Instructor Resource
Neck, Neck, & Murray, Entrepreneurship: The Practice and Mindset
SAGE Publications, 2018
1
Experiential Exercises
Chapter 8: Building Business Models
Source: “Business Model Canvas Game, by H.M. Neck,” in Teaching Entrepreneurship: A
Practice-Based Approach (p. 136–138), by H. Neck, P. Greene, & C. Brush, 2014,
Northhampton, MA: Elgar.
Exercise: Business Model Canvas Game
Author: Heidi Neck
Description
The Business Model Canvas (http://www.businessmodelgeneration.com/canvas) has become a
popular teaching tool in entrepreneurship classrooms. It is not my intention here to introduce the
Learning Objectives
• Reflect on the meaning and importance of the nine business model components.
• Demonstrate how the ordering on the canvas categorizes components as generating value
or creating efficiency to deliver value.
• Discuss and debate the ordering proposed by Osterwalder and Pigneur (2010).
Materials List
Instructors will need to create decks of “business model component cards.” One deck is needed
per team in the class. Each deck is comprised of nine index cards. On each card should be one
of the nine business model components: customer segments, value propositions, channels,
Pre-Work Required by Students
None.
Theoretical Foundations
Instructor Resource
Neck, Neck, & Murray, Entrepreneurship: The Practice and Mindset
SAGE Publications, 2018
Time Plan (Total Time: 30 Minutes)
The Game Setup 0:00–0:05 (5 minutes)
Before introducing the canvas, simply introduce that there are nine components of a business
model. I typically show a PowerPoint slide with the nine components listed in random order. Tell
the students that there is a particular order to the components, but they need to figure out what
the order is. In other words, they need to determine which of the components should be
considered first, second, and so on. What’s most important to start with and what’s least
important? Separate students into teams of five (maximum).
The Game 0:05–0:15 (10 minutes)
Give each team a deck of cards and ask them to place them in order from one to nine (10
The Discussion 0:15–0:30 (15 minutes)
Now it is time to introduce the ordering that Osterwalder and Pigneur use. Their book (see
Theoretical Foundations) is quite helpful if you are not familiar with the canvas. I typically give
out a copy of the Business Model Canvas to each student prior to disclosing the order.
After walking through the components and discussing the differences in order created by each
Key Takeaways
• It is important to think about the ordering of the components but not be wedded to one
particular ordering.
• A business model is about value creation, delivery, and capture—but start with creation
and think about cost last.
Instructor Resource
Neck, Neck, & Murray, Entrepreneurship: The Practice and Mindset
SAGE Publications, 2018
3
Teaching Tips
The most important reason that I do this exercise is to get the students thinking about each