In a healthy, high-performing company, all choices made by leaders will be in line with the company’s business model. It’s important, then, for company leaders to ensure that the underlying business model continues to provide a strong foundation for the organization to grow and scale upon.
When assessing their business model, company leaders must ensure any strategic decisions they make to alter it will serve to strengthen rather than weaken that foundation. To create a more resilient and adaptable business model, here are recommendations from 15 members of Forbes Coaches Council for beginning the analysis and modification process.
Forbes Coaches Council members share ways to analyze and strengthen a company's core business model.
Photos courtesy of the individual members.1. Focus On The Team
When analyzing a company’s business model, take a step back. First, look at the people. Many leaders approach a business with, “How can I fix this?” versus “How can I inspire the team to fix this together?” Then, the next step is matching skills to business needs. People are the core foundation and create the culture. If you don’t have a people plan, you are still creating a culture, but it might not be the one you want. - April Sabral, April Sabral Leadership
2. Ask How Your Company Can Innovate
What can we do to disrupt and innovate based on the current issues, challenges and needs not only of our customers but the industry as a whole? This is the essential question that, sadly, very few companies ask or, better yet, know the answer to or model their business solutions after. This is a tremendous opportunity to reestablish a company’s thriving business foundation. - Izabela Lundberg, Legacy Leaders Institute
3. Strengthen The Existing Identity Or Add Value To A New One
All companies have identities—who they are, what they stand for and why they do what they do. Analyzing and modifying the business model should either make the existing identity stronger (in which case it will strengthen the foundation of the business) or add value to a new or emerging identity for the future (in which case it will still strengthen the foundation of the business). - Vinesh Sukumaran, Vinesh Sukumaran Consulting
4. Determine What Customers Value
Determining what customers value—which parts of the product or service are especially important—determines everything. This is the basis for pricing, packaging and distribution of the product and/or service. It’s also important to know a business’s competitors as well as potential new entrants. - Ben Levitan, Cedalion Partners
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5. Run A Gap Analysis In Each Sector
Run a gap analysis in each sector of the business to identify where there is a “breakdown” or suboptimal performance. This should include both quantitative and qualitative analysis, as the model’s success includes the effectiveness of processes and systems as well as the overall health of the company culture. - Lisa Marie Platske, Upside Thinking, Inc.
6. Ensure You’re In Alignment With Your Customers
If you are planning to analyze your current business model, modifying it if necessary, you have to ensure that you are in alignment with your customers. What is their pain? What do they buy, and why do they buy it? Answer these questions and seek to get into short-term and long-term alignment with them. - Jon Dwoskin, The Jon Dwoskin Experience
7. Understand Your Model In Relation To Your Purpose
The strength of any great business is its core purpose and its impact on people and the planet. The first step to analyzing and modifying any business model is to understand where the current model or practices stand in relation to the promised purpose of the business. Or, if there is no defined purpose, the first step could be to find out the real purpose of the business. - Anilkumar G, ACTIONRICH Business Solutions India Pvt Ltd
8. Assess The Current State Of The Business
The first step to analyzing and modifying a company’s underlying business model is to assess the current state of the business. This can be done by looking at the company’s financials, examining its market position and understanding its strengths and weaknesses. This data will tell you what needs to be fixed. - Willena Long, Career Boss Academy
9. Secure Alignment Between The Workforce And Customers
Market trends and customer preferences are evolving faster than ever. The leadership team needs to keep pace and continually update the intelligence available to adapt the business model. Today’s most successful leaders use artificial intelligence tools to do exactly this, which reduces the need for lengthy decision making, surveys or meetings. - Richard Chiumento, The Rialto Consultancy
10. Take A Hard Look At Your Core Values First
Before a company can even think about modifying its business model, it needs to take a good, hard look at its core values. What does the company stand for? What is its mission? Once it has a clear understanding of its core values, it can start to align its business model with those values. Only then can a company start making changes that will strengthen the foundation of the business. - Ryan Stewman, Break Free Academy
11. Ask These Key Questions
Pull a cross-functional group of senior leaders together to wrestle with key questions, such as: Where do we make our money? What is the cost of making that revenue? Where do we lose time? Where do we lose money? Where are our customers heading? What are they getting from our competitors because we aren’t filling the need? Start with a blank paper, then shape the work around those answers. - Kimberly Janson, Janson Associates, LLC
12. Gather Data From Clients And Internally
Reflect on the mission, vision and values. Gather data from clients that outlines how aligned you are with their pain points. What are the unanticipated wins? Gather data internally. What are your people on the ground experiencing? How aligned are their experiences with what the leadership is trying to achieve? Gather as much data as you can so that you can make informed changes. - Shamila Mhearban, Shamila M. Ltd
13. Have Flexibility In Thinking And Structuring
Every business exists for a customer, and how the systemic dynamics change for customers has a close connection with the business model. Evolving through experimentation and by understanding clients’ changing preferences on a continuous basis helps. Flexibility in thinking and structuring is key to creating models that work in the long term. - Jaya Bhateja, Abhyudaya Consulting Services
14. Align The Business Model With The Company’s Vision
In my experience, inspecting whether the underlying business model is in alignment with the company’s vision is a great place to start. All models are hypotheses unless validated by the marketplace. Once we have our hypothesis—the business model—asking what the riskiest assumptions we are making and testing those business ideas are critical success factors. - Nagesh Sharma, Flowsphere India Private Limited
15. Examine The Leaders In Place
The first step to building or modifying a business model is to look at the leaders in place. Are they behaviorally suited to execute what the business requires them to? Too often, we mesh people and strategy together and expect extraordinary outcomes. We assume past performance will predict future success. I would use behavioral analytics to ascertain the strengths and motivations of key leaders. - Wendy Fong, Chief Gigs
