At the heart of intacam's method of providing business guidance is analysing, and if requested, documenting and providing definition or strategic planning design support for the client's business model. intacam's ultimate objective is to support clients with an overall Communicate One Voice^TM business direction and alignment program to improve organizational harmony and efficiency.

A number of questions will usually be considered to help ensure intacam's consulting advice offers the right fit for the client's needs:

What is the client trying to achieve with a particular program or project, and does the initiative support and align with the client's business model or strategic plan?
Is the initiative, including its proposed or current project arrangements, structured in a way that supports the business model?
Is business model innovation, change or differentiation needed to ensure the initiative can be delivered?
Does the client have a clear and systematic idea of its business model to be able answer these questions and be in the best position to manage business and project risks and continuing performance and alignment?
Is business model design or definition required?

Why bother to analyse your business model?

At its very core, a business model design is an expression of the business case for an organisation to offer a particular set of value propositions in satisfaction of a perceived market gap.

Intacam Business Model Template Core Component

At the wider level, the business model design provides definition on how the organisation carries out its complete range of activities to meet that market gap.

The full set of business model design components must work seamlessly together underpinned by a fabric of communications to achieve the organisation's objectives in the most efficient and effective way. On top of that, the way that the organisation intends to conduct a specific initiative should be sympathetic with the definition of its overall business model.

See Total Business Model Template Framework*

When starting a new initiative, or examining an existing initiative, an organisation should want to be assured that the initiative will fit with and add value to the business model design and that it will be supported by the way the organisation defines and conducts its activities.

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What to look for when analysing your business model?

Simply put, is it clear, is it current, is it effective?

A business model is a living thing and needs to adapt to changing circumstances.

When so many components need to work together it is usual that such adaptation will happen in an organic way through gradual changes in practices, procedures, styles of communication and systems and objectives. These changes are often unnoticed at the total business model level - that is, at the level of responsibility of business owners or senior managers.

Those changes are not usually captured or documented by an organisation on any day-to-day or systematic basis and so the actual business model operation may end up varying from the understood or originally intended model. In many cases the total business model design does not have any documented definition even at a high level, meaning little guidance is available to the operating arms of the organisation to help make sure that ongoing and new business actions and processes match intentions.

Business operating practice and communication styles may therefore simply drift from the original intent and need re-alignment; or, the understood business model may need to be adjusted to reflect actual practice and to provide continuing guidance to the business.

Several business model review questions therefore present themselves when an organisation is considering investment in a new initiative, or even the review of a current initiative or business practice:

Will the organisation feel comfortable that its investment in an initiative will add the value expected, without first being sure of alignment with the actual business model definition?
Will the organisation be happy to invest in an initiative without checking for business model definition alignment, only to find later that the value of that investment is diminished or wasted because the initiative was not in alignment with the business model definition?

Without an early or even periodic check that an initiative is in alignment with the business model design, and that the style of communication between key parties matches needs, an organisation may eventually become surprised or upset that a project has apparently run off the rails and is not making the expected value contribution.

But should it have been surprised if upfront or periodic business model alignment was not considered as part of the approval process or the ongoing performance tracking of the initiative?

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Business model analysis and alignment - how can intacam help?

A typical outcome of the intacam business consulting process is the opportunity for project owners and managers to clarify and confirm that:

proposed or even existing initiatives are in alignment with and fully support their business model
their business model design will itself support the initiative
the fabric of communication and culture in the organisation is healthy and in-synch with the objectives of the business model

This is a foundation element of the intacam consulting process and it has been common for the need for business model innovation, improvements and changes to be identified through the process.

intacam's complete Business Model Doctor analysis, alignment and definition consulting service can include:

Spending some time with business owners or senior managers to clarify how a project or initiative fits with the organisation's business model.
Designing intacam's support services and deliverables to achieve target business model support and alignment.
Determining whether a project or initiative has implications for business model innovation or change.
Assessing the communication styles of key personnel in the organisation.
Developing business model change management strategies, policies, processes and procedures to match the needs of the project or initiative.
Defining and documenting the organisation's current actual business model at a high level using intacam's interactive Business Model Analysis Toolkit and associated products to capture, link and present key information content.
Helping to assess whether a current business model is still relevant to the organisation's continuing market opportunity or whether it has become outmoded.
Developing 'what-if' analyses of alternative business models.
Reviewing, developing and documenting associated business strategies, business cases, business proposals, operating manuals, policies, processes, contracts and related materials that integrate all levels of operating practice with the operating or target business model.
Developing training strategies to change-manage alignment of organisation practices and communication behaviour with the operating or target business model.
Reviewing business model performance and alignment on a periodic basis and updating the Business Model Mapper as part of the organisation's governance.
Helping business owners or senior managers design and define business models for new organisations.

Contact Us to discuss your business model analysis, alignment, definition and support needs.

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* Adapted from Osterwalder (2004) The Business Model Ontology

intacam's business model analysis...