The one-sentence summary
Mapping out a visual canvas of a business model helps you to understand, design, test and implement it more easily than with just words.
WHAT THE BOOK SAYS 
- This book claims to be a handbook for visionaries, game changers, and challengers striving to defy outmoded business models and design tomorrow’s enterprises. No pressure there then.
- It is co-created by 470 strategy practitioners, and provides a rallying call to change the way you think about business models
- It shows a system moving in a sequence, the main theme of which is the Canvas, which has 9 building blocks that are constantly reworked throughout:
- Customer segments
- Value propositions
- Channels
- Customer relationships
- Revenue streams
- Key resources
- Key activities
- Key partnerships
- Cost structure
- A variety of patterns are shown, from the Long Tail, to free, open, and multi-sided platforms. The permutations are effectively endless.
- There are then a series of design systems, prototyping and scenario techniques to move from plan to reality, evaluate strategy, design a process, and bring everything to fruition.
WHAT’S GOOD ABOUT IT
- It is presented in a pleasing landscape shape that enables you to view your plans as proper canvases. These are meticulously designed so that you can compare scores of different spreads to view the shape of a business.
- Only the churlish would fail to find a fresh perspective here – you could analyze your business, or a proposed new one, in hundreds of different ways.
- The book is mainly visual, so you don’t need to wade through many words to come up with a practical exercise for a planning session.
WHAT YOU HAVE TO WATCH
- The language of business models is always in danger of straying into cliché. Clarity on whether an idea has merit or not should always be screened with a bullshit test.