Page 100 - AC/E's Digital Culture Annual Report 2015

Cultural business models on the Internet100In Osterwalder’s writings, Business Design is presented as a new developmental step in this field whereby the use of DT leads to an outline of the business model. Having understood the complexity of the context and outlined an idea, the so-called Business Model Canvas (BMC) makes it possible to establish a diagram of how this business model functions. Nevertheless, in the main business focus of this line of work, and the use it is being given, DT is employed as a tool for building the idea that brings the BMC into the picture, but it does not actually explore the real potential of DT.10 It is important not to forget the foundations, and to realise that it is not sufficient to fill in a canvas with nine build- ing blocks, however attractive, simple and clarifying it might seem, but rather that we can and must go further than this.Even with a clear context and ideas, and having developed an initial BMC (there can be sever- al),11 it is still not time for the Business Plan. It is necessary to iterate the business model, for which a Minimum Viable Product needs to be developed and tested against the market. It is here that a new actor/concept comes into play in the equation we propose: Lean Startup, from the technological world (Silicon Valley). We are convinced that today it is necessary to think and act like a startup.To quote Steve Blank, a leading name in Customer Discovery processes, “a startup is a temporary organisation formed to search for a repeatable and scalable business model”.12 In other words, it is an experimental phase with which to confirm our suspicions and check out the possibility of generating revenues, takingfor granted that we cannot foresee the market response, but that we must test ourselves until we hit on what works, and how and why it works.Finally, having validated our assumptions, the business model, the market and the initial sales, at this point we can venture to draw up a sound Business Plan that will evolve over time or will be necessary to redefine in the short term, but will be built on thorough knowledge.Two further lessons to end this section:Lesson five, genius exists, there is no denying it; we will always come across visionaries who set new standards in the blinking of an eyelid. However, most cases of success stem from hard work from the outset aimed at understanding the user and discovering the market around a solution.Business Model Canvas (BMC)Source: http://ciberopolis.com/wp-content/ uploads/2011/08/Lienzo-modelos-de-negocio.jpg (clockwise, starting left)Partner networkKey activitiesValue propositionCustomer relationshipCustomer segmentsRevenue streamsDistribution channelsKey resourcesCost structureHow to apply Design Thinking (DT) and Lean Startup (LS) to finding new business opportunities for the culture industries of the twenty-first century