3.3Business model & Business Model Canvas
The essentials in 30 seconds
- Business model = how the company creates and captures value (how it earns money).
- Canvas = that model summarized in 9 blocks on one page. Start with customers + value proposition.
- Reflex: connect each team task to a block: "which value do we contribute to?".
Running mini-case — Salim's SME business model
Salim's SME sells services to businesses with a heavily used customer service. The owner wants to grow: should they sell more at the same price, or sell premium support? Salim fills a simplified Canvas: customers = local SMEs, proposition = "reliable response in 24h", revenue = annual contracts, costs = ticket handling time. Verdict: double entry eats the margin — the real lever is there, not in a new logo.
This same case returns in the course, the diagram, the script and the 48h challenge.
1. Creating and capturing value
Understanding how the company creates and captures value — its business model — is essential to connect your work to overall performance. The Business Model Canvas (Osterwalder) offers a visual representation in 9 blocks describing on a single page how the company operates and earns money.
Think cooking recipe: customer segments are the guests, the value proposition the dish, channels the table service, revenue the bill and costs the ingredients. If a key ingredient is missing or the bill does not cover costs, the restaurant fails — even with good cooks. Salim thus checks that his "24h response" service is economically viable.
2. Describing, challenging, imagining
The 9 blocks: customer segments, value proposition, channels, customer relationships, revenue streams, key resources, key activities, key partners, cost structure. This tool is used to describe an existing model, to challenge it (where are fragilities, dependencies?) or to imagine new ones.
It gives a valuable big picture, including to align your team on what really creates value. Salim shows Lina and Karim: "each fast-handled ticket is our value proposition — and each double entry is our margin walking away".
🔎 Concrete example — Filling the Canvas (Salim's case)
To whom (segments)? Local subscribing SMEs.
Which value proposition? Reliable response within 24h.
How do we earn (revenue)? Annual contracts + support.
What does value cost (costs)? Handling time per ticket.
→ challenge: double entry = fragile block, phone-only dependency.Result: a big-picture view of the company on one page.
Lesson: connect the team's work to the value proposition and the margin.
Section vocabulary reinforced definitions
- Business model
- How a company creates, delivers and captures value.
Simple example: the SME earns money with annual contracts including fast support.
What it is not: revenue alone, without costs or proposition.
Reflex: ask "who pays, for what, and at what cost to us?".
- Business Model Canvas
- Business model summarized in 9 blocks on one page (Osterwalder).
Simple example: Salim's canvas fits on a whiteboard in 30 min.
What it is not: accounting software or an org chart.
Reflex: start with customers + proposition, end with revenue / costs.
- Value proposition
- What the company brings of value to the client: the heart of the model.
Simple example: "reliable response within 24h, no chasing needed".
What it is not: a list of technical features.
Reflex: state it as a one-sentence client benefit.
- Revenue / costs
- How the company earns money and what value costs: the economic equation.
Simple example: revenue = contracts; costs = time per ticket x volume.
What it is not: an accounting exercise reserved for finance people.
Reflex: spot the block eating the margin and quantify it simply.
In practice — Describing a model with the Canvas
- Fill the 9 blocks for your company (or a known one) on one page, in 30 min max.
- Start with the heart: customers + value proposition, then revenue / costs.
- Challenge: which blocks are fragile, dependent, costly? Where are the risks?
- Connect to your team: how does its work serve the proposition and the equation? Tell them.
Ready-to-say script — explaining the model to the team (2 min)
"We earn money with annual contracts because clients pay for a reliable response within 24h. Each well-handled ticket is our promise kept. Each double entry melts our margin. Hence our 2 priorities: removing double entry and testing WhatsApp. Do you see the link with your daily work?"
Show the canvas on the wall while you speak, point at each cited block.
Copy-paste template — express canvas
EXPRESS CANVAS — [company] — date: [DD/MM/YYYY]
CUSTOMERS: ... / PROPOSITION: ... (1 benefit sentence)
CHANNELS: ... / RELATIONSHIP: ...
REVENUE: ... / COSTS: ...
KEY RESOURCES: ... / KEY ACTIVITIES: ... / PARTNERS: ...
FRAGILITY #1: ... / LEVER: ... (who + when)
TEAM LINK: our work serves the ... block by doing ...Micro-business (2-3 people)
Canvas on one sheet: customers, promise, price, costs. One fragility handled at a time.
Remote / hybrid
Canvas shared online, everyone adds one sticky note per block before the sorting video call.
Algerian SME
Include cash / transfer payment, real channels (phone, WhatsApp, visits) and travel costs in the canvas.
Intercultural
Check that the value proposition means the same to all clients (speed? price? relationship?).
✓ Best practices
- Start with customers + value proposition.
- Challenge fragile or dependent blocks.
- Connect the team's work to created value.
✗ Common pitfalls
- Believing the Canvas is reserved for start-ups.
- Believing it is reserved for finance experts.
- Filling without connecting the blocks.
Key takeaways
- The business model describes how the company creates and captures value.
- The Canvas summarizes it in 9 blocks on one page.
- Heart: value proposition + customers + revenue / costs equation.
- It is used to describe, challenge or imagine — then to align the team.
48h challenge — apply tomorrow
Fill an express canvas of your activity in 30 min, identify 1 fragility + 1 lever, and explain to your team in 2 min how its work serves the value proposition.
- I can summarize our model in 9 blocks on one page.
- I identified 1 fragility and 1 lever quantified simply.
- I did the 48h challenge or scheduled its date.
Frequently asked questions
Is the Canvas only useful to start-ups?
No: it also sheds light on established companies (understanding the current model, spotting fragilities and evolutions). For a manager, it is a tool for understanding and meaning: seeing on one page how the company earns money helps prioritize and explain.
Do you need to be a finance expert to use it?
No: the Canvas is visual and accessible, with no complex math. Quantified aspects (revenue, costs) then connect to finance and budget concepts (level 4). It is a doorway, not an accounting exercise.
Salim wants to grow the SME. He first fills "partners" and "resources", with no word on customers. What advice?