So how is your business model? Or do you have one..?

Whether you like it or not, or whether you know it or not, you have a business model, albeit an efficient or inefficient one. And maybe you have read about the many theoretical models out there that you can apply to your business and possibly have done already.. And if you did, the question I have is how successful was it for you? Probably not overly!

The problem with choosing an off the shelf Business Model

There is a lot of controversy about the value of a business model for the day to day running of the business and there are many different theoretical models you can work from

  • Agile
  • Sales
  • Supply chain
  • Internally driven
  • Externally driven
  • Technology driven
  • ….

And then the question is which one suits YOUR business. My problem with all these models is that yes you could be a technology driven business, but also an externally one,  and then you also need to worry about a supply chain and which one works for you.. Sometimes its like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole and the consequence of that is not having a model that is effective for your needs. This is a huge problem for small to medium enterprises that try to do everything by the book and then struggle to fit the business correctly. But the problem is, there is no one size fits all approach to business and then what will work today may not work tomorrow. Succeeding in business is all about being flexible to change and iterating the model so it gets more effective over time.

Making it Specific

With that it’s much better starting with a framework that you can keep testing and let it systematically evolve into something that works for

  • YOUR Business
  • YOUR Team(s)
  • YOUR Customers
  • YOUR Market

Then start defining your

  • Value CREATION processes
  • Value FULFILLMENT processes

So you can then COLLECT the revenue you rightly deserve from you customers

Commence with an understanding of the fundamentals, that is the main elements and how they add value to your business requirements!

 

 

Business Model Performance Video Script

Hi Shay Lynch here
director of Future State.

Today I wanna focus on
your Business Model.

What are you doing today
to ensure you’re giving your business the best chance
of success going forward?

No matter what the economic
climate or trading climate is things are always going to be difficult.
There will always be curve balls.

So it’s very important for you as a business and if you’re a leader
in a business to ensure

you’re giving it the
best chance of success.

So what does that mean?

Well to give you an example when I worked with a client
and sometimes that’s an open ended book

where they say Shay can you come in

and tell us what we need to improve on?

They may not give me a
specific problem to solve

like in terms of improving
sales conversion

operational efficiencies or
supplier partner effectiveness.

So with that I will break it down

their business into
maybe six key elements

and there could be a few more depending on

the type of business and
the niche that they’re in.

But in general I break down to six areas

and I’ll go through each
one in a little bit

just to tell you how bad
I started asking questions

to delve into the situation
to see what I can do.

To see is there an understanding here

that I need to work with?

So I always start with The
Leader first and foremost

because whether the leader is influencing

or not in the business

I do believe there’s potential
to be a very strong leader.

So I discuss this with the
Senior Management Team

not just with the leader

and then I will talk to the leader.

Then we’ll talk about
what their strengths are

and then what gaps there are

so then we can work on improving

whatever the business
requires that leader to be

and that’s not a
onesizefitsall that will vary.

So we will work closely to discover

where the leader is today and
where the leader should be

and that’s not just the pie in the sky

or our leaders should be X Y and Z.

No it’s specific and
unique to the business

and the market requirements

and especially when we talk about

the people in the business.

So we spend a bit of time
working on the leader

and that could involve
the leadership team

depending on the size
of your business too.

The next thing I talk about is Strategy.

So first two things.

This is like a chronological order

that I work with.

Strategy what is the Business Strategy?

More often than not a
lot of companies I find

because things are so crazy so busy

they don’t have time to
strategize their business.

So they’re just going from
day to day week to week

month to month and they
have a model that works.

That’s fine so why
then trying to uncover

what is the benefit of having a strategy?

Unless if you know me I
always believe in the strategy.

So again the question I need to find out

where are they today

and where I believe they need to be.

This is not just me thinking

this is working with them
to see what are the gaps.

So Strategy second point to Strategy.

Then I go on to People

because if you’re not
looking after your people

in your business you’re absolutely

not looking after your business.

It’s your people that make
your business look after them

and they look after your customers

your suppliers and processes within it.

The key is always
strongperforming processes run

by strongperforming people.

So then I work with

all the different things
within the business

depending on how big or small it is

and discover what the gap is
where the people are today

and where they need to be.

Are they just coming in and
changing time for money?

Are they coming in because
they believe in the same vision

and strategy as the leader?

It’s a gap assessment

that I do to see where they are today

where they need to be.

Then I look at Process because

these are chronological
order that I work with

in terms of the internal
parts of the business.

I look at the Process

in terms of the systematic
approach to business

that I always talk about

and how we measure and
work and standardize

and ensure no matter
who’s doing a process

anyone can do it the same way

and get the same results

because they have a standard in place.

I look at where they are today

what is the gap and where they need to be.

Then we start going on to the external

the extended business right?

Then I look at The Customer

and that really then

feeds back into certain sales processes

and the people within that process

and how do we make sure that
we’re giving our customers

what they want and we’re
adding value above and beyond

and we’re adding value to as
many clients as we possibly can

by delivering on our promise to them.

The gap where are we today

where we need to be and then finally

we talk about our Supplier Partners.

Do you treat them like suppliers

or are they the extended
arm in your business?

We’re working on the gap.

So the whole point is to gap assessment

and this gap assessment is
not a onesizefitsall.

It’s for you to design

the parameters that
criterion the variables

that you should consider
when you’re doing this

because there’s no rocket science to this.

This is all about
understanding where you are

what you can improve on

and once that I’ve done all of this

to all the different areas
I spend a week or two maybe

going through all this talking
to as many people as I can

to build up my assessment

then define where are the areas

in their business that
they need most of it.

That is it.

I prioritize and that’s a
combination of understanding

the market pains the business pains

and weighting certain criteria in terms of

how important it is or
not for the business.

So there’s a number of factorial levels

within this to get it right

but the reason why I’m
telling you all this is

this is nothing you cannot do yourself

because the goal of any business model

is to continue to improve.

As I keep saying if you’re
not improving in business

you are going backwards

and with economic
climates not being stable

like for a long time you know

you need to understand what

how can you survive in an
unstable market for a long time?

So it’s important to understand

how do you build your business for success

in the worst case scenario

because when you can do that

then you can thrive in the good times.

So it’s all embedded on understanding

how you can improve each one individually

and that they all improve together.

Now you may have noticed in the video

that all the main elements
Leader Strategies

Process Suppliers and People are in black.

I put Customers in green

and there is a reason for this

because one thing I
always like to highlight

to my customers is

customers are the only

revenue generating part of your business

everything else is a cost.

So this just really helps

to put things in perspective
for my customers to show

this has to be all uber effective
to make sure that works.

I make sure the business
strives at good times and bad.

So all the work that needs to
be done there to optimize it

and make sure it’s leading
delivering on its promise

to make sure you’ve
got fantastic customers

that are adding value to your
business as well as theirs.

So what I wanna to say to
the final closing comments

are that you if you’re a leader

or you’re a business manager
within your business

there is absolutely

no reason why you can’t do this yourself.

You don’t have to get it
right in the beginning

get it started break
it down into these areas

and start saying what are we doing well?

What are we not doing well?

It’s just simple.

Start with those simple questions

and then you can start
building on that as you go

but you won’t get it right
until you get it started

and that is the key.

I hope this makes sense

and if you have any
questions get in touch

but in the meantime this is

Shay Lynch saying thanks for listening.

(upbeat music)