In the session Leveraging Dynamic Business Models for Enterprise Architecture, part of the System Dynamics for Business Innovation series led by Kim Warren, the conversation centered on enriching Enterprise Architectures (EAs) through the integration of quantitative Dynamic Business Models (DBMs). This approach significantly amplifies the efficacy and reliability of IT strategies and planning.

Course

Dynamic Business Modelling

How to build powerful living models of plans or issues in half the time of using spreadsheets

Key Insights:

1. Foundation of Enterprise Architectures (EAs):
   • EAs provide a structural blueprint for IT strategy development, focusing on the organization’s processes and how these support its operational goals.
   • The webinar highlighted the importance of understanding these frameworks for implementing effective IT systems aligned with business objectives.
2. Role of Dynamic Business Models (DBMs):
   • DBMs contribute to a more robust EA by introducing quantitative analyses that validate and enhance the traditionally qualitative aspects of EA.
   • By modeling business dynamics quantitatively, DBMs facilitate more accurate IT system alignment with strategic business goals, improving resource allocation and change management.
3. Synergies between EAs and DBMs:
   • The webinar illustrated how DBMs strengthen EAs by providing a rigorous analytical foundation that accelerates and refines the architecture building process.
   • These models help predict the impact of IT strategies on business performance, making implementation more effective.
4. Applications and Validation:
   • DBMs offer a structured approach to testing and validating IT strategies before full-scale implementation, ensuring that IT plans are both effective and aligned with overarching business strategies.
   • The session underscored the utility of DBMs in real-world applications, demonstrating their capacity to support complex decision-making across diverse business domains.
5. Impact on IT Strategy and System Planning:
   • Incorporating DBMs into EA efforts leads to more informed decision-making, with enhanced insights into the interactions between various business functions and IT systems.
   • This integrated approach supports a proactive stance in IT strategy formulation, emphasizing continuous adaptation and alignment with business changes.

The webinar was particularly relevant for IT professionals, systems architects, business analysts, and strategic managers. It also offered critical insights for academics and students in business and technology disciplines.

Watch the recording below

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About the Speaker

Kim Warren is an experienced strategy professional, teacher, and publisher of online courses and teaching resources on business modeling – fast becoming a mainstream capability for executives, consultants, and business students. He was awarded the Jay Wright Forrester Award by the International System Dynamics Society in 2005 and was the Society’s President in 2013.

In the latest webinar of the System Dynamics for Business Innovation special series, Kim Warren delved into Dynamic Business Models for Dealing with Competition. This session, rich in practical advice and strategic insights, is pivotal for professionals seeking to sharpen their competitive edge. Here’s a breakdown of the webinar’s key points.

Key Takeaways from the Webinar:

1. Understanding Competitive Dynamics: The session focused on the use of dynamic business models to navigate competitive business environments. Warren highlighted the importance of understanding how competition plays out in real-time and the impacts on prices, marketing spending, and profits.
2. Case Studies and Applications: Warren used two illustrative case studies to demonstrate the practical application of these models. He discussed GSK’s travel vaccines business and its response to a new competitor, and Beyond Meat’s strategy in creating a market for non-meat products. Both cases highlighted the strategic challenges and responses in dynamic competitive environments.
3. Types of Competition: Warren outlined three standard competition mechanisms, covering most competitive scenarios. These include racing to capture new potential customers, maintaining existing customers while attracting competitors’ customers, and handling situations where customers can switch between suppliers.
4. Practical Strategy Development: The session also touched upon practical aspects of strategic planning, like leveraging dynamic models for both long-term strategy and short-term operational decision-making.

Invitation for Further Learning

This webinar is a must-watch for those interested in refining their competitive strategies and understanding the application of dynamic business models. Viewing the recording will provide a deeper insight into the discussed concepts.

Furthermore, the series will continue to offer rich content on strategic business areas such as IT systems architecture and environmental impact reporting. These upcoming sessions represent a unique opportunity to gain advanced knowledge and skills in the field.

Join us for the upcoming webinars to deepen your understanding of dynamic business models and their critical role in shaping successful competitive strategies

Certificate

Attendees who participate in at least 6 out of the 9 webinars in the series will be eligible to receive a certificate titled “Introduction to Dynamic Business Models.” This is an opportunity to gain recognition of your learning in this innovative field. For those who cannot attend live sessions, recordings will be available, allowing you to review the material and complete the series at your convenience.

Watch the recording to get your certificate code.

Watch the recording below

Whoops, this recording is available for members and ticket purchasers only. Please login to verify. If you’re not a member, purchase a membership here. You can also buy a ticket to watch the recording here. 

About the Speaker

Kim Warren is an experienced strategy professional, teacher, and publisher of online courses and teaching resources on business modeling – fast becoming a mainstream capability for executives, consultants, and business students. He was awarded the Jay Wright Forrester Award by the International System Dynamics Society in 2005 and was the Society’s President in 2013.

Resoures:

Slides

Mini Course on How to Model Competition

Full Course on How to Model Competion

In the first session of the System Dynamics for Business Innovation special series, led by business strategist and academic Kim Warren, attendees gained valuable insights into the use of dynamic business models in strategic management accounting. This blog provides an overview of the key topics covered in the webinar ti

Key Points from the Webinar:

1. Role of Strategic Management Accounting (SMA): SMA is essential for helping accountants and leaders in developing and monitoring their business strategies. It requires detailed analysis of business data, forecasting, and preparing forward-looking reports.

2. Responding to Market Changes: Strategic Management involves reacting to unexpected competitive threats and market shifts. This includes strategies such as acquiring companies or entering new markets.

3. Use of Financial and Non-Financial Data: Strategic management requires ongoing analysis and interpretation of both financial and non-financial data. This encompasses aspects like capacity factors and their connections within the business.

4. Tools for SMA: SMA uses a combination of financial and non-financial tools. The Balanced Scorecard, for example, connects financial outcomes with operational activities and customer focus.

5. Customer Focus in Business Success: Understanding customer needs is important for business success. Tools like the value curve and the business model canvas help align business offerings with customer needs and set apart from competitors.

6. Budgeting Techniques: The webinar discussed traditional and zero-based budgeting, underlining the need for budgeting approaches that suit current business requirements.

7. Tools for Predictive Analysis: It’s important to have tools that can forecast business outcomes in various scenarios. These tools should consider factors such as revenue, competitor behavior, and strategic objectives.

8. Case Study Application: The webinar demonstrated these concepts through a case study of a new table service restaurant, focusing on sales and profit growth projections.

Invitation for Further Learning:

For those interested in deepening their understanding of Strategic Management Accounting, we recommend watching the recording of this webinar. Further, participation in the upcoming sessions of this series will offer expanded knowledge on topics like competitive strategy, IT systems, and the impact of business decisions on society and the environment.

Join us to further explore the field of Strategic Management Accounting and apply these principles to enhance your business strategies.

Certificate

Attendees who participate in at least 6 out of the 9 webinars in the series will be eligible to receive a certificate titled “Introduction to Dynamic Business Models.” This is an opportunity to gain recognition of your learning in this innovative field. For those who cannot attend live sessions, recordings will be available, allowing you to review the material and complete the series at your convenience.

Watch the recording to get your certificate code.

Watch the recording below

Whoops, this recording is available for members and ticket purchasers only. Please login to verify. If you’re not a member, purchase a membership here. You can also buy a ticket to watch the recording here. 

About the Speaker

Kim Warren is an experienced strategy professional, teacher, and publisher of online courses and teaching resources on business modeling – fast becoming a mainstream capability for executives, consultants, and business students. He was awarded the Jay Wright Forrester Award by the International System Dynamics Society in 2005 and was the Society’s President in 2013.

Resoures: 

Demo Model

See also a more extensive article based on this post, and watch the recording below on the topic.

Organizations of all sizes and types undertake programs of effort to improve their performance, whether it’s in the areas of health and safety, net-zero efforts, or digital transformation. But sustaining momentum for such efforts is tough, and many fail completely.

It turns out that such programs share a common structure, which can be used to assess how the program may progress, how benefits may grow over time, and the cost and effort of achieving them (figure 1).

Performance-improvement programs generally aim to eliminate or mitigate some problematic outcomes such as staff injuries, the loss of critical data, excessive energy use, and inefficient business processes. Those problematic outcomes are caused by previously unidentified problem drivers – hazards in business facilities, data vulnerabilities, inefficient or under-controlled energy-using assets, and inefficient business processes.

So the basic aim is to eliminate or mitigate those problem drivers. This essentially consists of two overlapping efforts [1] to find and quantify those problem drivers, then [2] to eliminate or mitigate those problem drivers that are found.

As benefits start to become apparent, two self-reinforcing mechanisms (R) kick in. First, the staff becomes engaged in its success and adds – often greatly – to the discovery of those unknown opportunities. This boosts leaders’ confidence, so financial savings from the program can be recycled to speed up the rate at which benefits are realized.

In due course, we run out of unknown opportunities to find, and the cost-benefit of remaining opportunities declines – two balancing mechanisms (B) that ultimately limit the benefits that can be gained.

Figure 1 – The overall structure of the system that underlies improvement programs.

Reviewing real-world cases revealed how the principles above actually work in practice. One example concerned a 2-year effort on energy-saving by a large ready-meals producer operating several facilities.

 Management appointed an energy manager, who soon brought monthly reports to the executive team, itemizing savings opportunities and specifying their impact, cost, and implementation steps. Those opportunities brought further benefits, such as lower maintenance costs and production downtime. The visible benefits led to staff adopting energy-saving behavior and finding still more opportunities. In under 2 years, the program saved 40% of the organization’s energy use – with no significant capital investment. Future investment will drive down energy use still further.

 The structure in figure 1 can be quantified and modeled,  then used to manage the program over time (A demonstration model is available at sdl.re/EnergySaving1, and a simple guide for its software is at sdcourses.com/silico-guide).

Background

The figure 1 framework and the working models that prove its value emerged from work for the British Standards Institution (BSI). BSI publishes internationally-recognized “ISO” management standards on a very wide range of topics. BSI commissioned a series of “serious games” to show the key choices and impact of adopting Standards – explore the first few games here, all built on working models of figure 1. BSI also wanted a game to encourage small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs), to drive down greenhouse gas emissions. See The NetZero Challenge.

Figure 2 –The results screen of the NetZero Challenge game

Watch the recording below

Whoops, this recording is available for members and ticket purchasers only. Please login to verify. If you’re not a member, purchase a membership here. You can also buy a ticket to watch the recording here. 

About the Speaker

Kim Warren is an experienced strategy professional, teacher, and publisher of online courses and teaching resources on business modeling – fast becoming a mainstream capability for executives, consultants, and business students. He was awarded the Jay Wright Forrester Award by the International System Dynamics Society in 2005 and was the Society’s President in 2013.

Resources

Presentation Slides

Demonstration Model

The NetZero Challenge