Tim Brown, Executive Chair of IDEO, defined design thinking as “a human-centered approach to innovation that draws from the designer’s toolkit to integrate the needs of people, the possibilities of technology, and the requirements for business success.” Therefore, desirability, feasibility, and viability are balanced to solve critical problems.
The business model canvas aims to provide a keen understanding of your business model to provide strategic insights about your customers, product/service, and financial structure;
In this article, I’ll focus on the Blitzscaling business model canvas. This is a model based on the concept of Blitzscaling.
That is a particular process of massive growth under uncertainty, and that prioritizes speed over efficiency. It focuses on market domination to create a first-scaler advantage in a scenario of uncertainty.
Pretotyping is a mixture of the words “pretend” and “prototype,” and it is a methodology used to validate business ideas to improve the chances of building a product or service that people want.
The pretotyping methodology comes from Alberto Savoia’s work summarized in the book “The Right It: Why So Many Ideas Fail and How to Make Sure Yours Succeed.”
This framework is a mixture of the words “pretend” and “prototype,” and it helps to answer such questions (about the product or service to build) as: Would I use it? How, how often, and when would I use it? Would other people buy it? How much would they be willing to pay for it? How, how often, and when would they use it?
A blue ocean is a strategy where the boundaries of existing markets are redefined, and new uncontested markets are created.
At its core, there is value innovation, for which uncontested markets are created, where competition is made irrelevant. And the cost-value trade-off is broken.
Thus, companies following a blue ocean strategy offer much more value at a lower cost for the end customers.
Growth hacking is a process of rapid experimentation, coupled with the understanding of the whole funnel, where marketing, product, data analysis, and engineering work together to achieve rapid growth.
The growth hacking process goes through four key stages of analyzing, ideating, prioritizing, and testing.
Venture capitalist, Dave McClure, coined the acronym AARRR which is a simplified model that enables us to understand what metrics and channels to look at. At each stage for the users’ path toward becoming customers and referrers of a brand.
In the Lean Startup, Eric Ries defined the engine of growth as “the mechanism that startups use to achieve sustainable growth.”
He described sustainable growth as following a simple rule, “new customers come from the actions of past customers.”
The three engines of growth are the sticky engine, the viral engine, and the paid engine. Each of those can be measured and tracked by a few key metrics, and it helps plan your strategic moves.
The RTVN model is a straightforward framework that can help you design a business model when you’re at the very early stage of figuring out what you need to make it succeed.
A comparable company analysis is a process that enables the identification of similar organizations to be used as a comparison to understand the business and financial performance of the target company.
To find comparables, you can look at two key profiles: the business and economic profile. From the comparable company analysis, it is possible to understand the competitive landscape of the target organization.
Porter’s Five Forces is a model that helps organizations to gain a better understanding of their industries and competition.
It was published for the first time by Professor Michael Porter in his book “Competitive Strategy” in the 1980s.
The model breaks down industries and markets by analyzing them through five forces which you can use to have a first assessment of the market you’re in.
In his book, “Competitive Advantage,” in 1985, Porter conceptualized the concept of competitive advantage, by looking at two key aspects. Industry attractiveness, and the company’s strategic positioning. The latter, according to Porter, can be achieved either via cost leadership, differentiation, or focus.
In his 1985 book Competitive Advantage, Porter explains that a value chain is a collection of processes that a company performs to create value for its consumers. As a result, he asserts that value chain analysis is directly linked to competitive advantage. Porter’s Value Chain Model is a strategic management tool developed by Harvard Business School professor Michael Porter. The tool analyses a company’s value chain – defined as the combination of processes that the company uses to make money.
Porter’s Diamond Model is a diamond-shaped framework that explains why specific industries in a nation become internationally competitive while those in other nations do not. The model was first published in Michael Porter’s 1990 book The Competitive Advantage of Nations. This framework looks at the firm strategy, structure/rivalry, factor conditions, demand conditions, related and supporting industries.
Bowman’s Strategy Clock is a marketing model concerned with strategic positioning. The model was developed by economists Cliff Bowman and David Faulkner, who argued that a company or brand had several ways of positioning a product based on price and perceived value. Bowman’s Strategy Clock seeks to illustrate graphically that product positioning is based on the dimensions of price and perceived value.
The VMOST Analysis is a tool that allows a business to evaluate its core strategies in terms of whether the supporting activities of that strategy are being carried out. The VMOST analysis tries to answer that by looking at five core elements: vision, mission, objectives, strategies, and tactics.
The Fishbone Diagram is a diagram-based technique used in brainstorming to identify potential causes for a problem, thus it is a visual representation of cause and effect. The problem or effect serves as the head of the fish. Possible causes of the problem are listed on the individual “bones” of the fish. This encourages problem-solving teams to consider a wide range of alternatives.
The GE McKinsey Matrix was developed in the 1970s after General Electric asked its consultant McKinsey to develop a portfolio management model. This matrix is a strategy tool that provides guidance on how a corporation should prioritize its investments among its business units, leading to three possible scenarios: invest, protect, harvest, and divest.
The VRIO framework is a tool that businesses can use to identify and then protect the factors that give them a long-term competitive advantage. The VRIO framework will help assess reality based on four key elements that make up its name (VRIO): value, rarity, imitability, and organization. VRIO is a holistic framework to assess the business.
The 3C Analysis Business Model was developed by Japanese business strategist Kenichi Ohmae. The 3C Model is a marketing tool that focuses on customers, competitors, and the company. At the intersection of these three variables lies an effective marketing strategy to gain a potential competitive advantage and build a lasting company.
AIDA stands for attention, interest, desire, and action. This is a model that is used in marketing to describe the potential journey a customer might go through, before purchasing a product or service. The variation of the AIDA model is the CAB model and the AIDCAS model.
The PESTEL analysis is a framework that can help marketers assess whether macro-economic factors are affecting an organization.
This is a critical step that helps organizations identify potential threats and weaknesses. That can be used in other frameworks such as SWOT or to gain a broader and better understanding of the overall marketing environment.
The technology adoption curve is a model that goes through five stages. Each of those stages (innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, and laggard) has a specific psychographic that makes that group of people ready to adopt a tech product.
A Business Model Essence, according to FourWeekMBA, is a way to find the critical characteristics of any business to have a clear understanding of that business in a few sentences.
That can be used to analyze existing businesses. Or to draft your Business Model and keep a strategic and execution focus on the key elements to be implemented in the short-medium term.
An effective business model has to focus on two dimensions: the people dimension and the financial dimension. The people dimension will allow you to build a product or service that is 10X better than existing ones and a solid brand.
The financial dimension will help you develop proper distribution channels by identifying the people that are willing to pay for your product or service and make it financially sustainable in the long run.
Understanding your TAM, SAM and SOM can help you navigate the market you’re in and to have a laser focus on the market you can reach with your product and service.
Brand building is the set of activities that help companies to build an identity that can be recognized by its audience. Thus, it works as a mechanism of identification through core values that signal trust and that help build long-term relationships between the brand and its key stakeholders.
A value proposition is about how you create value for customers. While many entrepreneurial theories draw from customers’ problems and pain points, a value can also be created via demand generation, which is about enabling people to identify with your brand, thus generating demand for your products and services.
Marc Andreessen defined Product/market fit as “being in a good market with a product that can satisfy that market.” According to Andreessen, that is a moment when a product or service has its place in the market, thus enabling traction for the company offering that product or service.
An organizational structure allows companies to shape their business model according to several criteria (like products, segments, geography and so on) that would enable information to flow through the organizational layers for better decision-making, cultural development, and goals alignment across employees, managers, and executives.
As pointed out by Eric Ries a minimum viable product is that version of a new product which allows a team to collect the maximum amount of validated learning about customers with the least effort.
A SWOT Analysis is a framework used for evaluating the business’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. It can aid in identifying the problematic areas of your business so that you can maximize your opportunities. It will also alert you to the challenges your organization might face in the future.
Revenue modeling is a process of incorporating a sustainable financial model for revenue generation within a business model design. Revenue modeling can help to understand what options make more sense in creating a digital business from scratch; alternatively, it can help in analyzing existing digital businesses and reverse engineer them.
Business experiments help entrepreneurs test their hypotheses. Rather than define the problem by making too many hypotheses, a digital entrepreneur can formulate a few assumptions, design experiments, and check them against the actions of potential customers. Once measured, the impact, the entrepreneur, will be closer to define the problem.
Business analysis is a research discipline that helps driving change within an organization by identifying the key elements and processes that drive value. Business analysis can also be used in Identifying new business opportunities or how to take advantage of existing business opportunities to grow your business in the marketplace.
In the 1970s, Bruce D. Henderson, founder of the Boston Consulting Group, came up with The Product Portfolio (aka BCG Matrix, or Growth-share Matrix), which would look at a successful business product portfolio based on potential growth and market shares. It divided products into four main categories: cash cows, pets (dogs), question marks, and stars.
You can use the Ansoff Matrix as a strategic framework to understand what growth strategy is more suited based on the market context. Developed by mathematician and business manager Igor Ansoff, it assumes a growth strategy can be derived by whether the market is new or existing, and the product is new or existing.
Affiliate marketing describes the process whereby an affiliate earns a commission for selling the products of another person or company. Here, the affiliate is simply an individual who is motivated to promote a particular product through incentivization. The business whose product is being promoted will gain in terms of sales and marketing from affiliates.
As the name suggests, ambush marketing raises awareness for brands at events in a covert and unexpected fashion. Ambush marketing takes many forms, one common element, the brand advertising their products or services has not paid for the right to do so. Thus, the business doing the ambushing attempts to capitalize on the efforts made by the business sponsoring the event.
Brand building is the set of activities that help companies to build an identity that can be recognized by its audience. Thus, it works as a mechanism of identification through core values that signal trust and that help build long-term relationships between the brand and its key stakeholders.
The brand equity is the premium that a customer is willing to pay for a product that has all the objective characteristics of existing alternatives, thus, making it different in terms of perception. The premium on seemingly equal products and quality is attributable to its brand equity.
Brand positioning is about creating a mental real estate in the mind of the target market. If successful, brand positioning allows a business to gain a competitive advantage. And it also works as a switching cost in favor of the brand. Consumers recognizing a brand might be less prone to switch to another brand.
Business storytelling is a critical part of developing a business model. Indeed, the way you frame the story of your organization will influence its brand in the long-term. That’s because your brand story is tied to your brand identity, and it enables people to identify with a company.
Content marketing is one of the most powerful commercial activities which focuses on leveraging content production (text, audio, video, or other formats) to attract a targeted audience. Content marketing focuses on building a strong brand, but also to convert part of that targeted audience into potential customers.
A digital channel is a marketing channel, part of a distribution strategy, helping an organization to reach its potential customers via electronic means. There are several digital marketing channels, usually divided into organic and paid channels. Some organic channels are SEO, SMO, email marketing. And some paid channels comprise SEM, SMM, and display advertising.
Growth marketing is a process of rapid experimentation, which in a way has to be “scientific” by keeping in mind that it is used by startups to grow, quickly. Thus, the “scientific” here is not meant in the academic sense. Growth marketing is expected to unlock growth, quickly and with an often limited budget.
Guerrilla marketing is an advertising strategy that seeks to utilize low-cost and sometimes unconventional tactics that are high impact. First coined by Jay Conrad Levinson in his 1984 book of the same title, guerrilla marketing works best on existing customers who are familiar with a brand or product and its particular characteristics.
Inbound marketing is a marketingstrategy designed to attract customers to a brand with content and experiences that they derive value from. Inbound marketing utilizes blogs, events, SEO, and social media to create brand awareness and attract targeted consumers. By attracting or “drawing in” a targeted audience, inbound marketing differs from outbound marketing which actively pushes a brand onto consumers who may have no interest in what is being offered.
Integrated marketing describes the process of delivering consistent and relevant content to a target audience across all marketing channels. It is a cohesive, unified, and immersive marketing strategy that is cost-effective and relies on brand identity and storytelling to amplify the brand to a wider and wider audience.
The marketing mix is a term to describe the multi-faceted approach to a complete and effective marketing plan. Traditionally, this plan included the four Ps of marketing: price, product, promotion, and place. But the exact makeup of a marketing mix has undergone various changes in response to new technologies and ways of thinking. Additions to the four Ps include physical evidence, people, process, and even politics.
Marketing personas give businesses a general overview of key segments of their target audience and how these segments interact with their brand. Marketing personas are based on the data of an ideal, fictional customer whose characteristics, needs, and motivations are representative of a broader market segment.
Multichannel marketing executes a marketing strategy across multiple platforms to reach as many consumers as possible. Here, a platform may refer to product packaging, word-of-mouth advertising, mobile apps, email, websites, or promotional events, and all the other channels that can help amplify the brand to reach as many consumers as possible.
Multi-level marketing (MLM), otherwise known as network or referral marketing, is a strategy in which businesses sell their products through person-to-person sales. When consumers join MLM programs, they act as distributors. Distributors make money by selling the product directly to other consumers. They earn a small percentage of sales from those that they recruit to do the same – often referred to as their “downline”.
A microniche is a subset of potential customers within a niche. In the era of dominating digital super-platforms, identifying a microniche can kick off the strategy of digital businesses to prevent competition against large platforms. As the microniche becomes a niche, then a market, scale becomes an option.
Relationship marketing involves businesses and their brands forming long-term relationships with customers. The focus of relationship marketing is to increase customer loyalty and engagement through high-quality products and services. It differs from short-term processes focused solely on customer acquisition and individual sales.
Sustainable marketing describes how a business will invest in social and environmental initiatives as part of its marketing strategy. Also known as green marketing, it is often used to counteract public criticism around wastage, misleading advertising, and poor quality or unsafe products.
Business Glossary Recap
Design Thinking: A human-centered approach to innovation that balances desirability, feasibility, and viability to solve critical problems.
Business Model Canvas: A tool for understanding and strategizing a business model by analyzing customers, products/services, and financial structure.
Blitzscaling Canvas: A model focused on rapid growth under uncertainty, prioritizing speed over efficiency for market domination.
Pretotyping: A methodology to validate business ideas and improve the chances of building products or services that people want.
Value Innovation and Blue Ocean Strategy: Creating new uncontested markets and breaking the cost-value trade-off for competitive advantage.
Growth Hacking Process: A process of rapid experimentation, combining marketing, product, data analysis, and engineering to achieve rapid growth.
Pirate Metrics (AARRR): A simplified model for analyzing user paths towards becoming customers and referrers.
Engines of Growth: Mechanisms used by startups to achieve sustainable growth, such as sticky, viral, and paid engines.
RTVN Model: A simple framework to design a business model at the early stage of a startup.
Sales Cycle: The process that a company takes to sell its services and products, leading up to a closed sale.
Comparable Analysis: Identifying similar organizations for comparison to understand the performance of a target company.
Porter’s Five Forces: A model to gain a better understanding of industries and competition by analyzing five forces.
Porter’s Generic Strategies: Business strategies based on cost leadership, differentiation, or focus.
Porter’s Value Chain: A collection of processes that create value for customers, leading to competitive advantage.
Porter’s Diamond Model: Explains why specific industries become internationally competitive.
Bowman’s Strategy Clock: A model for strategic positioning based on price and perceived value.
VMOST Analysis: A tool to evaluate and analyze vision, mission, objectives, strategies, and tactics.
Fishbone Diagram: A visual representation of cause and effect used in brainstorming.
GE McKinsey Matrix: A tool for prioritizing investments among business units.
VRIO Framework: Evaluates factors that give a company a competitive advantage (value, rarity, imitability, organization).
3C Analysis: Focuses on customers, competitors, and the company to develop an effective marketing strategy.
AIDA Model: A marketing model describing a customer’s journey before purchasing a product or service.
PESTEL Analysis: A framework to assess macro-economic factors affecting an organization.
Technology Adoption Curve: Identifies stages of tech product adoption by different groups of users.
Business Model Essence: Helps analyze existing businesses or draft a business model concisely.
FourWeekMBA Business Model Framework: Focused on people dimension and financial dimension for sustainable growth.
Brand Building: Activities to build a brand identity recognizable by the target audience.
Value Proposition Design: Creating value for customers through demand generation and satisfaction.
Product-Market Fit: Achieving a good market with a product that satisfies that market.
Freemium Decision Model: A decision-making framework for the freemium business model.
Organizational Design and Structures: Shaping business model and decision-making structures.
Speed-Reversibility Matrix: Helps determine whether to focus on speed or reversibility in business decisions.
Minimum Viable Product: The version of a new product that allows learning about customers with the least effort.
SWOT Analysis: Evaluates an organization’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
Revenue Modeling: Incorporates a sustainable financial model for revenue generation in a business.
Business Experimentation: Testing hypotheses to define and solve problems effectively.
Business Analysis: Identifying key elements and processes to drive value within an organization.
BCG Matrix: Analyzes a product portfolio based on growth potential and market shares.
Ansoff Matrix: A strategic framework based on market and product expansion.
Affiliate Marketing: Earning a commission by selling another person or company’s products.
Ambush Marketing: Covert advertising to raise brand awareness at events without paying for sponsorship.
Brand Equity: The premium customers are willing to pay for a product due to brand perception.
Brand Positioning: Creating a mental space in the target market’s mind for the brand.
Business Storytelling: Developing a brand identity and story for better identification and engagement.
Content Marketing: Leveraging content to attract a targeted audience and convert them into customers.
Digital Marketing: Utilizing digital channels for marketing activities, including organic and paid methods.
Growth Marketing: Rapid experimentation for fast growth on a limited budget.
Guerrilla Marketing: Utilizing low-cost and unconventional tactics to raise brand awareness.
Inbound Marketing: Attracting customers through valuable content and experiences.
Integrated Marketing: Delivering consistent and relevant content across all marketing channels.
Marketing Mix (Four Ps): Price, product, promotion, and place – the core elements of a marketing plan.
Marketing Personas: Creating fictional representations of target audience segments.
Multi-Channel Marketing: Executing marketing strategies across multiple platforms to reach a wider audience.
Multi-Level Marketing (MLM): A strategy where individuals act as distributors and make money through direct sales and recruiting others.
Niche Marketing: Focusing on a specific subset of potential customers within a niche market.
Relationship Marketing: Building long-term relationships with customers to increase loyalty and engagement.
Sustainable Marketing (Green Marketing): Incorporating social and environmental initiatives in marketing strategy.
Technology Adoption Curve: Identifying stages of tech product adoption by different groups of users.
Brand Building: Activities to build a brand identity recognizable by the target audience.
Brand Equity: The premium customers are willing to pay for a product due to brand perception.
Brand Positioning: Creating a mental space in the target market’s mind for the brand.
Business Storytelling: Developing a brand identity and story for better identification and engagement.
Content Marketing: Leveraging content to attract a targeted audience and convert them into customers.
Digital Marketing: Utilizing digital channels for marketing activities, including organic and paid methods.
Growth Marketing: Rapid experimentation for fast growth on a limited budget.
Guerrilla Marketing: Utilizing low-cost and unconventional tactics to raise brand awareness.
Inbound Marketing: Attracting customers through valuable content and experiences.
Integrated Marketing: Delivering consistent and relevant content across all marketing channels.
Marketing Mix (Four Ps): Price, product, promotion, and place – the core elements of a marketing plan.
Marketing Personas: Creating fictional representations of target audience segments.
Multi-Channel Marketing: Executing marketing strategies across multiple platforms to reach a wider audience.
Multi-Level Marketing (MLM): A strategy where individuals act as distributors and make money through direct sales and recruiting others.
Niche Marketing: Focusing on a specific subset of potential customers within a niche market.
Relationship Marketing: Building long-term relationships with customers to increase loyalty and engagement.
Sustainable Marketing (Green Marketing): Incorporating social and environmental initiatives in marketing strategy.
Brand Building: Activities to build a brand identity recognizable by the target audience.
Brand Equity: The premium customers are willing to pay for a product due to brand perception.
Brand Positioning: Creating a mental space in the target market’s mind for the brand.
Business Storytelling: Developing a brand identity and story for better identification and engagement.
Content Marketing: Leveraging content to attract a targeted audience and convert them into customers.
Digital Marketing: Utilizing digital channels for marketing activities, including organic and paid methods.
Growth Marketing: Rapid experimentation for fast growth on a limited budget.
Guerrilla Marketing: Utilizing low-cost and unconventional tactics to raise brand awareness.
Inbound Marketing: Attracting customers through valuable content and experiences.
Integrated Marketing: Delivering consistent and relevant content across all marketing channels.
Marketing Mix (Four Ps): Price, product, promotion, and place – the core elements of a marketing plan.
Marketing Personas: Creating fictional representations of target audience segments.
Multi-Channel Marketing: Executing marketing strategies across multiple platforms to reach a wider audience.
Multi-Level Marketing (MLM): A strategy where individuals act as distributors and make money through direct sales and recruiting others.
Niche Marketing: Focusing on a specific subset of potential customers within a niche market.
Relationship Marketing: Building long-term relationships with customers to increase loyalty and engagement.
Sustainable Marketing (Green Marketing): Incorporating social and environmental initiatives in marketing strategy.
Technology Adoption Curve: Identifying stages of tech product adoption by different groups of users.
Business Model Essence: Helps analyze existing businesses or draft a business model concisely.
FourWeekMBA Business Model Framework: Focused on people dimension and financial dimension for sustainable growth.
TAM, SAM, and SOM: Understanding the Total Addressable Market, Serviceable Addressable Market, and Serviceable Obtainable Market for better market focus.
Brand Building: Activities to build a brand identity recognizable by the target audience.
Value Proposition Design: Creating value for customers through demand generation and satisfaction.
Product-Market Fit: Achieving a good market with a product that satisfies that market.
Freemium Decision Model: A decision-making framework for the freemium business model.
Organizational Design and Structures: Shaping business model and decision-making structures.
Speed-Reversibility Matrix: Helps determine whether to focus on speed or reversibility in business decisions.
Minimum Viable Product: The version of a new product that allows learning about customers with the least effort.
SWOT Analysis: Evaluates an organization’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
Gennaro is the creator of FourWeekMBA, which reached about four million business people, comprising C-level executives, investors, analysts, product managers, and aspiring digital entrepreneurs in 2022 alone | He is also Director of Sales for a high-tech scaleup in the AI Industry | In 2012, Gennaro earned an International MBA with emphasis on Corporate Finance and Business Strategy.
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