Professional Documents
Culture Documents
How to use
Example
Cards
© InnoValor, 2018
Business Model Cards
Business Model Cards provide you with ideas for your current or Business model card game (3 to 5 players)
new business. The tool shows you many different existing
An existing business or a new idea should be used as starting
business models that others have already successfully tried and
point. Ask one of the attendees to explain or visualize the
implemented. Using the Business Model Cards, you can rethink
selected business or idea. Divide the cards randomly between all
and get inspiration for your business. It allows you to apply
players. Each player gets 5 minutes to choose 3 cards that they
proven ways to organise your business instead of having to start
feel would be the best fit for the business. The players then put
from scratch.
the cards on the table and briefly explain why they have chosen
the specific cards. The cards with the most convincing arguments
Tips for use can then be elaborated upon.
The Business Model Cards can be used individually but are most
Business analogy game (1 or more players)
effective if used by a group of people. The cards will stimulate
and provoke discussion about business model options, that you The cards are used in an open discussion. Use a whiteboard or a
never thought of before. large piece of paper. Write down your product, service or
proposition idea in the middle of the paper. You can also start
The Business Model Cards are a set of 52 cards. Together they
from a current proposition. Choose a random card and take 5
provide a deck full of business model options that have already
minutes to think about how to apply this business model to your
been used by others. On each card a business model is explained
case. Describe your solution in max three points on a sticky note
and illustrated with a real-life example on the back of the card.
and place them around the proposition. Repeat this exercise 3 to
5 times. Use the ingredients to build up your business model.
How to use
To stimulate the use of these cards in a creative and playful
manner we show two ways of how to use the cards.
© InnoValor, 2018
Example Uber
industry Transport In 2010 taxi drivers and taxi companies were startled. Previously,
a passenger was dependent on a taxi company with regular
products & Transport of people and fresh goods drivers. A lot of overhead and little flexibility drove up the prices
services in this market. Uber developed an application that enables
people to offer rides they already make as taxi rides. A so-called
peer-to-peer ride service. In addition, Uber also has a version of
size of 16,000 employees the app for professional drivers. Having drivers use an app by
business themselves reduces overhead significantly. Uber takes a
percentage of the ride fare for maintenance of the platform.
revenue $6.5 billion (2016)
Business Model Cards for Uber
location San Francisco Below, examples are provided about how we explored new
business options for Uber by showing the effect of some of the
Business Model Cards.
Cross-selling
Licensing
Bartering
Users do not pay a price, but other goods or services are directly
exchanged for the ride.
© InnoValor, 2018
business model cards
With miadidas, Adidas lets customers de- Geek Squad is an American-based com- Disney wants to stage a magical experi-
sign and purchase their own shoes and pany that provides technical home sup- ence for its guests, who are mostly fami-
apparel. The scheme enables people to port for various electronic devices. Elec- lies. The company provides the thrill of
customise shoes with various elements; tronics company Best Buy works with rides and staged entertainment. A key
they can mix and match colours and even Geek Squad to sell solution packages to part of the ambience is created by the lov-
have their own name printed on their consumers. When customers buy a PC able Disney characters with whom guests
shoes. from Best Buy, they get a Geek Squad war- can have their picture taken. Visitors pay
ranty that ensures maintenance and 24/7 to have a memorable experience.
technical support.
YouTube is the largest platform for video- Wikipedia is an online, free encyclopaedia In addition to purchasing certified organic
sharing. Registered users can upload con- that is published in many languages. Any- coffee, Starbucks is focusing on creating
tent and share it with friends or the public. one can contribute to the content of Wik- ‘green’ stores, which adjust store temper-
Others can view, rate, share and comment ipedia. A non-profit foundation estab- ature in order to save on air-conditioning.
on videos. YouTube earns most of its lished by volunteers, the Wikimedia Foun- The purchased furniture is made with 90%
money from the advertising placed dation, supports the platform. Donations recycled material and low-flow water
around the uploaded content. are the main revenue source. Wikipedia valves have been incorporated. This
contains millions of articles in 287 lan- makes the stores more environmentally
guages. friendly while reducing operating costs.
Philips Lighting is a global provider of in- Furniture provider IKEA offers low-cost Uber enables taxi drivers to connect with
novative LED lighting solutions. Philips of- furniture. The furniture is delivered to the passengers through a mobile app. The
fers light as a service, which means that store in flat packs that are cheaper to app shares location data with each party
customers pay for the light they use, while transport. The furniture stays in the flat and helps to conduct the transaction.
Philips remains the owner of all fixtures packs, because IKEA expects some work Uber charges its drivers a service fee for
and lamps. from the customer in order to keep prices the provision of the app.
low. Customers carry the flat packs home
and assemble the furniture themselves.
PatientsLikeMe helps patients to connect Aldi is a well-known chain of supermar- TomTom uses the traffic flow of millions
with others who have the same disease or kets that follows a strict no-frills ap- of mobile phone users and connected
condition and share their experiences. proach. The shops have a simple, undeco- TomTom devices. This real-time data is
This generates data about diseases that rated design. The range of products is lim- combined with other traffic information
can help researchers and companies to ited. Products are left in cardboard boxes sources, resulting in reliable traffic infor-
develop more effective medicine and care and on pallets along the aisles. Queueing mation that is also sold to third parties.
services. PatientsLikeMe sells these data at the checkout is common.
to these companies.
Spotify is an online music streaming ser- Peerby is a platform that allows people to When a customer purchases a book on
vice. Users can select songs from a vast borrow products from other people in Amazon.com, a list of recommended
catalogue. Some songs are popular and their neighbourhood. After signing up, us- books is shown. Amazon reports that
played by many, but most songs are only ers can offer or borrow products that they cross-selling leads to 35% of its sales.
played by a few users. The sheer number only need occasionally, such as drills or
of these less popular songs nevertheless cocktail glasses.
attracts many users, which accounts for a
substantial part of Spotify's revenues.
Barter means that products or In a lock-in model, a customer de- In a peer-to-peer model, individ-
services are directly traded for pends on a particular supplier for uals exchange products or ser-
other products or services. With products or services. Switching to vices directly with each other.
barter, there is no money in- another supplier is very costly or The matchmaking and exchange
volved in the trade. creates a lot of inconvenience. may be facilitated by an interme-
diary.
Noppes is an Amsterdam-based local bar- Apple effectively creates a customer lock- Airbnb provides an international platform
ter system. Noppes enables its users to in with its ecosystem, which includes for renting other people’s apartments and
trade all kinds of items with each other, smartphones, tablets, laptops, operating houses online, bringing supply and de-
including computer services, babysitting, systems, apps, and proprietary accessories mand together. On the one hand, it ena-
food and transportation. There is no such as power cables. If you switch to an bles people to earn extra money by rent-
money involved in the trading. Android smartphone or Windows PC, you ing out their property. On the other hand,
not only have to pay for the device, but it enables travellers to rent unique prop-
you also need to pay for the apps, music erties, save money and interact with lo-
and software again, not to mention the cals. Airbnb charges hosts a 10% commis-
time it takes to familiarise yourself with sion for every booking and an additional
the new system. 3% for payment processing.
Alibaba is the world’s biggest online e- Optomed is a Finnish medical technology Instead of operating large, separate post
commerce company. It has created Chi- company producing handheld retinal offices with limited opening hours, the
nese versions of online retailer Amazon cameras for eye-disease screening. The German postal service Deutsche Post has
(Tmall), online auction eBay (Taobao), dis- company has partnered with dozens of moved to many smaller offices in shop-
count website Groupon (Juhuasuan) and specialised eye-care providers around the ping centres and other convenient loca-
payment service Paypal (Alipay) world to create a global distribution net- tions.
work.
Omnichannel is about integrat- The ‘white label’ strategy means Versioning refers to the produc-
ing online and physical channels. that one company makes prod- tion of different versions of the
Customers can easily switch be- ucts or services that are then sold same product for different cus-
tween channels and enjoy a under another company’s brand. tomer segments, with different
seamless shopping experience. prices. Through versioning, com-
panies benefit from the idea that
different type of customers want
to pay different prices.
Belgian supermarket chain Carrefour Foxconn produces ‘white label’ goods and Microsoft has released no fewer than
launched 'Connected Kitchen', a service components for a variety of brands and re- seven different versions of Windows 10.
that allows customers to compose their tailers, such as Apple and Dell. Given the Versions range from a Home edition to a
shopping lists at home using a self-scan- high volume of goods, Foxconn has an ef- Pro edition and a Student edition. Each
ner. Customers scan products into their ficient production line, resulting in cheap version is targeted at a different user
shopping basket either by voice recogni- goods and quick production. Other organ- group, has different features and is priced
tion or by scanning the barcode. Once a isations can then sell the goods under differently. In this way, Microsoft can ad-
customer has completed their online or- their own brands, but without having to dress individual customers’ needs and
der, the groceries can be shipped to their set up their own production lines. charge different prices for different seg-
home or picked up at a local store. ments.
Fairzekering is an insurance company that Media Markt has created a combination of Pebble Time is a smartwatch maker that
offers customers a premium discount up physical store and web-shop experiences. raised over 1 million dollars in 2012 via
to 35% if they improve their driving be- The company focuses on service in its crowdfunding platform Kickstarter. Kick-
haviour. The driving behaviour is meas- physical stores, combining this with a suc- starter helps to bring creative projects to
ured by a device in the car. cessful web shop. life. Project creators choose a deadline
and a minimum funding goal. If the goal
is not met by the deadline, no funds are
collected; this provides a kind of assur-
ance. Kickstarter takes 5% of the funds
raised.
Nespresso applies the razor and blade Ryanair is a low-cost airline offering low- Humble Bundle offers bundles of games
model to its coffee machines and cups. cost flights with a minimum level of com- sold at a price determined by the pur-
Nespresso coffee machines are attrac- fort and service. The company makes its chaser. A portion of the revenue goes to
tively priced compared to other coffee basic service affordable for every cus- charity and the rest is split between the
machines, but the coffee cups that fit into tomer. However, customers pay extra for game developers and Humble Bundle.
the machine are expensive. Nespresso comfort upgrades and for additional ser-
generates a steady revenue stream from vices. In this way, the customer can con-
the repeated purchase of the required figure the total service package.
cups.
LinkedIn has a free version of its network- Groupon offers discount deals from (local) The Adobe suite is a package containing
ing service for finding and sharing profes- businesses, whereby businesses are pro- multiple software programs, such as Pho-
sional contacts and profiles. Anyone can moted to the public via Groupon’s plat- toshop, Illustrator, InDesign and AfterEf-
use the free version to create their own form. Groupon follows a ‘no cure, no pay’ fects. The total package, as well as its indi-
professional network. LinkedIn also offers strategy: the discount deal only goes vidual components, can be obtained via a
a premium version with more options for ahead when enough people take it up. software licence. It is only possible to use
contacting people, promoting your profile Groupon takes 50% of the revenue result- the programs if you purchase this licence.
or searching for a new job. Customers ing from the promotion. As part of the licence, the licensee always
have to pay for these premium features. gets the latest updates.
Affiliation is about creating sales With pay-per-use, a customer An auction is a process in which a
for others. A company sends visi- pays for the actual usage of a ser- product or service is sold to the
tors from its website to other vice. This model is only possible if highest bidder. Auctions can be
businesses’ websites. If the visi- usage can be measured in units used to select customers that are
tors buy a product there, the such as time, distance, number of willing to pay the highest price.
company gets a share of the rev- clicks, bytes, occasions or calls. Auctions are increasingly being
enue. held online.
A review site signs up as an Amazon affil- Car2Go is a car-sharing service that allows Princess Hotels is a hotel-only holiday
iate and starts driving traffic to Amazon. If customers to find and use available cars company. The company grew by offering
a visitor to the review site clicks on a prod- via an app. When they have finished using holiday deals through the auction site
uct link, he or she will be redirected to the the car, they can park it anywhere within Ebay. Although the initial transaction
Amazon website. If the visitor purchases a the operating area. Car2Go charges a one- made it little money, the company real-
product at Amazon, the affiliate (review time membership fee and a rate per mi- ised that customers would return directly
site) gets 4-8% of the revenue. nute. The rate is all-inclusive and covers to its website each time they wanted to
rental, gas, insurance, parking and book a subsequent holiday.
maintenance.
Advertising is about showing Dynamic pricing is a pricing strat- Bundling refers to the practice of
marketing messages on channels egy based on flexible prices. selling multiple products to-
such as TV, newspapers or the In- Prices may change depending on gether for a single price. Instead
ternet. The advertiser pays the external factors such as changes of buying separate products, cus-
owner of the channel a fee. The in competitor pricing or cus- tomers can buy a package, often
fee is based on the type of media, tomer demand. Mechanisms are at a discount. Providers can enjoy
the audience, and measures such needed to track these changes on economies of scope, i.e., selling
as number of clicks or views. a constant basis. multiple products at once.
Google AdWords helps companies to get TUI is a travel agency that uses dynamic Telecom operators such as Vodafone are
their advertisements a higher ranking on pricing. Prices are adapted to customer well known for bundling smartphones
the Google search page. Google AdWords demand. During holidays, demand is with a mobile subscription. They also pro-
matches search words to advertisements higher, so prices rise. When there is a risk vide subscription bundles with Internet
to make the latter relevant to search que- that a plane will take off half-empty, tick- access, television and landline services.
ries. As a result, companies achieve a ets are put on sale.
more prominent place on the Google
search page.
The online bookstore Barnes & Noble re- LEGO has created a platform where fans McDonald's is a global franchising com-
alised that the educated, middle-class con- can submit their ideas for new LEGO sets. pany (known as ‘McFranchise’). More than
sumers who sat around in cafes drinking With enough votes (above 10,000), the 80% of the restaurants are owned and op-
lattes were the same people who bought idea will be considered for production. erated by McDonald’s franchisees. New
books. They decided to collaborate with The LEGO Group makes all final decisions franchisees provide a portion of the re-
Starbucks and created the Barnes & Noble on the final model design, applicable li- quired initial capital in cash. In addition,
Café. In these cafés, Starbucks serves cof- cences, production run size, sales chan- franchisees pay a percentage of the sales
fee and Barnes & Noble sells books. This nels, etc. revenue.
resulted in more sales for both Barnes &
Noble and Starbucks.
Outsourcing involves contracting Insourcing occurs when a com- Orchestration refers to combin-
other companies to execute a pany takes back a certain busi- ing and coordinating the activi-
business process or activity that ness process, activity or asset that ties of independent parties with
was previously done by the com- had previously been assigned to the aim to provide a joint solu-
pany itself. Typically, non-core another party. The company tion for a problem or demand.
business processes are out- takes back control and avoids the
sourced. Outsourcing helps to hidden costs of outsourcing. In-
save costs and to focus on core sourcing also reduces tax and
activities. transportation costs.
Unilever is a multinational company sell- After years of offshore production, Gen- Nike orchestrates the Nike+ Fuel Lab: a
ing food, cleaning agents and personal eral Electric is moving some of its manu- partnership programme with technology
care products. Unilever is moving hun- facturing operations back to the United companies that aims to create better solu-
dreds of jobs in IT and finance to lower- States. Operating in low-income countries tions for athletes. Partners bring comple-
income countries such as Mexico and Po- is less advantageous than it was, as labour mentary expertise, products and services.
land. With the relocation of these activi- and shipping costs have gone up. At the
ties, Unilever wants to save costs and re- same time, product quality, time-to-mar-
main competitive. ket and reputation benefit from local pro-
duction.
Netflix maximises its monitoring of how Quirky is a social network for product de- Blendle is an online kiosk that provides ac-
users select and watch their video con- velopment. It collects product innovation cess to articles from a large number of
tent. With millions of users, this creates an ideas that might otherwise be lost. Users newspapers and magazines. Users can
enormous amount of data about viewer can submit product ideas and the Quirky search for articles and pay per article to
behaviour. This helps Netflix to provide community rate them. The selected ideas read them. Blendle gathers and aggre-
users with better recommendations and continue towards product development, gates articles for its users, based on users’
an improved viewing experience. It also with community members contributing to previous reading behaviour. Blendle also
helps the company to decide which new the development in every possible way. If provides a daily pick of articles and list of
series and movies to develop. Based on a product goes into production, Quirky trending articles.
these data, Netflix decided to make a US shares 30% of revenues with product cre-
version of House of Cards. ators.
NetJets offers its customers a share in Rent the Runway is a dress-rental website. Sennheiser is a large provider of audio
owning an aircraft. The share comes with Women can rent high-fashion dresses and equipment such as headphones, micro-
50 or more annual flight hours. The costs accessories on the website and have them phones and professional sound systems.
are lower than those associated with own- delivered to their home by courier. This One of Sennheiser’s key resources is its ex-
ing a whole aircraft and include a one- enables women to wear expensive clothes pertise in sound and systems. This exper-
time acquisition fee, a monthly manage- for special occasions without having to tise is offered externally via the Senn-
ment fee and a per-hour flight fee. buy and own them. heiser Sound Academy, in the form of
training and e-learning modules.
52 Dis-
intermediation
Disintermediation refers to short-
ening the supply chain by remov-
ing intermediate parties. Instead
of purchasing a product from a
store or intermediary, customers
can order the product directly
from the supplier or manufac-
turer.
Example Dell
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