Strategyzer is a B2B SaaS provider offering intelligent business enterprise software to simplify business practices. Strategyzer is a leader in business intellect and multinational database management and control. It is a fast-growing company focused on assisting companies of all sizes and scopes to improve their decision-making process.
Strategyzer proposes to customers a cloud-based platform that grants businesses the proficiency to access and analyze data from any source, anywhere in the world. They intend to help every business practitioner explore, interpret, and enhance their marketing scheme with practical tools. The company’s core product: the Strategyzer Brand Insights tool and Mechanism, allows brands to identify and understand their target audience and develop a winning strategy.
The B2B SaaS provider is a web-based, personal coaching solution that teaches people to think like entrepreneurs. To date, Strategyzer has helped over 50 thousand users learn about business, develop their ideas and launch their first company.
Background And History
The company was co-founded by Dr. Alexander (Alex) Osterwalder in 2010. To date, he plays a role as one of the most influential innovation and business growth experts. He is also an author, an entrepreneur, and an in-demand speaker whose work has greatly influenced how companies do business and how new brands launch.
Strategyzer, since its launch in 2010, has provided over 5 million people with Osterwalder Business Model Canvas. The business model canvas explains the logic behind how any business intends to drive value and make money. Brands can sketch their business model ideas using Strategyzer’s tools. Strategyzer has its headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland.
The Beginning
In an interview with IMD Professor of Innovation Management Bill Fischer, Alex Osterwalder shared the story of how the Business Model Canvas came about, where it’s now, and where it’s going in the future.
In the interview, Alex mentioned that the Business Model Canvas started as Osterwalder’s Ph.D. dissertation with Yves Pigneur. He said he wanted entrepreneurs to use the Business Model Canvas to prototype their businesses. Today, the Business Model Canvas has become a widely used tool by companies.
In the interview, the duo also discussed Alex’s approach to failure, assumptions testing, risk management, and factors he considers before making decisions on innovations.
Strategyzer provides technology-enabled innovation services to leading organizations. Colgate-Palmolive, Master Card, and Merck are some of Strategyzer’s clients who can testify to the effectiveness of the service they render. Strategyzer is still helping companies effectively and systematically direct their innovation strategy, growth, and much-needed transformation.
Strategyzer And Its Business Model
Before we discuss Strategyzer’s business model, let’s first establish a basic knowledge of business models. A business model is a company’s plan or strategy for driving value to its target market and making a profit or generating revenue. The model identifies the products or services the business intends to present to its target audience and anticipates expenses that will be required to meet the model’s aims.
Every business needs a business model. It should be something they often visit to remove, add or improve on their strategy. When you have designed a business model, you have a foundation to write a good business plan. Then you can present your plan to potential partners. The business plan aims to “sell” a project scheme to potential investors or top internal management.
To write a business plan, structure it into five sections: The business model, the team, the financial analysis, the external environment, the implementation roadmap, and the risk analysis. You can streamline the process by using a business modeling service like Strategyzer to brainstorm and communicate between business partners and team members.
Since it differs quite a bit from a traditional business planning service, Strategyzer’s small team package functions much better as a tool you can use to understand future goals and new ideas better.
Strategyzer is a company that provides cloud-based, established software solutions to help companies improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their marketing strategies. They have developed a platform that allows companies to analyze the effectiveness of their marketing campaigns, identify gaps in their approach, and then take action to close them.
The company’s business model is primarily a subscription-based service. Organizations must pay an annual fee to access the platform and all its features, including analytics tools, user-friendly dashboards, and training materials.
The Strategyzer App is a subscription-based service that runs yearly for each project. The subscription runs for a year (starting from the day of purchase) and renews automatically on the said expiration date if you wish to continue with the app.
Strategyzer offers only one app-based package as their Enterprise plan is yet to be developed. The Small Team subscription is around $299.99/year and has no month-to-month option.
The Small Team Package includes unlimited business canvas and users, real-time collaboration, a financial estimator, integration with Excel and Powerpoint, and many more features. Users will also find several helpful prompts and references every step of the way. The Business Model Canvas consists of nine building blocks: cost structure, key partners, resources, activities, channels, value propositions, revenue streams, customer relationships, and segments.
Unique feature users appreciate on the app is the virtual sticky notes. The sticky note feature limits the use of too many characters in each building block. The limit in the usage of characters encourages you to focus on each section’s main idea and clearly and concisely communicate your ideas.
The business model is built on a strategy that has worked for many brands. The concept is simple yet powerful — you pay money to get access to a team of experts who can help you make better decisions, improve your business and grow your profits.
However, you must note that for a model to be successful, it must provide a product or service that offers a solution. That’s why the first step in the Strategyzer business model is to provide a service: they analyze businesses for you and give you actionable advice about how to improve them through their experienced consultants in strategy development, competitive analysis, and marketing.
Once they have analyzed your company or industry, they will create a customized marketing strategy for you. To ensure the flow of a well-produced result, they will also present the findings at a conference or webinar where attendees or clients can learn from experts in the field and hear from people who have used our services successfully.
Strategyzer is at a critical inflection point in its business model. The brand is expanding its operations into new markets to build a strong sales force.
Strategyzer’s Competitors In The Business Intelligence Industry
Strategyzer has a lot of competitors, and their main competitors are the Business Intelligence (BI) software companies that offer similar services.
Strategyzer competes with other Business Intelligence (BI) software providers such as travel agencies, sales companies, and marketing companies.. It also competes with salesforce.com, which offers an online CRM system; however, Strategyzer’s focus is on the business process side of the equation rather than on customer relationship management. Some of its strong competitors are Cuttles, Growth Forge, MausHub, and LivePlan.
LivePlan has a simplified system to help businesses plan, budget, forecast, and track their performances. Cuttles has interactive and guided pitch business software to help entrepreneurs build, understand, and grow profitable businesses. The app has features for users to create a start-up pitch, write a business plan, plan a budget, define a start-up team, and make financial projections.
Growth Forge offers a cloud-based service that helps teams stay innovative when formulating, modeling, and evaluating business strategies from a hypothesis into a real business. MAUS Hub uses a streamlined process to analyze your business and run a detailed financial health check to help unlock more profit and unrealized cash.
These brands are also pulling their weight around in the business world. It will be easy for Strategyzer to get lost in the ecosystem if it underestimates the system.
Where They Are At Currently: Goals And Successes
1. Goals
Strategyzer has a particular goal—to unlock the unharnessed potentials of entrepreneurs and brands and help them create value for themselves, organizations, and society. The brand’s success is driven by the success of other brands which use its services and for the others that would be inspired to find clarity, drive healthy growth, and build an unbeatable company.
Strategyzer transforms value, inspiration, clarity, and growth into innovative solutions through the global standard and platform they have created. And so far, Strategyzer is doing an excellent job.
2. Success
Strategyzer is increasing, with many users and campaigns being powered by their platform every month. They have grown fast and are also looking at other ways to monetize their business, such as charging for premium features and products or even offering consulting services.
3. Revenue
Strategyzer provides business model management solutions for businesses to understand customers and create better products. Strategyzer has an estimated 50 employees and an estimated annual revenue income of 3.6M.
The company has been growing steadily since its inception, with revenue of $1 million in 2007, $2 million in 2008, $3 million in 2009, $4 million in 2010, $5 million in 2011, and $6 million in 2012. Strategyzer’s revenue is expected to be around $8-10 million by 2022.
4. Products
Strategyzer, Inc. is a web-based application that provides financial and strategic advice to small businesses. The company has several products that it sells to its customers. They include:
- Business Model Canvas: This strategic management tool describes how an organization creates, delivers, and captures value. This strategic approach was first presented in the book Business Model Generation.
- Value Proposition Canvas: Businesses can use this tool to design, build, test, and manage products and services. It is fully integrated with the Business Model Canvas tool.
- Portfolio Map: This tool helps to simultaneously visualize, analyze and manage the business models you want to improve on. It also allows future business models you can search and test.
Strengths And Weaknesses Of Strategyzer
1. Strengths
• Experience: Strategyzer has lots of experience and results to offer businesses. The founder, Alexander Osterwalder, is the inventor of the Business Model Canvas. Millions of people have read his books Business Model Generation and Value Proposition Design and used them as a guide to building their business models.
• Collaboration: Strategyzer has a system that encourages collaborative subscriptions. You can collaborate with other interested persons to invest in their web app at no extra cost.
• User-Friendly: The app’s minimalist design and intuitive organization make it easy for users to navigate through the platform when creating their projects and canvas.
• Risk-Free: If you’re dissatisfied with any aspect of their service, you can request a refund within 30 days of purchase.
• Educational: Strategyzer is interested in the growth of the businesses it serves. So it included lots of free, well-produced instructional videos on Vimeo. These videos are a great way to understand their business modeling approach to know if it will benefit your business. They also offer paid online courses, workshops, and other training opportunities brands will find helpful.
2. Weaknesses
• Pricey: The subscription fee of $299.99/year is quite expensive. There are many other less expensive, even free, options for building a business model canvas.
• Commitment: They don’t offer a month-to-month subscription, so you have to pay for an entire year before you can use their services.
Creating Your Business Model On Strategyzer
1. Choose An Idea
Everything starts with a business idea. Your idea should be centered around a problem people encounter daily and how you can solve it.
Your idea could be a solution to a problem that everyone overlooks. In such cases, your idea will be so unique that it may disrupt an industry because people finally realize they missed it and want the solution.
2. Define Your Customers And Users
The next thing to do is to define your target customers. Your target customers or prospects are people willing to pay for the solution your idea is bringing to them. They are the people that will use your product and services.
3. Describe Your Potential Revenue Streams
When a customer is willing to pay for a product or solution, that’s a validation that the product has a unique value proposition.
Competition for that product or service is another validation that a market and potential revenue exists. It’s left to research alternative market options for that service.
4. Choose Your Marketing Medium
After equipping yourself with the knowledge of the services you want to market and your ideal customer, the next thing to choose is a marketing medium. Here you decide which medium will help you get your message to the user or customers.
5. Define Customer Relationships
Here you decide how your customers or target audience perceive you. What type of relationships do you intend to build with your customers? Would a B2B be ideal, or would you prefer a direct B2C?
6. List Key Activities
After defining your value propositions, choosing a marketing channel, and determining an ideal customer relationship, it’s time to list the key activities you will run. These activities are essential for the sustenance of your value proposition, the smooth delivery of the product to the customers through the chosen channel, and the establishment of a strong customer relationship.
7. Identify The Resources You Need
The next step is identifying the resources you will need to run your key activities effectively. The help you need varies depending on the service you will be offering, your value proposition, and so on. You will require people ready to stand in the gap and see that the company thrives. You will also need tools, intellectual property rights, money, and other resources.
8. Consider Potential Key Partners
Does a partnership sound like something you would love? If yes, this is where you consider your potential partners. A partner will influence the ability of a company to create, sustain its value proposition, and earn revenue. You can decide to partner with only partners whose goals are the same as yours.
9. Understand The Cost Structure
The cost structure focuses on general and administration costs for running the company effectively, creating a unique value proposition, including sales and marketing processes.
It would help if you had a financial plan to address the amount of money required to keep the company running. How do you intend to sustain the sources of revenue you will be pumping into your business? All these questions are essential.
Conclusion
To create a model with a strategizer, you need a solution to a problem people want to be solved. That’s how you get started. You will also need a business prototype to create the best model. A business prototype will help in planning, outlining, testing, asking for feedback, and communicating a business project and its implementation.
Strategyzer is worth the hype. They have tens of thousands of followers on Facebook and Twitter, who scoop up daily business advice. Their app, a platform built from the combined efforts of Alexander Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur, has helped millions improve their businesses.
Why should they be trusted? Because they have a team of trusted professionals and a policy that prioritizes the confidentiality of your work database is safe with them. Would you like to improve your business and grow your profits? You need Strategyzer.
