Strategy & business modelling: Designing a unique, coherent way of doing business and creating value

What course do you teach?

I teach Strategy & Business Modelling to students on the MSc in Strategy, Organisation & Consulting programme. My objective is to train students to develop their strategic thinking and business modelling ability. Being involved in executive education and being a consultant as well, I forge a bridge between academic foundations and business relevance in the classroom. I want the students to master frameworks that are useful in their careers, whether they join a company or a consulting firm. As consultants, they will need to know how to frame a business issue and what methodology to use in diagnosis or making a recommendation. In a company, they will have to use a cross-functional approach to business situations. They will need to go beyond the classical company silos.     

What is your teaching style?

I am very business oriented. EDHEC has a competitive advantage here, as we have a good blend in the faculty. As I am heavily involved in executive education, I bring a lot of real-life illustrations to the class. I also challenge the students a lot. It’s active, peer learning.  

Is there a must-read on Strategy & Business modelling for students?

On business modelling, a core book would be Business Model Generation: A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers, and Challengers by Alexander Osterwalder. On strategy, I would recommend Playing to win: How Strategy Really Works by Alan George Lafley and Roger L. Martin.

What is your field of expertise?

I focus mainly on corporate governance and strategy, new types of competitive strategy through a business modelling approach for different industries.

You published a book about business modelling. You explain that creating or reinventing an effective and sustainable business model is based on a few fundamentals. Can you tell us more about these fundamentals?   

To establish a relevant business model, the key is to design a robust, strong, compelling customer value proposition. To do so, you need to go out in the field, meet customers, and detect their pain points and their needs, even when they cannot express them clearly. The other steps have to do with being creative in the way you design your revenue proposition and make your top line. Do you bill in a classical way? Do you use subscriptions or pay-as-you-use? Then, you also need to lead operational alignment, which means aligning the company’s value proposition with market expectations. A business-model strategy has to do with designing a unique, coherent way of doing business and creating value. So, to sum up, the fundamentals are: the uniqueness of your competitive space through the value proposition, revenue model creativity and operational alignment.  

What are the key concepts the students will learn in your class? 

It’s not about key concepts, but frameworks. Students will develop their strategic thinking, their ability to get the big picture, to have a systemic and holistic view and, at the same time, be pragmatic and down to earth, using facts and data. They will develop their ability to clarify the company’s mission, vision and values. They will use TOWS analysis, a foresight approach, market sizing and competitive intensity, such as that proposed by Harvard Professor Micheal E. Porter (author of The Five Competitive Forces That Shape Strategy). I insist on competitive mapping and internal diagnosis through value-chain analysis. We study the classical metrics of corporate portfolio management.  We use various business-modelling canvases.

I incorporate corporate and social responsibility issues. I increasingly emphasize the importance of the company’s purpose, the value chain and circularity. Nowadays, the value chain is a loop and you need to integrate, for instance, the recycling of the company’s goods.      

Will students have the opportunity to apply the theory? 

Yes. They have a general case study to train and test their critical thinking. They also have team case studies to work on to train their ability to make sound business judgements and to communicate them with impact. Thus, they need to work on their approach to working in a culturally diverse team and develop their storytelling skills to deliver their messages.    

What are the key skills the students will gain in your class?  How will it help them in their future careers?

I would say that they develop their capacity to zoom in and zoom out. Zooming out means seeing the big picture and being creative. Zooming in means diving deep into the root causes, being rigorous, making judgments based on data and facts. We hone their ability to make sound business judgments and put forward options and recommendations before crafting clear recommendations, to master different frameworks and select the right one, to generate strong insights.  

What do you expect them to have mastered on completion of your course?

Upon completion of my course, I hope they will be more confident in their ability to make good business decisions, frame a business issue and use the right methodology to run a diagnosis. They should also be able to communicate in an effective way through strong storytelling ability, make relevant recommendations or business decisions, and work in a diverse team.