Key Resources

Question 1

What are KRs?

Answer 1

• The most important assets required to make a business model work
• Necessary for both delivery and creation of VP
• These allow the organisation to create and deliver the value proposition, providing necessary inputs to the different activities, relationships and other components of the business model
• Resources can be previously owned, acquired by the venture, or accessed through partnerships

Question 2

What is resource based theory?

Answer 2

• Resources are ‘strengths and weaknesses’ of a firm
• Resources are valuable if they exploit opportunities and/or neutralised threats in the environment
• Resources are valuable if they enable better satisfaction of [stakeholder] needs
• Resources are valuable when they enable a firm to conceive or implement strategies that improve its efficiency or effectiveness

Question 3

What are the types of KRs?

Answer 3

• Physical
• Intellectual
• Financial
• Human

Question 4

What are physical KRs?

Answer 4

• These include and infrastructure required for your activities
• Tangible assets
  
  • Such as equipment, vehicles, real estate
• Intangible assets
  
  • Software, IT systems and websites

Question 5

What are intellectual KRs?

Answer 5

• Refers to any knowledge capital or intellectual property possessed
• Includes legally protected resources such as copyrights, trademarks, patents
• It also includes any brands, industrial processes, trade secrets, and existing network of customer relationships

Question 6

What are financial KRs?

Answer 6

• Refers to any necessary monetary resources that are key to creation and delivery of the VP
• Can include cash, lines of credit or stock options for attracting key employees
• These resources should only reflect those that are integral to delivery of the VP, and do not represent the general costs of doing business

Question 7

What are human KRs?

Answer 7

• Refers to the role of people in creating, delivering and capturing value for the venture
• Often this refers to people that have specialist skillets that are difficult to replicate
• Also refers to any particular experience that people may have that helps the venture accelerate its learning

Question 8

What is special about human KRs?

Answer 8

• An increasingly important aspect is any special access the venture has to exclusive networks or communities. These are groups of people with specific codes of conduct, beliefs and/or behaviours
• Accessing these communities provides an excellent starting point for co-creation activities
• If the relationship with a community is strong, it can quickly become a vehicle to access a large number of dedicated and loyal customers

Question 9

What are teams?

Answer 9

• A particularly important form of human resources is the founding team and any ancillary members or supporters
• A make or break KR for ventures
• They drive the venture and ensure that it operates efficaciously, and are therefore responsible for its success

Question 10

What are the attributes of a strong team?

Answer 10

• Common goal - a shared sense of purpose that motivates and drives all members
• Interdependence of tasks - where each member’s contributions draw from and support those of the team
• Mutual accountability - through which each individual takes personal responsibility for the performance of the whole

Question 11

What are the key characteristics of creating a good team?

Answer 11

• Comparable interests
  
  • A good team is aligned about what it intends to achieve
• Complementary strengths
  
  • Each member helps the others overcome their weaknesses while sharing a diversity of perspectives
• Collaborative personalities
  
  • Every person on the team is enthusiastic about learning from the rest and any mentors or supporters
• Capacity to execute
  
  • A good team recognises and focuses on the areas where they are able to sustain a competitive advantage

Question 12

What is required to create a good team?

Answer 12

Finding a good team requires a combination of characteristics and roles:

Question 13

What are the key roles when creating a good team?

Answer 13

• Problem holder
  
  • Focus on knowledge and experience they need directly
• Problem solver
  
  • Focus on the methodology and process of solving the problem
• Problem broker
  
  • Focus on capturing the commercial opportunity
• Individuals can be 1 or any combination of the 3