Key Activities Flashcards
1
Q
What are key activities?
A
- The most important things a company must do to make its business model work
- Activities are actions and operations that allow an organisation to create and deliver a value proposition
- These activities are what allow the organisation to implement the strategies expressed in other components of the business model
2
Q
What are the standard types of KAs?
A
- Production
- Problem Solving
- Platform/Network activities
3
Q
What are production KAs?
A
- These activities relate to the creation and delivery of the value proposition
- These apply in business models that are designing and making a tangible (e.g. manufacturing) and/or intangible (e.g. coding) offering
- Some key decision rules for production activities are whether they will allow for sufficient quantity or volume, or if they will allow for the proaction of an offering of superior quality
- The more specific you are about production activites, the easier it will be to determine any necessary resources and associated costs
4
Q
What are problem solving KAs?
A
- These activities refer to those that engage with customers and other stakeholders in order to identify and understand their needs, leading to the development of valuable solutions
- These activities usually require highly specialised human resources, and as such are difficult to scale quickly or cheaply. Design thinking, knowledge management and continuous improvement are all examples of problem solving activities
- It is important to focus these activities towards archiving organisational learning, improving the understanding of the customers, their needs, any technology used and the market and industry
5
Q
What are platform/network KAs?
A
- These activities are those required for the development, implementation and maintenance of platforms that allow for an organisation’s stakeholders to engage among themsevles
- A key aspect of these is that they represent a continuous cycle of recognising how stakeholders are engaging with the platform and ensuring that any features it possesses are aligned with these behaviours
6
Q
What is the alternative perspective of the types of KAs?
A
- Research Activities
- Those aimed at learning more about the problem, your solution, your business model, and the way you are implementing these learnings in order to improve
- Production Activities
- Those directed at making your solution tangible, such as coding, design, manufacturing, assembly and others. It also includes the administrative aspects and management of the business
- Promotion Activities
- Those activities focused on positioning, marketing and sales, and ways in which you grow your customer base
- Networking Activities
- Those aimed at growing your partner relationships. It also includes seeking out further sources of funding
7
Q
How are KA’s determined?
A
- VRIO Framework
8
Q
What are the criteria in the VRIO framework?
A
- Question of Value
- Is the firm able to exploit an opportunity or neutralise an external threat with the resource/capability?
- Question of Rarity
- Is control of the resource/capability in the hands of a relative few?
- Question of Imitability
- Is it difficult to imitate, and will there be significant cost disadvantage tot firm trying to obtain, develop or duplicate the resource/capablity?
- Question of Organisation
- Is the firm organised, ready and able to exploit the resource/capability? Is the firm organised to capture value?
9
Q
What are the competitive and economic implications of a non valuable KA?
A
- Competitive implications
- Disadvantage
- Economic Implications
- Below normal
10
Q
What are the competitive and economic implications of a valuable but non rare KA?
A
- Competitive implications
- Parity
- Economic Implications
- Normal
11
Q
What are the competitive and economic implications of a valuable, rare, but not costly to imitate KA?
A
- Competitive implications
- Temporary Advantage
- Economic Implications
- Above normal (for some amount of time)
12
Q
What are the competitive and economic implications of a valuable, rare, costly to imitate and properly organised KA?
A
- Competitive implications
- Sustained advantage
- Economic Implications
- Above normal
13
Q
What is the prevalent philosophy in the traditional model of innovation?
A
In the tradidiontal model of innovation, the prevalent philosophy was that successful innovation requires control.
14
Q
What are the maxims of the traditional model of innovation?
A
- Recruit and retain the best in the field
- Invest heavily in R&D, developing the greatest number of novel concepts
- Aggressively protect IP, preventing competitors from exploiting these concepts
- Reinvest commercialisation profits into further R&D, creating a virtuous cycle
15
Q
What has lead to the significance of the open business model/
A
- The rising number and mobility of knowledge workers, the inability for firms to commercialise all research, and the growing access to venture capital are changing our perspectives on the Closed innovation model:
- Innovation is based a landscape of abundant knowledge which must be used readily or externalised
- Internal knowledge should not be constrained to internal pathways, nor should internal pathways be restricted form exploring external knowledge
- Rather than locking up IP, ways of profiting from external use should be found
- Changes in the screening process to reduce ‘false negatives’ by recognising external opportunities for the development of ideas
