We are living in a fast-paced, global economy where what was new last month becomes obsolete the next. It is no longer sustainable to compete on product, service, technology, and price alone. Companies that have succeeded in even the most challenging times over the past decade have one thing in common - superior business models.
At Strategyzer we have always emphasized the importance of building superior business models. But what does ‘superior’ actually mean? How do I know if the business model I’ve designed is the best it can be? How can I assess my existing business and know where to make improvements? This is where the Assessment Questions for Leaders come in. We created this list of questions broken down into the 9 mechanics of the business models to help leaders assess the quality of a business model design and if there are ways to make it even more resilient.
You can use the Questions for Leaders to assess existing and new business models. Visualize your strengths and weaknesses and unearth opportunities with the resulting score. No business model achieves a perfect score. Simply be conscious about where you score well and where you don’t, thus where there is room for improvement.
Using Salesforce as a case study, we demonstrate how to use the Assessment Questions for Leaders to assess and improve an existing business model.
In 1999, Salesforce pioneered the software-as-a-service (Saas) for customer relationship management tools. The company didn’t stop there and has constantly improved its services and business model. We distinguish between two, nonexhaustive, business model phases: the early business model in 1999 and extensions starting in 2005. The below video shows how those Salesforce extensions significantly improved weaker aspects of the earlier business model.
The assessment questions are used by leaders:
- To assess the quality of a business model design
- To help teams explore new improvement opportunities to compete on superior business models.
They can also be used by innovators:
- To self-assess a business model design
- To improve an existing business model to make it even more resilient
You can find this tool and many others in our latest book
The Invincible Company
