Exercises: The Business Model Canvas: building blocks, utility, and patterns

List the nine building blocks of the Business Model Canvas and explain in one sentence what each one covers.

State which block of the canvas each element of a food delivery company belongs to: premises rent, the ordering app, "home-cooked food in 15 minutes", hired delivery drivers, subscriber monthly fees, and vegetable suppliers.

The figure shows the Business Model Canvas with its nine blocks. Identify the missing central block, marked with "?", and justify why it is considered the heart of the canvas: what would happen to the remaining blocks if it were poorly defined?

For a grocery delivery app, we know: value proposition ("groceries delivered home within one hour"), customer segment (busy families), channel (mobile app), and revenue stream (commission per order). Propose, with reasons, the contents of the other five blocks: key partners, key activities, key resources, customer relationships, and cost structure.

Some business model patterns recur repeatedly: freemium, subscription, multi-sided platform, and long tail. Explain what each consists of and give an example of a real or fictional company that applies it.

Explain two advantages of the canvas over a traditional 40-page business plan when an idea is emerging (speed, overview, ease of adapting) and at what stage the full plan is still required.

In a company's canvas, these three blocks appear: value proposition "premium handcrafted product", channel "budget supermarkets", and customer relationship "one-to-one personalised service". Identify two inconsistencies between blocks, explain why they conflict, and correct the canvas to make it consistent.

A traditional language academy with physical classrooms and in-person small group lessons decides to transform into a 100\ % online platform. Its new strategy consists of replacing in-person classes with pre-recorded courses and live weekly tutoring sessions, reducing the monthly fee from $\$90$ to $\$20$.

1. a) Analyze the transformation in the cost structure: identify which fixed costs are eliminated, what new costs appear, and how the academy's operating risk (operating leverage) is altered.
2. b) Evaluate the impact of this change on customer relationships and channels. Justify whether this pivot implies targeting a different customer segment or if keeping the current one is viable, reasoning how it will affect the perceived value proposition.

A bicycle rental company for tourists in a coastal city operates from commercial premises and charges by the hour. Its business suffers from two serious problems: marked seasonality ($75\ %$ of revenue is concentrated in summer) and a new municipal ordinance prohibiting the parking of rental bicycles in public spaces.

1. a) Design a redesign of the business model by acting on at least four interconnected blocks of the canvas (value proposition, channels, customer segments, and revenue streams) that allows for deseasonalizing revenue and complying with regulations.
2. b) Assume the company decides to incorporate electric bicycles for a B2B segment (last-mile delivery couriers and hotels). Analyze how the key partners network, key activities, and cost structure are transformed compared to the original tourism model.