• Demonstrate the importance of business model within innovation theory
• Show an understanding of what constitutes a business model
• Synthesize and deploy a business model based on the immersed experience in India
• Critically reflect about the efficacy of deploying a business model in the real world and its impact on the business

To enrol in the course a 1-page motivational must be send to: (asan.stu@cbs.dk ) no later than (Wednesday) 28 October 2020 at 12.00 noon. Also remember to sign up for the course through the online registration

Assuming the cobbler has many children, with each of them diverse in their mannerisms and habits, lifestyles, world views, all needing shoes that fit their current disposition. How should the cobbler address making the shoes for his children? He needs to be sensitive to not only the physical design of the shoe, the making of it and the materials for the shoe. He also needs to be sensitive to the nature of his children, his knowledge of their walking pattern, the season of the year and when they use the shoe most. The cobbler needs to be contextually embedded to the state of the art and the market for resources and materials from which he can fashion the shoes and the limits of his skill, the awareness of where and how he can push the boundaries of his skills to get maximum alignment with his children’s habits, behaviors and usage patterns.

All of this poses a practical challenge to the cobbler requiring him to innovate and develop a customized shoe for his unique and many children, he also has to incorporate the softer aspects of the nature, preferences of his children regarding the kind of shoe they want and when they intend to use it; in which case the practical and tangible innovativeness of the cobbler needs to be combined with an understanding of his children’s convenience, hopes and aspirations. In effect the product is shaped by the nature of his children, their behavior and lifestyle. The cobbler’s sensitivity, contextual embeddedness and ability to customize each shoe for his children is a reflection of how he uses his skill, and knowledge to provide unique services for his children. Developing a business model is similar in its scope and purpose.

When we develop innovative business models we need to look at the nature of the business, its design specific to the product or services. The challenge then is how to design novel business models that supports products and services that can help create new markets. The course explores and creates a learning environment in which students can appreciate the importance and role of the business model in customizing and leveraging the innovation.

Business models are critical to the success of an innovation, hence learning how to understand and design a business model is critical for the growth of a business.

This course has two components, class activities and an experiential part (the immersion experience). The first part of the course will be the classroom activities where students will be exposed to the theoretical aspects, exploring the diverse nature and types of business models. The second part is called immersion and includes a field trip to India, , where students will be exposed to real life challenges in developing business models (see below).

The themes are as follows;

• What is a business model, its purpose and utility during the innovation process
• What is meant by business model design?
• How do innovators deploy business models?
• How to understand theoretical value and apply it in the real world?
• Making a case for a business model.
• Identifying and understanding the components of the business model
• Aligning the model with innovation theories?
• How to use immersion to reflect about innovation theory in practice?
• When and how to deploy the business model?

Classroom activities

The classroom activities will take place in Copenhagen in an interactive, workshop mode. During this period focus will be given on understanding the components of business models, its contexts and the notion of value it can bring to the business. Emphasis in the classroom will be given to a theoretical understanding of a business model, Focusing on learning how to frame the business model as a deployable artifact would be the focus of the dialogue and reflection.

Students will be encouraged to participate in classroom activities which will consist of lectures, workshops, group work, games. Since the class will be divided into groups we encourage students to be mindful and consider attending the classes as regularly as possible. Their participation in class activities wll be beneficial to them as well as their group member’s. Just reading the literature prescribed may not be sufficient to understand how to build a business model.  While learning will ensue through experience in the classroom, students will be exposed to additional real world exposure to how in real terms a business model should be built in the form of immersion to help them align their knowledge of the class with the real world understanding of how business models are deployed.

The second part is the immersion aspect of the course, which takes place in India. The immersion is designed to support the classroom activity and experience business model building first hand. Students will be required to spend three weeks working on their immersion challenge. Students will be divided into groups and introduced to specific challenges where their task will be to focus on a solution driven by a business model. The objective of the immersion is to support experience based solution gathering where concepts learnt will get an opportunity to be applied towards real solution to real challenges.

The immersion experience is designed to allow students to understand business model building in the real world. How to apply their theoretical knowledge to the practical real world scenario, during the three weeks of immersion students will reflect, appreciate how to adjust, redesign and modify what they have learnt in theory about business model and apply it to the real world. The focus during the immersion will be in trying to capture the challenges of the empirical context, show immersive resilience by adopting the theoretical understanding of what a business model is to practical challenges in continuing to support the innovative practices of the companies that they are embedded in India.  This part is the empirical part of the student experience.

Further comments:

1. The course can only run if a minimum of 25 students are enrolled. This will be assessed shortly after the deadline for enrolment. 
2. Students are required to draft a motivational letter when enrolling.
3. Students need to cover the costs of flight and accommodation, food, transport etc. during the immersion experience. This is estimated to be around DKK 10.000 in total (4-5000 DKK for the air ticket, 3-5000 DKK for accommodation, food, insurance, vaccinations, visa and local transport).
4. The immersion experience takes place in India.

Covid-19

If the three weeks immersion is cancelled due to Covid-19, we will do the immersion locally in Copenhagen based on the same principles and ideas and during the same three weeks as allocated for the immersion experience. Students will be required to immerse themselves in companies that are startup and struggling. The focus of the intervention group will be to look at the business models of their companies, using literature and class experience. The work will need to be either off line or online depending on the companies and the intervention group’s agreement with the companies. In line with the original proposal, reflection will then be online every day, after the groups work at the company. The reflection session will be in the evening. If students have a company they want to do their immersion in, which is not part of the list of companies for immersion;  they are welcome to suggest the name of the company to the teacher in advance for smooth running of the course.