Business Model Innovation

Each of you individually will be responsible for identifying an attractive market space for business model innovation. Perform a rigorous analysis of market dynamics, value propositions, and value-capture in order to propose a novel new business model innovation in this identified space.

You must also decide if you would like to propose their innovation as an internal initiative for an existing market firm or if your proposal will be positioned as a new venture for entry into the market space as an entrepreneurial start-up. If the proposal focuses on an internal initiative, you must clearly identify the specific firm you are targeting for this innovation, and the proposal will be made as if they are internal employees (top management team) in this organization presenting the proposal to their board of directors. If the proposal focuses on a new entrant strategy, the proposal will focus on gaining the support of venture capitalists (or similar) for their proposal.

The net result of this work will be a final project proposal, laying out the idea and support for the proposal.

Business Model Innovation Project Proposal Format:

Executive Summary and Narrative Story of Proposed Business Model Innovation

Try to make this as realistic, polished, and impressive as possible. This is the centerpiece of your final report. Tell your story. In the following sections you will dig into data, the details of your proposal, risks, implementation, and forecasts. In this section you want to hit the high points in as compelling a format as possible. Capture people’s attention with key facts or market dynamics. Craft a vision of what might be possible. Situate your proposed solution into the market as it exists now and where you think it is going. What is new here? Why is this such a big deal? What kind of return might is expected? Convince your reader that what you are presenting is essential, rigorous, and interesting.

Overview of the Market Space as it Exists Today – Strategy Canvas – Business Models and Value Mapping in the Industry

Using relevant tools from your various MBA classes and in the readings, you should provide a concise and targeted analysis of how value is constructed in the target industry as it exists prior to the proposal. Visual aids are helpful here, in the form of tables, flowcharts, or any tools for conveying the map as it currently sits.

Quantitative Analysis of Current Market Value Proposition - Using the tools of industry analysis and business analytics, which can include: industry demand forecasting, sales and consumption data, market share analyses, pricing issues, cost structure data, economic value estimation, and industry analysis you must present as compelling data as possible to convey the nature of value creation and appropriation in the industry as it exists prior to innovation. Essentially, without some quantitative support, ideas are just supposition, so the aim here is to use quantitative output to add some convincing weight to your analysis.

Qualitative Analysis of Customer Needs - Using the tools of qualitative inquiry, each team must conduct an investigation into the nature of customer value in or near the market space being targeted. This could involve a high-touch experimental investigation, or simply a deep dive into the experience of customers using publicly available / archival data / social media / interviews / a focus group / any form of richly described information on customer experience and perceptions. This should be described in detail and then insights derived from the analysis should be specifically articulated to inform the proposal.

The course textbooks will likely prove to be invaluable in this section. Create a detailed “as-is” business model canvas, including recognizable patterns.

Unmet Value Proposition

This should be a clear, precise, and direct articulation that directly derives from the analyses presented in the prior section (market space analysis). The goal is to plainly and convincingly communicate where value could be derived (for customers and for those who serve them) in a new or novel way. The focus of this section is solely on value creation.

In this section, the problems, frustrations, and dissatisfactions of current customers should be highlighted in the “as-is”, current business model. Also, identification of potential customers that are not served in the current business model should be identified. Inclusion of a customer innovation map will likely be valuable.

New Market Space Solution

In as much detail as possible, describe your proposed, “to be” business model innovation. What is new here? Why is this so attractive? How does this proposal create market space that was not previously targeted / served?

Competitor Analysis

This should be a clear discussion of which competitors or market dynamics could serve as obstacles to implementation of the proposed vision, which competitors would be most threatened, and a game theoretic type of analysis of how competitors might respond.

Keys, Challenges, and Solutions for Proposal Implementation

This should be an even-handed discussion of the challenges your company would face in trying to implement the proposal. The point here is not to dwell on obstacles, but to be very candid and transparent with a focus on the challenges. Each presented challenge should be addressed with a plan for overcoming the obstacle. What assumptions are being made about implementation? Are these viable?

Metrics

This should be a review of several key metrics that you will use to assess progress in achieving its vision for the proposed business model innovation. What metrics will be most impacted? What would success look like? What types of metric feedback would be sufficient for recognizing failure? What rough-range sales/market share projections might be possible under best case scenarios / average estimates / worst case scenarios? Use ranges, but aim for plausible specificity. Ground your metrics and numbers in some supportable data/reality. You should be able to meaningfully explain if the risk is worth it for this size of a potential return.

Timeline for Implementation

What kind of timeline is appropriate for successfully launching this solution? In other words, what is the “window” of opportunity? What would worst-case timing look like? Best case? How big of a deal is timing?

Conclusion, Inspiration, Vision

This section should be a forward looking discussion of what might be possible. Convey your conclusions and your vision. Be inspired, and convey inspiration. Ground your enthusiasm in your pro-forma projections, but describe what this would mean for investors / shareholders / owners if the proposal succeeds.

Submission requirements:

Consist of 15 pages

Include the cover page, title page, executive summary, bibliography and appendix.

Use a minimum of 15 credible sources for the assignment that are cited within the essay.

Include proper citation of any graphs or figures that you do not create yourself.

Format according to the 6th edition APA form and style. Please use the provided writing template.

Each section can be of any length, but the overall report should be about 15 pages while covering each topic. Please clearly delineate each section using the APA heading format. You are free to add tables or appendices to the report; they will not count against the page limit but must be referred to in the body of the paper. Prepare, stylistically, as if this were an actual deliverable report to a VC firm or a board of directors. Stay in character. Part of the final grade for the project will include an assessment of the visual polish level/impressiveness of the final document. Graphics, images, and visuals can be very effective at creating an emotional connection to the ideas. Show off your very best design skills – present this data in as compelling a format as possible (while adhering to the structure outlined above).