business in a bicycle's wheel -where is the business model?

8/3/2019 Business in a Bicycle's Wheel -Where is the Business Model?

1/5

By Cesar Malacon

Business in a Shoe String Bicycle Wheel

The organisation

of the Business

With the intention of

depicting a high view of the

organisation of the business, I tooka bicycle wheel to make an analogy

of how the most important subjects

in business co-exist and what is

their broad contribution to the

companies existence.

CultureCompanies are formed by people. People are the very most important part of

any organisation for obvious reasons. People join the organisation and become

part of the living organism all companies are. Each employee brings a profile

determined by experience, skills, knowledge, customs, expectations, energy,

limitations and frustrations with them. The resulted very complex mix of all this

variety can have higher impact on the overall manoeuvring of the company than

some can imagine. Leaders should then build a culture for their organisation in

which the smoother flow of actions can be deployed in order to move agilelytowards the set strategy. Communication channels and lines must be provided

and drawn, and complicated aspects of self fulfilment for the employees should

be provided. Leadership is acted to lead the living being with its several styles

and approaches. Then people react to it. Hopefully positively, the company gets

then a pace and a frequency. Schools, academies and thoughts of

organisational behaviour suggest acts and consequences and distinct leadership

styles fit some or others. In the best cases, the intention gets the practice right

and everything works properly.


2/5

Strategy

Companies need to have a strategy to do well in

business. Without a sound strategy all is

abandoned to luck. Either good luck or bad luck.

If good luck knocks at the door, surprising

success demands a heavy dosage of strategy in

order to keep momentum and leverage the

accidentally gotten results for the long run;

without a reasonable strategy it would be only a

lucky strike and gates to perish will shine in the

companys way.

Something loudly spoken when talking about strategy is the vision, because it is

supposed to set the ultimate goal of the company and it should lead efforts

towards it. Strategy should be pursued in an environment determined by

content, context and processes. It will identify the right spots to pursue in the

industry, the tools and resources to do it, the timing, the way to follow and the

how. Strategy is a complex and extremely important subject to define. It should

start with a strong purpose. Check a brief presentation about what is strategy I previously didherehttp://cesarmalacon.tumblr.com/post/13580947668/the-3x3-strategy-overview

Execution

Strategy is communicated. Then plans are set on paper and responsibilities are

delegated. Teams are formed and expectations are announced. Resources

allocated, scopes defined and rewards offered. All this is reduced to people.

People would have to follow the set of actions agreed by managers and leaders

and give their best. But people are responsible for a limited area of influence

and must wait to pair their outcomes with those of other distant areas of

influence from different teams and this ends up as a huge Lego block to be

built with the individual outcomes of these independent but highly interrelated

efforts.

Strategy is vulnerable to execution. Quick wins are expected, revisions planned,

and hopefully reactions are deployed to keep the line set by the strategy. If not

acted upon on time, the track can be easily lost. The way back is never

guarantied. Execution lays on the clarity and simplicity of the communicatedstrategy.
http://cesarmalacon.tumblr.com/post/13580947668/the-3x3-strategy-overviewhttp://cesarmalacon.tumblr.com/post/13580947668/the-3x3-strategy-overviewhttp://cesarmalacon.tumblr.com/post/13580947668/the-3x3-strategy-overviewhttp://cesarmalacon.tumblr.com/post/13580947668/the-3x3-strategy-overview


3/5

How should it be sorted out to win?

Cause of innumerable and endless debates and arguments is the tight

relationship of these important subjects of an organisation. So far it seems that

there is no such thing as a unique all mighty answer to this. However some

masses wisdom has been reached in something that can be approached in a

number of sentences.

Execution always trumps strategy. The weakest execution can take over the strongest strategy if this is not

deployed

Strategy is never sustainable unless it is receptive to inputs providedby execution

Execution with no strategy yields more value than a brilliant strategy withno execution

If you don't know where you are going (strategy), any road(execution) will get you there

Without strategy, execution is aimless. Without execution, strategy isuseless. Morris Chang

Excellent execution of an average strategy yields more than the averageexecution of an excellent strategy

And a million more clearly saying us that it all depends in the kind of company

and in the kind of industry and in the particular circumstances under the

combination of these subjects should be defined.

All 3 of them are very important.

If comparing the organisation of a business with a bicycle wheel here is

the relationship

Parts of a bicycles wheel:

RubberCommercial activities

This is the point of contact with the

surface, and is what keeps you on track

and gives you traction. In companies,

these are thecommercial activities.No

sales, no fuel to go on and the deeper

your understanding of the market needs

the better you do.


4/5

RimCorporate infrastructure:

This is what supports the activity. It should keep going while receiving impacts

from the road. This is thecorporate infrastructure. Technology, assets, and

finance.

Spokes The Culture

The spokes support and give shape to the Rim. Definitively should be the

culture. No people, no need of infrastructure. Depending the quality of your

people and the culture they live, the results your infrastructure yield.

ValveStrategy

The valve is very important. Its the way for the air to get into the wheel so it can

start working, and it has the key feature of keeping the air inside of the wheel.Two of the most important elements of a bicycle wheel depend on the valve.

This is theStrategy. Strategy sets the what, the why and the how of whatever

its going to be achieved by the company. It keeps the efforts and advantages ,

differentiators and all corporate resources aligned - Inside the company-.

Strategy has its ways to each one of the departments so is the way in to it.

Air No air, no usefulness. No air, no valve needed. -Execution.

Without the right amount of air, the wheel spins or doesnt. Depending on the

amount of air, the wheel spins properly and smoothly or heavily and slowly,only wasting fruitlessly the resources for a poor performance.

Taking the relationship of strategy and execution: you can inject air to the wheel

through the valve, but if the valve is damaged or is not the proper valve needed

for your specific rubbermarket- the wheel will spin for sure, but not for long,

and not in the way it should, leading you out of the way in the need of change.


5/5

Finally, and very important there is the Hub axle-.

Hub axle-. This is a very interesting part of a wheel because it is at the centre

of all its resources. It holds them alltogether and allows proper

movement. The spokes are attached

to it, which at the same time support

the rim, base of the rubble which

needs air and valve. The BUSINESS

MODEL is our hub. All companies

have a business model, either if they

thought about it deliberately or if it

is just the consequence of theoverwhelming needs it faces. With the proper business model, the overall

functionality of the company can be perfect and effective. With the wrong hub,

the wheel will always spin, but will never reachsuperior performance to win any

race. The business model is absolutely dependent of the internal abilities of the

company, so there it is where you should make a pause after having everything

else set on place and define your business model, to be able to go out and last

longer and faster in the race, delivering the results you want.

As the Axle, here is where business models live, just in the centre.

Borrowed from Alexander Osterwalder. 2007

business in a bicycle's wheel -where is the business model?

Documents