Prototype of a computer aided business model editor: www.bmdesigner.com 266 Computer-Aided Business Model Design Mike, a senior business analyst with a large financial group, wraps up the first of a two-day workshop he is facilitating with a group of 24 executives. He collects the business model prototypes and ideas that participants sketched on large Canvas posters and hurries to his office. The re, Mike and his team enter the ideas into a collaborative computer-aided business model design program to further develop the prototypes. Other business analysts working overseas add resource and activity cost estimates, as well as calculations of potential Revenue Streams. The software then spits out four dif- ferent financial scenarios, with business model data and prototype diagrams for each plotted on large posters. The following morning Mike presents the results to the executives, who have gathered for the second day of their workshop to discuss the potential risks and rewards of each prototype. Thi s scenario doesn’t yet describe reality, but it soon will. A Business Model Canvas printed on a large poster and a big box of Post-it™ notes are still the best tools for triggering creativity and generating innovative business model ideas. But this paper-based approach could be extended with the help of computers. Turning a prot otype business model into a spreadsheet is time- consuming, and each change to the prototype usually requires a manual modification of the spreadsheet. A computer-aided system could do this automatically and make possible lightning-quick, comprehensive business model simulations. Furthermore, computer support could make creating, storing, manipulating, tracking, and communicating business models far easier. Such support would seem to be almost a requirement for collaboratively working on busi- ness models with geographically disparate teams. Doe sn’t it seem strange that we can design, simulate, and build airplanes or develop software across continents, yet we can’t manipulate highly valuable business models outside of the board- room and without paper and pencil? It’s time to bring the speed and power of microprocessors to the development and management of new business models. Inventing innovative business models certainly requires human creativity, but computer-aided systems could help us manipulate business models in more sophisticated and complex ways. An example from the field of architecture is helpful in illustrat- ing the power of computer-aided design. In the 1980s so-called Computer-Aided Design (CAD) systems started becoming more affordable and slowly were adopted by architectural firms. CAD made it much easier and cheaper for architects to create three- dimensional models and prototypes. They brought speed, integration, improved collaboration, simulation, and better planning to architec- ture practices, Cumbersome manual tasks, such as constant redraw- ing and blueprint sharing, were eliminated, and a whole new world of opportunity, such as rapid visual 3D exploration and prototyping, opened up. Today paper-based sketching and CAD happily co-exist, each method retaining its own strengths and weaknesses. bmgen_final.indd 266 6/15/10 6:01 PM