Our New Business Model Blueprint

Uncover New Opportunities with the Business Model Blueprint

If your business needs a refresh or a boost, capturing ‘today’s reality’ in this 1-page business model template is a great way to get started. I created this template and use it with every business I talk to. It’s available to anyone who wants to use it for themselves or with their clients.  And now, it’s finally in a spiffy new format that’s an easy-to-use editable PDF form available for download on our homepage.

For anyone who likes the Business Model Canvas by Osterwalder and Pigneur, you’ll notice the familiarity, and I think you’ll love the changes we made—especially that it’s so easy to fill-in and edit. I added space to identify the business purpose, customer needs and differentiation, and revised some of the language to make it more user-friendly. These are the core reasons I remade the original into my own version.

If you’re new to the idea of documenting your business model, here’s the gist. The business model is the ‘formula’ for how the business creates value—it represents all the main drivers at a 40 thousand-foot view. It’s much easier to analyze and see new opportunities when all the moving parts are spread in front of you in one easy-to-take-in visual table. It captures information on vision, customer needs, product, marketing, operations and finance. Anyone who wants a lean approach to strategy and innovation should start by looking at their business model in this 1-page template.

Business models become outdated as internal and external factors change over time, so it’s necessary to make changes. To be vibrant and sustainable, businesses need to update their business model, not just products, services or marketing alone.  And thus, we also created a set of questions to evaluate your business model and identify target areas. This will help you think about things like changing customer expectations, changing demographics and trends, leveraging the latest technologies, dealing with workforce trends and aligning with new strategic partners.  

You can download Align’t Business Model Blueprint on our resources page.

What's Your Innovation Capacity?

How important is innovation in your company?

Strong business performance today could come at the expense of innovation that strengthens your business tomorrow.  Can your company do both— innovate for tomorrow, and deliver strong operational performance today?

It’s easy for a successful company to get stuck in the status quo, even when it’s breaking new ground. Say what??  Innovation thought leaders call this incrementalism: making small changes to existing products and processes to grow.  And, the more successful the company, the more it may resist innovation.  Huh? 

Even when a company introduces something new, there’s a good chance it’s emerged from the realm of expected - incremental and ordinary.  Sometimes this is the correct approach and it’s absolutely what you need to resolve difficult challenges. But there is a fundamental conflict between maintaining the business and experimenting with new things.  For that reason, many companies feel they must play it safe.  When companies perform well, they are lulled into incrementalism: thinking they’re safe and asking ‘why fix what’s not broken?’ Persistent problems are tolerated.  Complex or ambiguous opportunities are avoided. 

However, persistent problems exist because, by their nature they’re complicated, cross many departments or boundaries, and are often entrenched in a system of the status quo.  Perhaps you have a good idea that could resolve the problem—and the bigger issue is vetting it thoughtfully and building traction for it.   Or, perhaps your team has been ‘noodling on it’ for a long time and you’ve accepted that ‘it’s just the way it is.’  When most companies accept a situation as ‘just that way,’ that is precisely the time for YOUR company to reject that limiting belief. (Think Uber, Whole Foods and Hulu.)

Even if you do commit to experimentation or Big Hairy Audacious Goals, you might wonder how you could possibly use emerging technologies as a solution. How can you deploy new technologies when you haven’t the time or expertise to truly explore their relevance, or think creatively about how they could impact your business?

If the problem of incrementalism resonates for you, you might be a great candidate for a Spark Circle.  

If you have the ultimate responsibility for business growth, strategy and the overall vibrancy and relevance in your market, then you need a place where you can not only spark new ideas, but wrestle with knowledge, skills, and abilities that will overcome the systemic issues blocking breakthroughs.    

SOOOOOOOO, check your innovation capacity.  Tell us what you think and help shape the design of new programs at Align.   

Take this short survey to measure your strength related to balancing innovation with performance.

We'll use this information as we finalize the design of our new spark circles program! 

Interested in the Spark Circle?  Read more here.

Strategy Sprint Creates Momentum

Use a Strategy Sprint to Create Momentum for Growth

We’ve developed a process to move from ideas to action in about 8 weeks. If you’re not sure how to grow your business, improve performance, or capitalize on disruptive forces, the strategy sprint will guide you to the answers.   

The key to success is having a solid plan and carrying it out effectively.  The strategy sprint creates the foundation for both.  

But, a plan that sits on the shelf is not our goal.  Instead, we provide an experience that energizes, strategic options that are impactful, and support through the planning stage to results.  This is something you and your team will enjoy—really. 

Strategy doesn’t need to be onerous.  It’s a balance of creative and analytical work. It’s a simple concept really— know where you are, envision where you want to go, and identify the right steps to get there. The strategy sprint is also a simple idea. It applies the 80-20 rule and is designed to ‘hit the high points’ while getting you to the finish line quickly.  (Saying yes to this, means you’ll actually get this off your to-do list this year!)

It’s an efficient, yet systemic way to turn ideas into action.  We use it to identify strategic objectives based on your strengths, your customers, and the market. Then we prototype simple ways to test feasibility and impact. Finally, we help you set up accountability and progress measures.   The process is built around our Business Model Blueprint and techniques we’ve borrowed from the field of human-centered design.  

Strategy should be a pro-active response to what’s going on in the business and in the market. Goodness knows, there’s been lot of change effecting both arenas, and this will only increase as technology becomes more complex and influential, and as customer expectations continue to evolve. Because of this, businesses need to pause regularly for a strategic assessment and adjustment.

Better yet, they need a strategy blueprint that is constantly syncing up with reality in and outside the business.  The sprint not only provides strategic options and implementation readiness, it will teach companies some of the techniques they can use to make their organizations slightly more agile and responsive in the future. 

How clients benefit:

·       Uncovering new possibilities for new revenue, new customers or internal efficiencies

·       Objective insights about the unmet needs and preferences of customers, which can be used to improve or expand products and services

·       A collaborative experience to energize the team, create consensus and communicate the big picture

·       Practices that help improve profitability while also improving stakeholder impact

·       Testing ideas for feasibility and effectiveness before investing resources and time

·       Hands-on support for implementation, if desired

The strategy sprint is smart and simple.  It brings together our collective knowledge about strategy, innovation and organizational change.  It addresses the negative attributes of traditional strategic planning, which can feel impractical, lengthy and resource-intensive.

Closing the gap between today’s reality and tomorrow’s possibilities is about seeing things others don’t yet see, and managing a strategy that fully leverages your competencies and capacity.  

If you want to learn how the process could be applied to your business, drop us an email, or just set up an appointment for a quick call with our Chief Strategist and Founder, Jen Reiner.