#Josh.Lin

"Staying relevant"

[relevantlin]

Yes, My Opinion - Consulting IS the Best Job for Undergrads Pursuing Business

The whiteboard - perhaps the poster-child of consulting tools. Whether true or not, it certainly is one of the most popular images that shows up when searching 'consulting' in Google. And for good reason.

The whiteboard is the canvas where, what I believe, some of the most relevant and transferable skill sets are developed and refined in consulting. There are a lot of things that undergrads can learn in their first few years in consulting, but I will touch on a few that I believe are most important. I believe consulting is the best job for undergrads pursuing a career in business because it offers the most relevant and transferable skill development. This industry produces some of the best thinkers, doers, and often times both.

Let me preface first by admitting that every consulting firm offers a different learning experience - and for today's purposes, I'm referring to entry-level consulting positions within rotational programs. This happens to be the case at most firms, but not all. OK - great, let's talk about those skills:

Root-cause driven problem solving: often times problems are very complex because it is hard to pin point what the problem is exactly. Consultants are forced to drive problem solving through root-cause analysis formally and informally. It doesn't matter what industry or role you find yourself down the road, root-cause driven problem solving will always be an effective logic tool to helping your business or other businesses create value.

Cross-functional stakeholder management: people have their own agendas. Businesses are no exception. Consulting forces you to manage many unique interests across functions or business units, in parallel with serving a broader business vision/objective. We've all heard the phrase, "you can't make everyone happy" - well consulting certainly pushes you to get as close as possible with poise.

Flexibility: life will always throw wrenches in your days. Things will change, go awry, get up-rooted every day. Consulting really is an industry of change and flux. "It depends.", is a very real and frequent answer within the industry. Travel schedules will change, client goals and expectations will change, your project roles will change, everything is always changing. This makes you well equipped to handle change, and those who can adapt to change most quickly are most successful.

Learning 'Gurus': Consultants, especially entry-level, are constantly faced with industries and businesses they know little about. We're typically given 2 weeks to 'catch-up' and educate ourselves so that we can engage on the same playing field as our clients. This industry creates some of the best learners - not only from the perspective of having an effective learning process, but also from the perspective of having an insatiable learning appetite.

What's great about this industry is it welcomes 'students' from all majors and backgrounds. Consulting is valuable to businesses because it's driven from different and diversified experiences. Anyone can find their way into consulting as long as they can show a propensity for systematic problem solving, agility, and an infectious curiosity.

[relevantlin]

#Business Model Generation: What is your value proposition?

We hear it all the time. Businesses are constantly trying to enhance and market the value their products or services provide customers. For both new and established businesses, having a clearly defined and easily understood value proposition is not only the 'price of entry', but can also be a powerful source of competitive differentiation.

To start, I'd like to define the term 'value proposition'. Osterwalder defines value proposition as something that solves a customer problem or satisfies a customer need. Some VPs may be innovative and represent a new or disruptive offer. Others may be similar to existing offerings with differing features or attributes. When starting to think about your VP, here are a few questions that might help kick-start the conversation:

What value do we deliver to the customer?

Which one of our customer's problems are we helping solve?

Which customer needs are we satisfying?

What bundles of products and services are we offering to each customer segment?

To be more specific, here are a few elements that can contribute to customer value creation:

Newness: some VPs satisfy and entirely new set of needs the customer does not know exist because there isn't any similar offering in the market. Cell phones, for instance, created a whole new industry around mobile telecommunications.

Customization: tailoring products to address the specific needs of a customer segment creates value.

Design: an important yet difficult element to measure - but we've seen it done really well (i.e., Apple).

Accessibility: making products and services available to customers who previously lacked access to them is another source of value. The pervasiveness of mobile technology has made accessibility a 'must have' for businesses. Businesses must meet their customers where they are.

This list certainly isn't meant to be exhaustive, but I hope it provides some guidance for those looking to define / re-define their value proposition. The next post on #Business Model Generation will focus on Channels. Stay tuned!

[therelevancyindex]

All - welcome to ‘The Relevancy Index’. This blog was created for a simple purpose - to spread the pursuit of relevancy. Our team of bloggers have been pursuing a life of relevancy for quite some time, and it’s about time we share our adventure with you all. Let’s talk briefly about what you can...

[relevantlin]

Back at Tahoe again this weekend. Great people and great times. This trip started as a simple idea to have our team do an event together. Inventive minds turned this into a well orchestrated team skiing weekend at a great house, in a great location, at a great price. A price cannot be put on a great #Team. Just like any start up, an idea is only as great as its team’s ability to execute it.

[relevantlin]

#21st Century: 3 Free Web-based Applications that Spice Up Presentations

I do quite a bit of work in PowerPoint (as do most professional these days) and have come to realize that my clients have varying appetites for how complex and fancy my presentations are. In certain industries, the clients would prefer to have a simple white background with bulleted points. Nothing else. Maybe some clip art if we're feeling excited. Then I have other clients who LOVE to see well engineered, well designed, aesthetically award-winning slides.

More recently, I've come across a few clients in the consumer electronics industry who are looking for something new. PPT just doesn't cut it for them anymore. Their executives prefer to see information presented in more creative ways. I don't believe that I am the only one with this experience, and until MS decides to really spruce up the functionality of PowerPoint, it will remain relatively constrained in it's ability to showcase information in new creative ways. I'd like to share a few alternatives to PPT that I've been exploring recently (admittedly these are by no means 'new' - but not widely used with my clients).

Wordle: Ironically created by a former IBMer, this application generates “word clouds” from text that you provide. The more often the words appear in the text you provide, the larger they are relative to the other words. Here is an example of a worlde based on my last blog post. I've found wordle particularly effective in showing discussion trends (or analyzing clusters of free form text).

Prezi: The video explains this concept much more appropriately. Be careful with this one, too much complexity in the presentation may actually cause nausea...

Easely.ly:This tool allows you to create and share neat infographics. It has an easy-to-use drag and drop functionality that makes it easy to learn and efficient. I have recently used easely.ly to create infographic representations of data analysis. Rather than the typical tables, bar graphs, and pie charts, these infographics make it easier to communicate a message. Here's an example:

I must make a disclaimer that all of these tools are free and open to the public, which means everyone should be careful about using sensitive, confidential information. Prezi has a paid version that allows for security encryption, but the other two share your products publicly. Enjoy!

[relevantlin]

Square: Unlike Its Culture

Culture is powerful. In ways it's hard to put into words, but easier seen through behaviors. Culture can come from many places. Most commonly I see it created by the founders, driven and modeled by the leadership, and embraced (in some cases) by the employees. My current work affords me the opportunity to see culture from a competitive advantage standpoint. Two companies have recently merged and the question of operational efficiency and customer service comes down to how well these two organization can work together. In a nutshell, it's a question of how seamlessly they can integrate their cultures.

This morning I read an article about Square and the culture their CEO, Jack Dorsey, instills. In the office, there is a tale that when Square landed the partnership with Starbucks, Jack Dorsey immediately grabbed an expensive bottle of whiskey from his desk and gave it to the engineer that made it possible. Each time the story is told, the value of this bottle of whiskey goes up. Humorous, yes - but it serves to show what's rewarded in Square's culture: problem solving. Though Square is often lauded for its culture of design, that understanding overlooks a simple truth.

"We're not just a design company; we're not just an engineering company. We're strong in both areas--we need to be. And part of what's made Square such a success story is its ability to cultivate a collaborative atmosphere for designers and engineers--a DNA of problem solving that unifies its various product groups." - CTO; Bob Lee

Since launching its service, Square has become as much known for its industrial design as for its dead-simple digital services, which include Square Register and Square Wallet. Square takes design with a problem solving mindset - taking it beyond how something looks, and drawing a commitment to focusing on how something works. Square reinforces this culture through weekly all-hand meetings--called Town Square--where everyone from engineers to PR workers can show off their latest projects; the design teams also hold regular creative reviews. The gatherings are crucial to making sure the various groups are on the same page.

Having leaders like Jack Dorsey that embody the organization's culture is one thing, but putting the structures in place to reinforce this culture (Town Squares) is important to nurturing that culture. A sexy, cool, hip culture is a trademark of many new tech start-ups in Silicon Valley these days - whether real or just marketed. It's great to see visionaries like Jack Dorsey bring the DNA of Square's culture to each and every employee.

[relevantlin]

Series A Crunch: Push to Crowdfunding

Series A funding has tightened as investors shy away from taking risks via Internet start up companies. Because of this, and other similar industry failures, investors have become warier of risky startups, and have been spending more of their dollars on conservative and guaranteed profitable opportunities. The crunch will push start ups to make a lot of tough decisions, such as RIFs, pivots, and where to find funding, to name a few.

On the funding side, investors use to be throwing money at start ups with large user bases without stopping to think about whether the start up is creating a business, or simply a feature or product. Another contributing factor to this crunch is the ratio of seed stage funding and Series A investments. While they used to be leveled, there is now a staggering difference. Series A rounds have flat lined, while earlier funding rounds have flooded the market, leaving thousands of startups floundering for follow-up funding.

While this seems like bleak news, there is an upside to this: investment crowdfunding is rising as a good prospective option. Sites like RockThePost and Kickstarter are taking advantage of this downturn in the financial industry and scooping up the broken pieces to rebuild a new way of getting funding in the private sector.

Now more than ever, reaching out to a new pool of investors that are interested in the growing world of startups has become extremely accessible and almost imperative. The door of venture capitals may be closing, but the investment crowdfunding window is wide open, and ready to explode.

[relevantlin]

Last Friday I posted about my upcoming trip to Tahoe as an early mark of #relevancy for 2013. I knew the trip would be incredible, but I didn’t quite realize how relevant it would be. 3 Reasons it exceeded my expectations:

1) Made it in and out of the back bowls and glades alive - with a lot of improvement. Just like my professional development, it’s important to chase people you aspire to be like. @DJkeenan sure was hard to chase down that mountain - but I’m better for it.

2) Had the opportunity to bring some of my closest friends together for the first ( and second) time. The chemistry in this group was transcendent. It’s amazing how different our backgrounds and experiences are, yet we find so many commonalities. Bringing interesting people together is always a recipe for success in my book

3) I was reminded that the pursuit of #relevancy is a two way street. Part of that street is making sure you’re helping those around you be #relevant too. I was both the recipient and deliverer in this formula that weekend. My ski game certainly improved at the expense and patience of my #relevant ski brethren. At the same time, I was also able to help @stevebab12 take a huge step in #relevancy his first time skiing. #relevancy is a team sport.

[relevantlin]

Health & Wellness is a Noisy Space

Had a very long yet rewarding day today - so I'll try to make this quick. I listened in on a really great conversation today around the mobile health and wellness space. I'm particularly fond of preventative health products/applications/services as a means of combating obesity and rising healthcare costs. Today I learned a few thins about the how challenging it is to play in this space.

A few things that health and wellness start-ups need to consider:

Know your target audience: three primary customer segments in this space - insurance providers, employers, and individuals. Generally speaking, it's better to go after the insurance providers and employers.

Define a unique value proposition: VCs are struggling to make investments in this space because they are approach with so many good ideas day to day, but they are all very similar ideas. Differentiation has become difficult in this space - it's noisy.

Build OUTCOMES: show that there is a way to prove reduced health plan costs, increased productivity, or increased employee retention - that's what the CFO cares about.

Focus on 6 pillars of measurement: Participation, behavior change, satisfaction rates, efficacy of weight loss, return on weight loss, and productivity

What I was surprised to learn today is how saturated this space is. There is so much to still be done in the Healthcare IT world - I suppose it's good to at least see there are a lot of ideas.

[relevantlin]

A Brief Look into the Evolution of Social Media

In the last week I've been preparing for a social media strategy discussion with a non-profit organization. The backdrop for this discussion is focused on how social media strategy resources within the organization can be best positioned given the evolving social media landscape. I'm particularly interested, and impressed, by this organization's cognition for taking the time to really think critically about the roles & responsibilities, skill sets required, and expectations for their social media strategist(s) - and certainly believe that changes have, and will continue to, occur in the social media landscape that are pivotal to resource re-positioning.

Rather than going into detail on my assessment of the qualifications, experiences, and skill sets required to address these changes (as I'm no HR expert), I'd like to focus this post on highlighting the most salient shifts in social media:

A few years ago: the question was whether to get involved in social media and why. Organizations were more concerned about whether to invest the time and resources in creating a social media presence. It was still uncertain as to whether there could truly be value derived from building a social brand image. Even the early adopters at this time really only flexed their social media muscles in the form of Facebook pages, LinkedIn profiles, and twitter accounts.

Now: the question isn't whether to get involved, but rather how, and what should our social media strategy be? The pervasiveness of mobile and digital has push social media beyond a competitive advantage, to a business requirement. Businesses now must meet their customers where they are, and that' in the social sphere. Thehow defines the business' strategy (e.g., audience, channels, message, engagement, return). 

Social media 'strategies' that treat social media as a marketing broadcasting channel, or take the fire hose approach (put a bunch of content out there and hope it works) will #fail. People are inundated with too much information (noise). Business' with social media strategies that pay careful attention to audience segmentation, building personal incentives (i.e., pushing the most relevant content), and creating sustainable 2-way viral loops will have the best shot at surviving this quickly changing landscape.

[relevantlin]

Tahoe was awesome, but this year's 2013 CES puts up a great fight (Part 2 of 2)

In part 2 of the 2013 CES roundup, I would like to focus on a number of product categories that I find particularly interesting/disruptive:

Auto Roundup: Several companies still paraded their latest infotainment wares, but this year, the self-driving debate nabbed a prime spot as Toyota and Audi both offered show-and-tells on tech that looks to aid drivers rather than do all of the work for them.

Audi's self-parking car and piloted-driving demo showed off tech designed to lend a hand when finding a spot in the garage and navigating through rush hour.

Toyota outfitted a Lexus with research tools to look into autonomous driving, meaning a real-life human will still need to pilot the ship.

Health and Wellness Roundup: Companies and developers unveiled a parade of apps, accessories and gizmos to help lose weight, eat properly, exercise regularly, prevent disease, manage illness and banish infirmity.

HeartMath is launching a new health product with an accompanying app. The company's emWave products -- a mix of hardware and software -- help users better manage stress by changing their heart rhythm pattern. While previous emWave devices worked by connecting pulse sensors to a computer's USB port, the company has transitioned to smartphone-centered products.

Plessey Semiconductors demonstrated imPulse, a new, handheld electrocardiogram monitor that will likely innovate medicine and hospital procedures. Rather than use electrodes taped to the patient's chest, imPulse only requires they touch two contact pads with their thumbs. The body's electric signal flows through the device, and is displayed on a connected laptop or other device.

HealthSpot is looking to change the doctor's office similar to the way that ATM's revolutionized banking, the HealthSpot Station aims to minimize waiting times and create more convenient health-care locations and hours for patients. HealthSpot says its service connects people with remotely-located doctors who can administer tests, monitor symptoms and perform other tasks remotely, via video-chat.

HAPIfork is a product solution that’s designed as both a data capture device and feedback loop in one very important aspect of consumer behavior – eating with a fork. The idea is simple. If you slow down the rate of consumption you will take in fewer calories. Using a Bluetooth enabled fork to capture the number of servings, intervals and time to finish (combined with haptic feedback) transforms a simple utensil into a possible ally in our battle with the bulge

PC and Processor Roundup: The most hyped tech news isn't always the most important. Regardless, the PC and Processor category is a staple of the CES and there were still a few products worth noting.

Intel dominated the start of this year's show, and for good reason.  Intel's Haswell, or even more precisely, the 10-watt version of Haswell, is destined to appear in hybrids and touch-enabled laptops by the fall.

Qualcomm represents the cutting edge of ARM-based chip innovation, and not for a split second do we doubt the technical achievement of the new Snapdragon 800 and 600. These processors will take an already excellent chip -- the S4 Pro -- and give it as much as 75 percent more CPU grunt and 50 percent better graphics, in addition to a doubling of GPU compute.

Tablet Roundup: The tablet landscape has changed greatly in a year's time, at least if you gauge what we've seen on the CES show floor. The 2012 expo was led mostly by high-end Android tablets. This year, Windows 8 understandably garnered much more of the spotlight now that it's available, while Google's platform mostly surfaced in the budget category, where it was much more prevalent than before.

Panasonic's 4K tablet prototype leads the CES pack. Once you've seen that many pixels in a much denser area than a 4K TV, it's hard to look at any other screen, let alone other tablets, the same way. That Panasonic even treats it as a tablet is equally audacious, as the 20-inch LCD and Core i5 processor are closer to what you 'd expect from a desktop.

Microsoft's Surface Pro wasn't on the official CES itinerary, it was undoubtedly one of the stars of the show. Many Windows fans have been holding out for the Pro as the "real" Microsoft-designed tablet, and our early impressions suggest that's what they'll get. Going Pro overcomes the performance issues of the Surface RT, throws in a much sharper display and introduces uncommonly intuitive pen input.

If you're interested in consuming even more details on the 2013 CES, Distro offers a day-by-day recount. Check out the links below.

Distro Issue 73.1

Distro Issue 73.2

Distro Issue 73.3

Distro Issue 73.4

[relevantlin]

Tahoe was awesome, but this year's 2013 CES puts up a great fight (Part 1 of 2)

I had the fortune of coming back to work this week after spending 3 days experiencing some of the best snow conditions out at Heavenly and Kirkwood with some really great friends. I thought there wasn't a chance that anyone else at work had better stories to tell than me. I was right. BUT - some of my teammates came pretty close with their experience in Las Vegas at least weeks' 2013 Consumer Electronics Show (CES). For those who didn't have a chance to attend or read up about the 2013 CES, I'll do my best at piecing together the experience in a two part post. The first post (this one) will speak broadly about CES and attempt to wrap up the event in a handful of tid-bits. Tomorrow's post will dive deeper into the buzz around each product category.

Let's start with some background. What is CES? CES is one of the premier technology-related trade shows held each January in the Las Vegas Convention Center. Not open to the public, the Consumer Electronics Association-sponsored show typically hosts previews of products and new product announcements. This year, over 3,000 exhibitors showcased a wide range of innovative products in categories including 3D, Accessories, Audio, Automotive Electronics, Embedded Technology, Lifestyle Electronics, Wireless & Wireless Devices to name a few. The 2013 CES can be wrapped up into 4 points (as put by Forbes' James McQuivey):

An Internet of Sensors: In the consumer electronics world, we need an internet of sensors. Sensors now have the flexibility to identify the important things in MY environment and provide efficient means of addressing them. What we saw at 2013's CES was an emergence of the "Internet of Sensors" (see Flower Power for a cool example). The mobile phone is most powerful not when it is used as a trackable thing or addressable node on a network, but when it is used as a collection of remote sensors. Beyond the mobile, you will soon have microphones, cameras, and even air quality sensors in your bathroom, your car, and even following you via aerial drones (Parrot again). These sensors will communicate with each other to create a meta-sensor experience that will trump any particular device’s claim to the future, distributing the benefits of the future across whatever range of interfaces you employ.

The Human Body as a Playground: The one place where the show really broke out this year was in health and wellness monitoring. Fitbit and Withings, the real founders of the consumer-facing category of body monitoring, were joined this year by dozens of manufacturers, each of them offering their version of a fitness watch, a pedometer, a scale, a blood pressure cuff, or even a fork. Other manufacturers see the body as territory for your insurance company, your doctor, or even your employer to claim, so they were there, too, offering devices and apps designed to help track our aging population on behalf of institutions.

Invest in the Experience, Not Product: It's not the product that matters, it's the total product experience that matters. Digital experiences can amplify the value of a product, extending its boundaries far beyond its prior limits, engaging consumers more deeply, at more times and in more places than before.

Shifting CES Focus: The old days of CES, wherein exhibitors reveal their big plans for the coming year and buyers haggle over prices and place bulk orders behind the scenes, has been effectively neutralized by the Internet. Exhibitors show their products online before CES and many of them even announce pricing before the show, effectively eliminating one of the key roles of CES in the old days, that of bringing buyers and sellers together to find a market price for a new product. Instead, CES now has a new function: It is the place that executives from every industry come to kickstart the calendar year, to ensure that they don’t miss whatever trends will shape the year ahead

More details to come on my favorite product categories tomorrow.

[relevantlin]

Fun Fridays: Continued Pursuit of Relevance

2013 so far has gotten off to a great start. The pursuit of relevance is always top of mind for me and I realized that this week was an incredible relevant week in 3 specific ways. My posts are usually so text heavy so I'll help you all out today (since it's a Friday) and explain with pictures.

1) Going to Heavenly to experience real powder skiing

2) Registered for the Petoskey Triathlon

3) Went to the Stanford student gym twice this week with @stevebab12

No that's not me or babs, but it's the best picture I could find on Google. 2013 - you've been good to me so far. Let's keep it that way.

[relevantlin]

Spotlight: Social Enterprise Start-ups

Social enterprise (or as we call it at work, Social Business), has been a hot industry in the past year as companies start to mature beyond the simple superficial 'social trail' of Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Businesses are starting to realize that tracking vanity metrics such as number of 'followers', 'likes', and 're-tweets' are not necessarily driving their bottom line. However, where social can drive the bottom line is when it is turned towards the business.

Companies are starting to move towards social enterprise solutions to enable their workforce to improve expertise identification, proactively predict customer needs, and bring products/services to market faster. I'm a big believer of the philosophy that social solutions must show B2B viability in improve their success rate (not to mention I'm a fan of the software subscription model). That being said, I'd like to highlight a few social enterprise start-ups that I like:

Vobi: Vobi's service enables users to connect with services that allow them to collaborate with others, so it is not a file-sharing type of service, according to a TechCrunch story which earlier reported the funding news. Users access the Vobi dashboard by telephone number, and the service links them to their email, social sites and other cloud services...Vobi raised $1.5M in Series A financing from Trailblazer Capital

Igloo: Igloo is a web-based platform for collaborating at work. It's a digital workplace that enables you to share files, find answers, solve problems, locate information and expertise and tap into the collective knowledge of your customers, partners and peers, virtually anywhere. Igloo raised $5M in second round funding from RBC Venture Partners and the Ontario Emerging Technologies Fund

FolioShack: London-based Folioshack has created a publishing platform for investment banks and other verticals to create dynamic presentations for distribution on iPad tablets and smartphones - currently being boot-strapped by founder Alex Peretti #Respect

It was only a few years ago that selling IT to enterprises was the terrain mainly of large companies like IBM, Oracle and Accenture. And in a market that is forecast to be worth some $3.6 trillion this year, they may still be top dogs, but another trend is also afoot: the growth of the enterprise startup.

[relevantlin]

#Business Model Generation: Diving into Customer Segmentation

Yesterday I highlighted the 9 building blocks that make up a business model. Today, I want to take you all a layer deeper into customer segmentation. First let's start by answering what customer segments are:

Customer Segments define the different groups of people or organizations an enterprise aims to reach and serve.

There are many ways to slice and dice customer segments. Often times enterprises find it most difficult to separate their customers intouniquesegments. Unique segments can be created based on common needs, behaviors, or other attributes. To be more explicit, customer groups represent separate segments if:

Their needs require and justify a distinct offering

They are reached through different distribution channels

The require different types of relationships

They have substantially different profitabilities

They are willing to pay for different aspects of the offer

There are also different types of customer segments. I want to take a moment to highlight a few examples:

Mass Market: Business models focused on mass market don't distinguish between different customer segments. The value proposition, distribution channels, and customer relationships all focus on one large group with similar needs and problems.

Niche Market: This segments is very specialized, characterized by very tailored value propositions and distribution channels. Such business models are often found in supplier-buyer relationships.

Segmented: Some business models distinguish between market segments with slightly different needs and problems. The retail banking arm of a financial services institution may segment its customers into below $100,000 savings and above $500,000 savings. Both customers are similar, but have varying needs and problems.

Diversified: This business model serves two unrelated customer segments with very different needs and problems. Likewise, they offer two different value propositions, channels, and relationships.

Multi-sided platforms: Some orgs serve two or more interdependent customer segments. For instance, a credit card company needs a large base of credit card holders and a large base of merchants who accept those credit cards.

As you can see, some thought should be put into thinking about whether the customers your company services have unique needs and problems. The choice of customer segmentation strategy has implications for the other blocks within the business model.

[relevantlin]

Business Model Generation: The 9 Building Blocks

Undoubtedly I am a bit late on this post but I do believe late is better than never. As I continue to read through Alex Osterwalder'sBusiness Model Generation, I want to make sure I'm sharing some insights from this quick read. Today, I want to talk about the 9 "building blocks" to a business model. But first, let's start with how we define a business model:

Business Model:A business model describes the rationale of how an organization creates, delivers, and captures value.

The following 9 building blocks are intended to establish a simple, relevant, and intuitively understandable breakdown of a business model while not oversimplifying the complexities of how businesses function. They show the logic of how a company intends to make money. These elements allow you to describe and think through your own organization's business model, or even that of your competitors. With this shared language, you can easily describe and manipulate business models to create new strategic alternatives. The 9 building blocks are as follows:

Customer Segments (CS) - An organization serves one or several customer segments.

Value Proposition (VP) - It seeks to solve customer problems and satisfy customers needs with a value proposition

Channels (CH) - Value propositions are delivered to clients through communications, distribution, and sales channels.

Customer Relationships (CR) - Customer relationships are established and maintained with each customer segment.

Revenue Streams (RS) - Revenue streams results from value propositions successfully delivered to customers.

Key Resources (KR) - Key resources are the assets required to offer and deliver the previously described elements...

Key Activities (KA) - ...by performing a number of key activities

Key Partnerships (KP) - Some activities are outsources and some resources are acquired outside of the enterprise.

Cost Structure (CS) - The business model elements result in the cost structure.

Osterwalder offers a visual representation of the relationship between these building blocks. Although it is quite simplistic and not entirely helpful in understanding the intricacies within and between each element, I find it somewhat helpful in at least remembering the 9 blocks listed above:

As I continue to dive into each of the 9 building blocks, I will share more details around each element and how it acts as a pillar within the business model. Also, Fred Wilson has been covering various revenue models in his "MBA Mondays" series. He has covered Advertising, Commerce, and Subscriptions. He is very comprehensive and explains each very clearly - highly recommend reading.

[relevantlin]

New Years Resolution: staying relevant in 2013

It's 2013, and looks like the Mayans might have miscalculated the end of the world, which I'm not complaining about. As with any new year, I've come up with a few New Year resolutions that I intend to fully adhere to (per usual). Perhaps by putting it out to the public brings a greater sense of accountability, or just simply laying them out on paper makes it clearer in my mind. Which ever it is, here are my steps to staying relevant in 2013: 1) Physical Health: strength train 3 times a week and do cardio training 2 times a week (time to get in triathlon shape) 2) Mental Health: blog every weekday (day 1). Reading is important, putting my thoughts and perspectives into clear messages is critical. 3) Social Health: learn to cook a new recipe every week. I love cooking and this is my sanity insurance policy. I've also decided to keep a calendar at home with my girlfriend where we will track the completion of our resolutions on a weekly basis. Perhaps another accountability measure...in any case, I'm excited for what 2013 has in store. Happy New Year, all.