Business Model Environment

Continuously scanning your business model’s environment is important because the economic landscape is driven by growing complexity (e.g. networked business models), increasing uncertainty (e.g. technology innovations) and market disruptions (e.g. new disruptive value propositions). Understanding the changes happening in this environment help you more rapidly adapt your model to shifting external forces.

You should apprehend this environment as a sort of design space. It is a context in which you conceive or adapt your business model by taking into account a number of design drivers (e.g. new customer needs, new technologies, etc.) and design constraints (e.g. regulatory trends, dominant competitors, etc.). This environment should in no way limit your creativity or define your business model upfront. However, it should influence your design choices and help you make more informed decisions.

via Alex Osterwalder on Business Model Design and Innovation

I re-created the schema to include the full description of the business model components for people who are not yet accustomed to the model.

Why I blog this:
The blog post gives an excellent overview on important areas in the environment of a business that influence the business model. I completely agree that it is very important to understand the changes in the environment (where we come from and where we are now) - and the three analyses (competitive, marketing, macroeconomic) let you do this.

To design or re-design a business model not only for the 'Now' but for the future it is even more important to understand where things are heading. Foresight applied to driving trends AND the analyses of the environmental forces is therefore needed.

(0. Evaluation of current business model)

1. Analysis
2. Foresight / Extrapolation
3. Design

-> start over with 0.