Revisiting the Business Model Canvas as a Common Language

The business model canvas, introduced by Osterwalder and Pigneur in 2010, is a visual language for communicating about strategy. It helps structure gained insights and transform them into knowledge. It supports designing and validating strategic options efficiently and effectively. Early in the strategy design process, the lightweight business model, a simplified version of the business model canvas, supports the identification of the high-level characteristics on which an organisation’s competitive positioning is defined. It helps identify what makes an organisation in particular, competitors in general, and an industry as a whole valuable and unique. The detailed business model, an extended version of the original business model canvas, supports successfully defining and validating the details of how a strategy delivers value to customers in particular and stakeholders in general. It simplifies the strategy design process and ensures that resources are focused on those aspects that matter most and non-value-adding analyses are avoided.