Leverage on Business Model Canvas as FP&A Professionals

Without a doubt, one of the key skills to develop for FP&A professionals is Business Acumen.  

Business acumen is the ability to understand business issues and there are many ways to develop such skills. Business Model Canvas would be one of the simple tools we can leverage. It allows us to quickly grasps the foundation of every business without drilling into too many details.  

Business Model Canvas (BMC), created by Alexander Osterwalder, is a strategic management template that build from 9 Key Building Blocks and provides a systematic way to have a quick overview of any business. And the 9 Key Building Blocks are:

• Customer Segments

• Value Propositions

• Channels

• Customer Relationships

• Revenue Streams

• Key Resources

• Key Activities

• Key Partners

• Cost structure

How can FP&A professionals leverage Business Model Canvas? Here are some examples:

• Let’s say you are preparing for an interview or recently on board to the role of Financial Analyst, you can leverage BMC as a brainstorming platform to try to figure out the main business activities and its relationships: From who’s the key Clients/ Customers [Customer Segments], what’s the key products/ services that drive the main revenue stream [Revenue Streams], how the products sold to the customers [Channels], by the end of the exercise you will have a much better understanding of the departmental and people dynamics of the company.

• Or you rotated to a new FBP role within the organization, BMC can be used as a structural template to understand what role of the department/ Business Unit play in the business so you can brainstorm the required analysis, reports, and business partnering objectives from there.

What do you think? Share your thoughts below!