strategic tool<\/em> that every entrepreneur must have. It represents how the company creates, delivers, and captures value. It can be seen as a large puzzle where each piece plays a fundamental role.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe individual pieces of this puzzle are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 Customer segments
\u2022 Value proposition
\u2022 Distribution channels
\u2022 Customer relationships
\u2022 Revenue from the sale of products\/services
\u2022 Key resources
\u2022 Key activities
\u2022 Key partners
\u2022 Cost structure<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To make things clearer, we can group these elements into 4 macro areas<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nStructure<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 Key activities<\/em>: the most important actions to implement the value proposition\u2014what you want to offer customers
\u2022 Key resources<\/em>: human, financial, physical, and intellectual resources
\u2022 Key partners<\/em>: supply and partnership relationships essential to optimize processes and best realize the value proposition. For example, business alliances, strategic partners, networks of investors and collaborators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nOffering<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Represented by the value proposition<\/strong>, which is what differentiates the company or startup from its competitors. The proposed offering is the reason why customers turn to your startup instead of others (products, innovation, image, meeting specific needs, cost reduction, etc.).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nCustomers<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 Customer segments<\/em>: It\u2019s essential to identify which customers you want to reach and serve. Potential customers can be segmented based on different needs or characteristics. These choices will inform the marketing and sales strategy. Markets or customers can be classified as:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\u2013 Mass market: no segmentation
\u2013 Niche market: segmented based on specific characteristics or needs
\u2013 Segmented market: for example, by gender, age, geography, or other features
\u2013 Diversified market: serving different markets (e.g., Amazon)
\u2013 Multi-sided platforms: serving interdependent customer segments (e.g., credit cards serving both cardholders and merchants)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 Distribution channels<\/em>: represent how the startup reaches its customer segments to deliver its value proposition. These can be direct (without intermediaries) or indirect (e.g., retailers, agents, wholesalers, distributors, etc.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n\u2022 Customer relationships<\/em>: Commercial success depends on the kind of relationship you want to build with your customers. There are various forms:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\u2013 Personal assistance: direct customer-company interaction during and after the sale
\u2013 Dedicated personal assistance: relationship managed by internal company staff
\u2013 Self-service
\u2013 Automated services: like self-service but more personalized, based on customer preferences (e.g., Amazon suggesting books)
\u2013 Community: a network enabling customers to connect and share knowledge
\u2013 Co-creation: customers directly contributing to the final product or service outcome<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nFinance<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 Cost structure<\/em>: Business models can be COST DRIVEN (focused on minimizing all costs) or VALUE DRIVEN (focused on creating value through services and products). Cost structures may include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\u2013 Fixed costs: do not change with production volume
\u2013 Variable costs: increase with production volume
\u2013 Economies of scale: total costs decrease as production volume increases
\u2013 Economies of scope: cost savings from jointly producing different products<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 Revenue streams<\/em>: originate from the sale of services and products and can include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\u2013 Asset sale: sale of a physical good
\u2013 Fee: sale of a service
\u2013 Subscription: continuous service sales
\u2013 Rental\/leasing: granting exclusive rights to a good for a set time
\u2013 Licensing: revenue from third-party use of intellectual property
\u2013 Brokerage fees
\u2013 Advertising<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nThe structured format aims to provide a practical and immediate framework<\/strong> for formulating this crucial entrepreneurial tool. Understanding how to deliver your value proposition in the market, how to produce and capture value, is the foundation of every startup\u2019s success.<\/p>\n\n\n\nEvery successful startup has clearly identified each element of this framework. To generate profits and survive in the market, it must first have a clear value proposition<\/strong>, and consequently, know the clients it wants to serve, how to relate to them, its partners and suppliers, distribution channels, activity and resource structure, and financial structure for generating positive cash flow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nReferences<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Business Model Generation (A Handbook For Visionaries, Game Changers And Challengers)<\/em>
Alexander Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur. John Wiley & Sons, 2010<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A definition of startup struck me for its expressive effectiveness: \u201cA startup is a small organization actively searching for a viable business model(But this search is ongoing also for established companies\u2026)\u201d. This sentence highlights the critical importance of implementing a business model, and even more so, of formulating it in the first place. What is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":11039,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[51,38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-communication","category-startup-eng"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.huky.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.huky.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.huky.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.huky.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.huky.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11333"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.huky.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11333\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11335,"href":"https:\/\/www.huky.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11333\/revisions\/11335"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.huky.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.huky.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.huky.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.huky.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}