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Business Model Generation: A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers, and Challengers (The Strategyzer series) Paperback – July 13, 2010
Purchase options and add-ons
Co-created by 470 "Business Model Canvas" practitioners from 45 countries, the book features a beautiful, highly visual, 4-color design that takes powerful strategic ideas and tools, and makes them easy to implement in your organization. It explains the most common Business Model patterns, based on concepts from leading business thinkers, and helps you reinterpret them for your own context. You will learn how to systematically understand, design, and implement a game-changing business model--or analyze and renovate an old one. Along the way, you'll understand at a much deeper level your customers, distribution channels, partners, revenue streams, costs, and your core value proposition.
Business Model Generation features practical innovation techniques used today by leading consultants and companies worldwide, including 3M, Ericsson, Capgemini, Deloitte, and others. Designed for doers, it is for those ready to abandon outmoded thinking and embrace new models of value creation: for executives, consultants, entrepreneurs, and leaders of all organizations. If you're ready to change the rules, you belong to "the business model generation!"
- Print length288 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherJohn Wiley and Sons
- Publication dateJuly 13, 2010
- Dimensions9.5 x 0.8 x 7.4 inches
- ISBN-109780470876411
- ISBN-13978-0470876411
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We believe a business model can best be described through nine basic building blocks that show the logic of how a company intends to make money. The nine blocks cover the four main areas of a business: customers, oΩer, infrastructure, and financial viability. The business model is like a blueprint for a strategy to be implemented through organizational structures, processes, and systems.Highlighted by 345 Kindle readers
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From the brand
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Alexander Osterwalder is the cofounder of Strategyzer, a leading innovation company that puts practical tools into the hands of business leaders and strategy practitioners around the world. He is a passionate entrepreneur, sought-after speaker, and together with his team, the author of multiple bestselling titles in the popular Strategyzer Series, which visually captures the core concepts in the Strategyzer business toolkit.
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Strategyzer Box Set
Stunning, full-color library packed with five innovation and visual thinking guides from Strategyzer.
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From the Publisher
NAMED ONE OF THINKERS50 10 MANAGEMENT CLASSICS FOR 2024
The Thinkers50 Management Classics list honours management and business books that have withstood the test of time and remain powerfully relevant today.
Books were selected from nominations and canvassed opinions from within the Thinkers50 Community, which comprises many of today’s most eminent business thinkers. Managers and management thinkers were asked to choose their favorite all-time great management books that still make an impact years after publication, with the only rule being that participants could not nominate their own books.
Ready to reinvent your organization? Get inspired with the uniquely visual, always innovative Strategyzer series:
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Business Model Generation: A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers, and ChallengersBusiness Model Generation teaches you how to systematically understand, design, and differentiate your business model. |
Value Proposition Design: How to Create Products and Services Customers WantValue Proposition Design helps you tackle a core challenge of every business—creating compelling products and services customers want to buy. |
Testing Business Ideas: A Field Guide for Rapid ExperimentationTesting Business Ideas explains how to increase the success of any venture by providing a practical guide to rapid experimentation. |
The Invincible Company: How to Constantly Reinvent Your OrganizationThe Invincible Company shows how any organization can become unstoppable by managing a portfolio of existing businesses and by simultaneously exploring a pipeline of potential new growth engines. |
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
Co-created by 470 "Business Model Canvas" practitioners from 45 countries, the book features a beautiful, highly visual, 4-color design that takes powerful strategic ideas and tools, and makes them easy to implement in your organization. It explains the most common Business Model patterns, based on concepts from leading business thinkers, and helps you reinterpret them for your own context. You will learn how to systematically understand, design, and implement a game-changing business model--or analyze and renovate an old one. Along the way, you'll understand at a much deeper level your customers, distribution channels, partners, revenue streams, costs, and your core value proposition.
Business Model Generation features practical innovation techniques used today by leading consultants and companies worldwide, including 3M, Ericsson, Capgemini, Deloitte, and others. Designed for doers, it is for those ready to abandon outmoded thinking and embrace new models of value creation: for executives, consultants, entrepreneurs, and leaders of all organizations. If you're ready to change the rules, you belong to "the business model generation!"
The Power of “What If” Questions
Content from authors Alexander Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur
We often have trouble conceiving innovative business models because we are held back in our thinking by status quo. The status quo stifles imagination. One way to overcome this problem is to challenge conventional assumptions with “what if” questions. With the right business model ingredients, what we think of as impossible might just be doable. “What if” questions help us break free of constraints imposed by current business models. They should provoke us and challenge our thinking. They should disturb us as intriguing, difficult-to-execute propositions.
What if...
…furniture buyers picked up components in flat pack form from a large warehouse and assembled the products themselves in their homes? What is common practice today was unthinkable until IKEA introduced the concept in the 1960’s.
…airlines didn’t buy engines for their airplanes, but paid for every hour an engine runs? That is how Rolls-Royce transformed itself from a money-losing British manufacturer into a service firm that today is the world’s second biggest provider of large jet engines.
…voice calls were free worldwide? In 2003 Skype launched a service that allowed free voice calling via the internet. After five years, Skype had acquired 400 million registered users who collectively had made 100 billion free phone calls.
Review
"... this handbook is likely to prove an excellent help for evaluating business models" (Anatello.com, July 2011)
From the Inside Flap
Disruptive new business models are emblematic of our generation. Yet they remain poorly understood, even as they transform competitive landscapes across industries. Business Model Generation offers you powerful, simple, tested tools for understanding, designing, reworking, and implementing business models.
Business Model Generation is a practical, inspiring handbook for anyone striving to improve a business model - or craft a new one.
CHANGE THE WAY YOU THINK ABOUT BUSINESS MODELS
Business Model Generation will teach you powerful and practical innovation techniques used today by leading companies worldwide. You will learn how to systematically understand, design, and implement a new business model — or analyze and renovate an old one.
CO-CREATED BY 470 STRATEGY PRACTITIONERS
Business Model Generation practices what it preaches. Coauthored by 470 Business Model Canvas practitioners from forty-five countries, the book was financed and produced independently of the traditional publishing industry. It features a tightly integrated, visual, lie-flat design that enables immediate hands-on use.
DESIGNED FOR DOERS
Business Model Generation is for those ready to abandon outmoded thinking and embrace new, innovative models of value creation: executives, consultants, entrepreneurs — and leaders of all organizations.
From the Back Cover
Business Model Generation is a practical, inspiring handbook for anyone striving to improve a business model ― or craft a new one.
CHANGE THE WAY YOU THINK ABOUT BUSINESS MODELS Business Model Generation will teach you powerful and practical innovation techniques used today by leading companies worldwide. You will learn how to systematically understand, design, and implement a new business model ― or analyze and renovate an old one.
CO-CREATED BY 470 STRATEGY PRACTITIONERS Business Model Generation practices what it preaches. Coauthored by 470 Business Model Canvas practitioners from forty-five countries, the book was financed and produced independently of the traditional publishing industry. It features a tightly integrated, visual, lie-flat design that enables immediate hands-on use.
DESIGNED FOR DOERS Business Model Generation is for those ready to abandon outmoded thinking and embrace new, innovative models of value creation: executives, consultants, entrepreneurs ― and leaders of all organizations.
Disruptive new business models are emblematic of our generation. Yet they remain poorly understood, even as they transform competitive landscapes across industries.
Business Model Generation offers you powerful, simple, tested tools for understanding, designing, reworking, and implementing business models.
About the Author
Yves Pigneur, PhD, (Lausanne, Switzerland) is a professor of business and head of the Information Systems Institute of the University of Lausanne, Switzerland. He has held visiting professorships at Georgia State University in Atlanta, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and University of British Columbia in Vancouver. Dr. Pigneur is the chairperson of several conferences (IFIP, ISDSS, AIM). His research has been published in over fifty books, refereed journals and conference proceedings.
Product details
- ASIN : 0470876417
- Publisher : John Wiley and Sons; First Edition (July 13, 2010)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 288 pages
- ISBN-10 : 9780470876411
- ISBN-13 : 978-0470876411
- Item Weight : 1.55 pounds
- Dimensions : 9.5 x 0.8 x 7.4 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #11,055 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #20 in Systems & Planning
- #94 in Entrepreneurship (Books)
- #158 in Business Management (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
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About the authors

Yves is a professor at the University of Lausanne since 1984, and has held visiting professorships at Georgia State University, University of British Columbia, National University of Singapore, and HEC Montreal. Together with Alex Osterwalder, he invented the Business Model Canvas and co-authored the international bestselling books "Business Model Generation" and "Value Proposition Design". Yves and Alex are ranked No. 4 among the "Thinkers50's Most Influential Management Thinkers" in the world and hold the Thinkers50 Strategy Award.

Dr. Alexander (Alex) Osterwalder is one of the world's most influential strategy and innovation experts, a leading author, entrepreneur, and in-demand speaker whose work has changed the way established companies do business and how new ventures get started.
Ranked No. 4 of the top 50 management thinkers worldwide, Osterwalder is known for simplifying the strategy development process and turning complex concepts into digestible visual models. Together with Yves Pigneur, he invented the Business Model Canvas, Value Proposition Canvas, and Business Portfolio Map - practical tools that are trusted by millions of business practitioners from leading global companies including Microsoft, Coca-Cola, Nestlé, MasterCard, Sony, Fujitsu, 3M, Intel, Roche, Colgate-Palmolive, and many more.
Strategyzer, the company Osterwalder co-founded in 2010, is an innovation powerhouse, providing online courses, applications, and technology-enabled services to help organizations effectively and systematically manage strategy, growth, and transformation.
Osterwalder's books include the international bestseller Business Model Generation, Value Proposition Design: How to Create Products and Services Customers Want and Testing Business Ideas, and his forthcoming book for senior leaders, The Invincible Company, to publish in spring 2020.
He holds the Strategy Award from Thinkers50 and the European Union's inaugural Innovation Luminary Award. In 2019, Osterwalder chaired the prestigious Drucker Forum, the premier annual business management conference. A frequent and popular keynote speaker, Osterwalder travels the world discussing his ideas and strategies at Fortune 500 companies, premiere innovation conferences, and leading universities.
He holds a doctorate from HEC Lausanne, Switzerland, and is a founding member of The Constellation, a global not-for-profit organization connecting local responses to global issues around the world.
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Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonCustomers say
Customers find the information quality fabulous, useful, and valuable. They describe the book as clear, concise, and well-organized. Readers appreciate the visual content and design-thinking approach. They also mention it's inspirational and a remarkable resource for leaders. Opinions are mixed on readability, with some finding it excellent to think through and identify all the elements, while others say the shape of the book makes it hard to read in bed.
AI-generated from the text of customer reviews
Customers find the book's information quality excellent. They say it's a fabulous resource for anyone working in the often bewildering world of business planning. Readers also mention the way it handles concepts is brilliant and easy to understand. In addition, they say it provides new concepts in business and different business models.
"...approach, its layout and treatment of the subject are refreshing and helpful.Strengths..." Read more
"...It includes important ideas around multi-sided platforms (two-sided markets for you economists), applications of design thinking, scenario plannning..." Read more
"...concept of business model as such, but the way it handles the concept is simply brilliant and so easy to understand...." Read more
"...I read through it a week or so ago, and it is a useful addition to the entrepreneur's library.The book has five major sections...." Read more
Customers find the book very clear and concise. They appreciate the simple clarity of the concepts, drawings, and descriptions. Readers also say the book is well-crafted and full of well-thought-out diagrams. In addition, they mention it's a breeze to read with an objective text.
"...Osterwalder's model for business models is clear and provides an effective structure for understanding your business and how it fits with your value..." Read more
"...Business Model Generation brings together a simple but compelling framework for organizing business models with a wide range of frameworks and..." Read more
"...presented, the participative way the book is written and the easiness of understanding makes it a rare treasure in the area of business literature...." Read more
"...The writing is accessible, and it may be that many of the concepts are more easily absorbed here than in the original source materials..." Read more
Customers find the book highly visual. They say the layout and design are brilliant. Readers also appreciate the pictures are easy to find and really hammer the point. The presentation is great, and the illustrations and use of photography create an engaging read that draws the reader into the material.
"...The illustrations and use of photography creates an engaging read that draws the reader into material and keep them engaged...." Read more
"...The design of the book is very entertaining and makes it fun to read such an intellectually demanding topic...." Read more
"...The issue here is that Porter's model is clear and concise whereas the BMG book again suffers from bad categorization...." Read more
"...The layout and design of this book is brilliant, and the iPad app that goes with the book is a must have if you are serious about planning out a..." Read more
Customers find the book inspirational, with good use of examples. They say it's a remarkable resource for leaders attempting to rethink their business's approach. Readers also mention the case studies are real-world and happening today. They appreciate the visual design and focus on communicating concepts.
"...There's a /lot/ of supporting examples, and I walked away feeling like I better understood the material than I'm used to with business books...." Read more
"...The case studies are real world, and happening today...not years ago which gives this book a very fresh look at this complex process...." Read more
"...internet economy, but that said, it is exhaustive and give examples in other industries as well. I am awating a second edition of this!" Read more
"...It does in a way that encourages collaboration and multiple perspectives. I really can't say enough about this book. Wonderful...." Read more
Customers find the book well worth the price. They say it simplifies the relationships between value creation and resources and activities.
"...Honest and fair. It was worth every penny spent." Read more
"...I have also downloaded his Strategzer online tool. Again, very nominally priced and extremely useful, especially permitting me to print out the my..." Read more
"...As my subject line says, the first 105 pages are worth twice the price." Read more
"...I cannot than Alexander enough for this fantastic, practical, valuable, easy to use work.The work of a true master...." Read more
Customers find the content simple, total, and easy to understand. They say it's comprehensive and provides a complete set of things to consider.
"This book is phenomenal. Provides a complete set of things one has to consider when building a business...." Read more
"...Subject, content, clarity, edit, look, feel... all 10 stars. Every person who has a business or planning to have one MUST buy this book...." Read more
"...Their categories are time and again overlapping and incomplete - thus appearing arbitrary...." Read more
"It is an excellent book.It is very easy to read and comprehensive.I like it, I recommend this book." Read more
Customers have mixed opinions about the readability of the book. Some mention it's excellent to think through and identify all the elements, providing a comprehensive and engaging approach to understanding and creating business models. However, others say the shape of the book makes it hard to read in bed and the small font size makes reading a challenge.
"...seeks to address this point providing a comprehensive and engaging approach to understanding and creating business models...." Read more
"...Finally, the small font sizes that a few reviewers mentioned will surely be difficult to read for those with less-than-great eyesight." Read more
"This is a wonderfully engaging, entertaining and educating book on the very important but unfortunately less understood concept of "business model..." Read more
"Interesting and great simplification about what it’s around any business...." Read more
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I love the book but be careful about the quality. See photos
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This is perhaps the most innovative book on business design to come around in a long time. The book is the work of Alexander Osterwalder and more than 470 collaborators and contributors. It provides a graphically engaging, spirited look at business models, their creation and application in business.
This is the first book built by mass collaboration based on the participation and contribution of multiple people giving the book a level of practicality that is welcome in subject that can easily become academic. The book is organized into six sections that correspond to the processes involved in generating a business model. The sections include:
Canvas - which discusses the basics of the business model template and its nine building blocks
Patterns - applies the model to understand different business models and companies that exemplify the business models.
Design - the techniques used to develop the nine building blocks within the business model which include: customer insights, ideation, visual thinking, prototyping, storytelling and scenarios.
Process - concentrating on applying these techniques to creating a business model
Outlook - a view on the future of business models.
The book is highly recommended for people who want to learn more about business models, its related techniques and wants to put them into practice. The book's approach, its layout and treatment of the subject are refreshing and helpful.
Strengths
The book offers a comprehensive view of business models. The five sections talk you through the activities involved in creating a business model including multiple techniques.
Osterwalder's model for business models is clear and provides an effective structure for understanding your business and how it fits with your value proposition, strategy and products.
Placing the models in action to explain companies like Apple, the newspaper industry, and the insurance industry among others. Applying the model builds you understanding of model's context and
Covers advanced techniques including ideation, visual thinking, story telling that help you expand your toolkit.
The illustrations and use of photography creates an engaging read that draws the reader into material and keep them engaged.
Challenges
There is litle that is fundamentally new in this book, other than its presentation, construction and style. That is not to say that the book is bad or wrong, its just that ideas related to value propositions, capabilities, etc appear elsewhere. What this book does do and do well is bring these ideas together in a novel and accessible way.
The majority of the book is based on the Osterwalder's own model developed while he was at Lausanne. The dependence of the book on the model can limit its effectiveness if you take a different approach to business modeling.
The book provides limited support for key functions such as IT, HR and Finance which are not explicitly supported in the business model which focuses more on issues of strategy and positioning.
The book is large and bound by its narrow edge. While this makes the books photography and graphics possible, but it also makes the book unwieldy.
The book is not available in electronic format as that does not work with the book's layout.
Business Model Generation brings together a simple but compelling framework for organizing business models with a wide range of frameworks and techniques from stragegy and design thinking. It includes important ideas around multi-sided platforms (two-sided markets for you economists), applications of design thinking, scenario plannning ... It is a powerful integration of these ideas, one that most people will be able to act on. The book also has an excellent website at [...] and the collaborative approach to authoring and validating the book is fascinating - some 470 people from around the world contributed to the book.
I read this in parallel with Cory Doctorow's new novel Makers Makers and the two books riff off each other in interesting ways (the fictional company Kodacell could be seen as a scaling of the business model generation method). It is worth thinking about what happens in Makers while imaginging new business models.
I do have some questions about the book, and a few reservations.
Why no index? In a book like this an index is necessary, and the designers could have used this as an opportunity to innovate a visual index, perhaps using mind mapping.
The design. I have long been advocating this kind of visual design for business books. Reading this one I had some reservations. The book is influenced by PowerPoint and web design and has some of the weaknesses, see The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint: Pitching Out Corrupts Within, Second Edition . I had to work hard to integrate the information and ideas in the book into a story. I am glad that the authors and designers took the approach they did, but this approach to books needs a lot more work before we really understand how to use it.
Depth and originality. There is little that is new here. What is powerful is the way in which so many current ideas are integrated. I am not an expert in all of these areas, but where I do have some deep knowledge, pricing for example, I found the content thin and in some ways misleading. For example, there is no discussion of value-based pricing and the role it plays in driving differentiation. See Strategy and Tactics of Pricing, The (5th Edition) (Alternative eText Formats) . I also thought that the treatment of design thinking smacked too much of received wisdom and did not question or innovate on the paradigm (I know, that is not the purpose of the book).
The book is a bit weak on execution, and I am hoping that the website will be a place to track how people are using the business model generation approach and what experiences they have with business model execution.
But I expect to come back to this book and to use it in my own companies and in coaching others. So, despite my reservations, six stars!
























