[AISWorld] Business model generation and case teaching

[Richard Watson]

G'day

For some years, I have struggled to get students to prepare for case discussions. My standard approach was to ask them to submit before class 4-5 key facts. 

I think I have found a better way.

I now use a business model generation canvas, which has 9 elements, and I require students to submit prior to class a business model canvas with entries for all 9 elements. My experience is that that they have to read the case carefully in order to provide a canvas and in the process have to think more about the case. It is a more comprehensive and integrative approach than the 4-5 facts that they can quickly pull from reading a few pages without a lot of thinking.

I also project the canvas on a whiteboard to support case discussion, and I have student projects requiring the development of business models for net=enabled businesses.

For more on the business model generation canvas, see http://www.amazon.com/Business-Model-Generation-Visionaries-Challengers/dp/0470876417/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1283437632&sr=8-1 

This book was co-authored by Alex Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur, members of the IS academic community. 

There is a Cacoo template to support individual and collaborative canvas completion, and students can share the canvas with me. There are two parts to the template, a blank version and one with prompting questions
See https://cacoo.com/diagrams/xNFFVaRdObW5JIVL#504BA
You can get a free account for Cacoo


Disclaimers
Yves Pigneur has been a friend for more than a decade.
My son works for Nulab, the developers of Cacoo.

I hope this is helpful to those who teach using cases.

Cheers

Rick


***************************************************
Richard T. Watson
J. Rex Fuqua Distinguished Chair for Internet Strategy
Co-Leader of the Global Text Project <http://globaltext.org>
Department of MIS
Terry College of Business
The University of Georgia
316 Brooks Hall
Athens GA 30602.6273

voice  +1.706.621.6182
fax    +1.706.583.0037  

rwatson at terry.uga.edu
http://www.terry.uga.edu/~rwatson