Business Model Canvas

Overview

The Why

Reinforced Values
Be Principled
Knowledge
Opportunity
Sound Judgment
Win-Win

The Business Model Canvas gives the student the structure of a business plan without the overhead, allowing quick understanding and ease of change.

Intro

Not sure if an opportunity is worth your time? The Business Model Canvas (BMC) is a graphic organizer that allows you to outline an idea to help you assess the opportunity quickly. At all times, you should view your BMC as a whole, and that every detail of it is in constant motion toward creating more value from less resources. The BMC is iterative, meaning you should constantly make changes as you learn more about the market, what they value, and how you will respond to this feedback. Remember, the goal of the BMC is to help you organize and understand the potential value of an opportunity.

Social and Emotional Skills

1. In this activity, students are practicing elements associated with “Responsible Decision Making.” They are contemplating questions like “What is on your to-do list?” which is a helpful question to consider for constructive choice making. Another question they will consider is “What problem are you trying to solve?” By considering these questions as well as the other 7, students are learning forward thinking habits that can also be applicable to analyzing situations, evaluation and reflection. Because the BMC is iterative, and requires updates and changes, students are learning to wade through decisions they once thought were appropriate to assess newer opportunities that might be better now.
2. When students are considering questions like “Who can help you?” and “How are you going to manage a relationship with them?” they are practicing elements of the “Relationship Skills” core competency. To create an effective and needed business, students not only need to consider the day-to-day logistics but most importantly the customer service and relationship building elements that will keep their company a preferred partner for consumers and advertisers. Through this activity, students will consider what it takes to communicate clearly, cooperate with others, and negotiate conflict constructively when it arises.

Preparation

• Review the BMC Teacher Guide.
  • You may find
• Decide how you would like to engage your students in using the Business Model Canvas.
  • Will they work on it individually? In a small group?
  • How will they share their ideas? Is it through a video pitch, live pitch to their peers through a virtual platform, small group sharing, etc.?
  • What prompt will you ask students to get them started – In other words, how will they come up with the idea? Is it wide open to any idea they have, or will you provide a specific problem for them to create a solution for?
• Review the activity and create any additional supporting materials that may be helpful for your students (student handout of instructions, an example, etc.).
  • Protip: You may find resources on www.Strategyzer.com to be helpful for you and your students.
• Decide how students will provide feedback to each other and create any supporting materials for them to do so.
• Outline the parameters for the presentation of their idea and how/where they will share it.
• Decide how you would like students to respond to any of the debrief questions after they complete the activity and how they would do so.  
• Post the activity to your classroom platform for students to access and complete or set up a Zoom session to walk through the activity with students.

Directions

• Explain to students that they are going to plan out an idea for a solution to a problem. Share the prompt with students that you determined as part of your class preparation steps.
• If you are having students work in groups, place them into groups prior to beginning brainstorming.
  • Protip: Creating a collaborative version of the BMC that all group members could type in during this process would be helpful.
• Scaffold students’ brainstorming. Here is a suggested method:
  • Protip: It may be beneficial to walk students through the canvas (both 9 Questions and the BMC) section by section to prompt their brainstorming rather than them tackling it all at once.
  • Start with the 9 Questions. The 9 Questions replaces the business jargon of the Business Model Canvas with student-friendly questions to get them started. Ask students to add as many details as they can to their canvas.
  • Use the BIO Sheet Teacher Guide to prompt students to think through even more details of their idea. Students should add these details to their canvas.
  • Transition the idea from the 9 Questions to the BMC Blank. Walk students section by section to copy/paste their details from the 9 Questions into the BMC Blank. Explain how the question(s) from the 9 Questions canvas relate to each section title of the formal Business Model Canvas.
  • Use the BMC Cheat Sheet to encourage students to think through even more aspects of their idea.
• Once students have their idea thought out, ask students to share their idea and BMC to get feedback from their peers.
  • Protip: Allow peers to have the ability to ask questions, make comment/suggestions, etc.
  • Prior to allowing peers to do so, make sure you discuss appropriate feedback. Feedback may be a question, constructive critique, or compliment.
• Using the feedback from their peers, allow students to revise and update their BMC.
• Ask students to craft a presentation to pitch their idea. Share the parameters with them that you outlined as part of your activity preparation.

Supplemental Activities

Optional: The BMC affords numerous opportunities for students to expand upon their learning and practice other skills. Using the idea they have outlined, consider having students: make a business card, outline their target market customer, create a marketing campaign and the accompanying materials (website, social media, flyers, etc.), create a prototype, conduct a SWOT Analysis, write SMART Goals for their business, etc.

Debrief

• How did using the BMC give you a better understanding of how to develop and organize your business idea?
• Did you have to pivot while ideating your ideas and how did you come to that decision?
• How did you seek and use the best Knowledge during this activity?
• When providing peer feedback, why is it important to have a Win-Win Focus?
• How did your idea demonstrate Sound Judgment?
• Why is it important to Be Principled when planning a business or idea? What would happen if you did not Be Principled?
• What Opportunity did you recognize in the market? How did your idea capture that Opportunity?