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)
