📊Business Model Canvas Unit 8 – Key Activities

What Are Key Activities?

• Key activities are the most important actions a company must take to operate successfully and achieve its value proposition
• Involve the core processes, tasks, and functions that enable a business to deliver its products or services to customers
• Essential for creating and delivering the value proposition, reaching markets, maintaining customer relationships, and generating revenue
• Vary depending on the specific business model and industry (manufacturing, software development, consulting)
• Directly contribute to the company's competitive advantage and differentiation in the market
• Require significant resources, such as time, money, and expertise, to execute effectively
• Continuously evaluated and optimized to ensure alignment with the overall business strategy and goals

Types of Key Activities

• Production activities
  • Designing, manufacturing, and delivering physical products
  • Relevant for manufacturing companies (automotive, electronics, consumer goods)
• Problem-solving activities
  • Developing new solutions to address customer needs or pain points
  • Common in service industries (consulting, healthcare, education)
• Platform/network activities
  • Managing and maintaining a platform that connects users and facilitates interactions
  • Critical for businesses with network effects (social media, marketplaces, software platforms)
• Supply chain management activities
  • Coordinating the flow of goods, services, and information from suppliers to customers
  • Ensuring efficient and timely delivery of products or services
• Research and development activities
  • Innovating and creating new products, services, or technologies
  • Vital for companies in dynamic and competitive industries (pharmaceuticals, technology)
• Sales and marketing activities
  • Promoting products or services, acquiring customers, and building brand awareness
  • Essential for generating revenue and growth

Identifying Your Business's Key Activities

• Analyze your value proposition to determine the core activities required to deliver it to customers
• Consider the key resources and partnerships needed to support and execute these activities
• Evaluate the customer segments and channels to identify activities that enable reaching and serving them effectively
• Assess the revenue streams to pinpoint activities that directly contribute to generating income
• Examine industry best practices and competitors to identify common key activities and potential gaps
• Engage with internal stakeholders (employees, managers) to gather insights on critical processes and functions
• Prioritize activities based on their impact on the business model and alignment with strategic objectives

Key Activities in the Business Model Canvas

• Positioned in the center of the canvas, highlighting their central role in the business model
• Connected to other components, such as key resources, customer segments, and revenue streams
• Helps visualize the interdependencies and relationships between key activities and other elements
• Facilitates a holistic view of how key activities contribute to the overall business model and value creation
• Enables iterative refinement and optimization of key activities based on insights from other components
• Provides a framework for communicating and aligning key activities across the organization

Linking Key Activities to Other Canvas Components

• Key resources
  • Identify the essential assets, such as infrastructure, technology, or human capital, required to perform key activities
  • Ensure the availability and allocation of resources to support the execution of key activities
• Value proposition
  • Align key activities with the unique benefits and value delivered to customers
  • Ensure that key activities directly contribute to fulfilling the value proposition
• Channels
  • Determine the key activities needed to effectively reach and interact with customers through various channels (online, retail, partnerships)
• Customer relationships
  • Identify key activities that foster and maintain strong customer relationships, such as personalized service or continuous engagement
• Revenue streams
  • Link key activities to the generation of revenue, such as sales processes or subscription management
• Cost structure
  • Assess the costs associated with performing key activities and optimize for efficiency and profitability

Examples of Successful Key Activities

• Apple's focus on design and user experience (product development, marketing)
  • Enables the creation of innovative and user-friendly products that command premium prices
• Amazon's emphasis on efficient logistics and distribution (supply chain management, platform management)
  • Allows for fast and reliable delivery, enhancing customer satisfaction and loyalty
• Airbnb's platform management and community-building activities (platform development, customer support)
  • Facilitates trust and engagement among hosts and guests, driving network effects and growth
• Tesla's vertical integration of manufacturing and sales (production, direct sales)
  • Ensures control over the entire value chain, enabling innovation and differentiation in the electric vehicle market

Common Pitfalls in Defining Key Activities

• Focusing on too many activities without prioritizing the most critical ones for the business model
• Neglecting the alignment between key activities and the value proposition, leading to a disconnect in value creation
• Failing to consider the resources and capabilities required to execute key activities effectively
• Overlooking the potential for outsourcing or partnering for non-core activities, leading to inefficiencies
• Ignoring the evolving nature of key activities as the business grows and the market changes
• Defining activities too broadly or generically, making it difficult to measure and optimize performance
• Not involving cross-functional teams in identifying and refining key activities, leading to silos and lack of coordination

Optimizing Your Key Activities

• Regularly review and assess the performance and impact of key activities on the business model
• Set clear metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the effectiveness and efficiency of key activities
• Continuously improve processes and workflows associated with key activities to enhance productivity and quality
• Invest in technology, automation, and innovation to streamline and scale key activities
• Foster a culture of continuous learning and improvement, encouraging employees to identify opportunities for optimization
• Collaborate with partners and suppliers to leverage their expertise and capabilities in executing key activities
• Conduct benchmarking and best practice analysis to identify industry leaders and adopt proven strategies
• Regularly gather feedback from customers and stakeholders to ensure key activities are meeting their needs and expectations