enterprises function.

In the following pages we offer a concept that allows you to describe and think through the business model of your organization, your competitors, or any other enterprise. This concept has been applied and tested around the world and is already used in organizations such as IBM, Ericsson, Deloitte, the Public Works and Government Services of Canada, and many more.

This concept can become a shared language that allows you to easily describe and manipulate business models to create new strategic alternatives. Without such a shared language it is difficult to systematically challenge assumptions about one's business model and innovate successfully. ...