Strategy and a Company's Business Model

Read the overview below and complete the activities that follow.

While the company's strategy sets forth an approach to offering superior value, a company's business model is management's blueprint for delivering a valuable product or service to customers in a manner that will yield an attractive profit. In this exercise you will be asked to evaluate the business model for The New York Times Company.

The two elements of a company's business model are (1) its customer value proposition and (2) its profit formula. The customer value proposition is established by the company's overall strategy and lays out the company's approach to satisfying buyer wants and needs at a price customers will consider a good value. The greater the value provided and the lower the price, the more attractive the value proposition is to customers. The profit formula describes the company's approach to determining a cost structure that will allow for acceptable profits given the pricing tied to its customer value proposition. The lower the costs given the customer value proposition, the greater the ability of the business model to be a moneymaker. The nitty-gritty issue surrounding a company's business model is whether it can execute its customer value proposition profitably. Just because company managers have crafted a strategy for competing and running the business does not automatically mean that the strategy will lead to profitability-it may or it may not.

Case

Before answering the questions in this assignment, first go to www.nytco.com/investors and check whether The New York Times Company's 2012 Annual Report & Form 10-K indicate that its business model is working.

Does The New York Times Company business model remain sound as more consumers go to the Internet to find general information and stay abreast of current events and news stories? Explain.