Business Modelling = Business Design (#rewirelondon)

After delivering some impromptu 1-to-1 advice sessions at the SHINE Unconference in May, I decided to do some scheduled 1-to-1 business modelling advice sessions at the Rewire London Unconference on Tuesday 8 June at Rich Mix in Shoreditch. The inaugural event was organised by Alison Coward and my friend, Sinead Mac Manus.

The Rich Mix was all a-buzz in the main area where the presentations and larger-audience interactive sessions were being held. I set myself up in the ground floor café by the window – it was a vibrant, healthy, quieter atmosphere – perfect for meeting Rewire delegates and listening to their great enterprise ideas and creative ventures.

The afternoon’s topics included building community and collaboration, working with partners with complementary skillsets, making transitions, prototyping, defining vision, and identity.  All of these ideas, challenges, and opportunities feature in developing a business model – defining the key components of a business and the relationships among them.

Here’s a brief rundown of who I had the pleasure of meeting and some of the things we discussed:

• Candy Willems, who is developing Why Create, a creative agency and centre for collaboration, helping students and recent graduates in creative industries connect, grow, swap and share resources.  We discussed making connections with the organisations and companies that might hire the people within the community she is creating and other sources of support for the creative industry.

• Vita Gottlieb, a print and textiles designer, who is interested in extending her designs and printed fabrics into fashion (lounge wear, intimate apparel).  We had an interesting conversation about transitioning from one business focus to another and about making samples – prototyping for fashion.

• Alex Haw, who described himself as a trained architect when he sat down to speak with me, but by the end of the conversation I described him as an innovator.  He runs the atmos studio and we spoke also of working with partners with complementary skills and what a redefined business might be and look like.

• Vincenzo Di Maria and Bruno Taylor, co-founders of Common Ground, applying design to deliver public services more effectively.  We had an inspired chat about defining vision – the seed or core around which a business model is built.

• Nayan, from Food For All, dropped in at the end of the day who asked me the challenging question of what processes exist for making decisions and choosing amongst multiple ideas and options.  In my mind, decision-making is not always solely a logical or intellectual process.  I described reaching agreement amongst my intellectual (logic, thoughts), emotional (feelings), spiritual (intuition), and physical (body, physical ability) elements as being a sign of a good decision.  More on this concept in a future post!

I must also give credit for the Business Model Canvas, which I like to use as a tool when I explain the concept of business modelling and describe how things join up.  I really enjoyed the afternoon and value the opportunity to help people move their ideas steps forward.  It also re-ignited my love for design and creative work and I, myself, am thinking about ways design can help make business modelling easier to understand and less daunting to undertake.  Afterall – business modelling is about designing a business.