Build your business model: 3 cases

It’s alert level 3 again in this COVID-19 pandemic that started two years ago. Many businesses were affected by hard lockdowns in the past, while a few thrived. Let me cite three successful business cases worth emulating.

From B2B to B2C

Jojo Liao is CEO of CoreProc, an IT company that helps companies with their digital transformation efforts. Early in the pandemic, CoreProc decided to launch Drybrush, an advocacy e-commerce platform that helps artists sell their paintings, sculptures and related artworks online while galleries inside malls are not active. While they have been able to help hundreds of Filipino artists continue their livelihood, they have also redefined their revenue source to include regular e-commerce commissions instead of just continuous customization efforts needed in software work, adding a B2C (business to consumer) effort to their existing B2B (business to business) model.

From B2C to B2B

Dr. Carl Balita is the founder of Carl Balita Review Center, or CBRC, the leading review center in the Philippines. His multiawarded business was greatly affected when board examinations were canceled in 2020. He launched CBRC VICE, an acronym for virtual interactions, conferences and events, to help companies conduct their major virtual events, drawing from their experience in conducting online classes even before the pandemic. They have zoomed in on a process where they did well in the past while the current business cannot be executed face to face. When vaccination began, he consolidated his employees and nursing graduates to help the government organize and administer the shots, serving 1 million people to date. This created a B2B business with local government units (LGUs) instead of being limited to their usual B2C business model. By the time multiple lockdowns were done, CBRC was able to launch 500 percent more review courses that are ready to help more people, exploiting their knowledge in R&D (research and development) and course creation during the lockdown period.

Opening new doors

Mike and Lucci Canlas are a husband-and-wife team working together. Mike was a videographer and Lucci, a graphic artist. Together, they built an event and video production business prior to the pandemic. When lockdown was imposed, customers canceled pending projects one by one. One day, while eating bangus (milkfish) in a restaurant, they thought of starting a crispy bangus takeout business with multiple flavors in a pizza box. In a year’s time, Bang Bang Special Crispy Bangus has reached over 40 branches and plans to open several hundreds more through franchising in the next few years. Their new business enables them to have dual businesses in the future while exploiting their skills in video production to do their own marketing videos.

Sharing their insights

I have invited Jojo Liao, Dr. Carl Balita, Mike and Lucci Canlas to share their transformational experience in depth at the 2nd Mansmith Business Model Forum this Feb. 8 to Feb. 11. They also readily consented to share their business models to the public, specifically the 11 building blocks of their business models. Jojo Liao will share two business models—CoreProc’s customized IT service, as well as Drybrush’s e-commerce business. Dr. Carl Balita will share four business models—review center, franchising, online event service and B2B vaccination service. Finally, Mike and Lucci will share the business model of their takeout food business.

The sessions will be recorded so those unavailable on those days can watch at night or another day. They have also agreed to answer your questions about their business model and strategy as a group, live via Zoom, on the afternoon of Feb 11.

Best of all, the forum is organized as a free public service to existing and aspiring entrepreneurs by Mansmith and Fielders Inc., courtesy of corporate sponsors Acer, Bounty Agro, JS Unitrade, UnionBank, Abenson, Waters Philippines and the Inquirer. Register in the next two weeks through Continuum Academy at continuum-edu.com.

The 11 building blocks template, along with the definition of terms, can be downloaded on the website, also for free. They are composed of two parts, the offering model (target market, value proposition, channel, customer bonding strategy, revenue model) and the operating model (value chain, key processes, key resources, complementors, reconfiguring for innovation and cost).

Having the right business model framework allows one to evaluate the soundness of business strategy, the prerequisite of any functional strategy in marketing, operations and finance. In the Mansmith business model map, two distinct building blocks have been added—reconfiguration for innovation, as well as value chain, incorporating indispensable lessons from Blue Ocean Strategy’s Kim Chan and Renee Mauborgne on the former, and Harvard’s Michael Porter’s classic value chain on the latter.

All three cited cases have innovated from their original business models, hence, thriving during the pandemic. All three have also used their knowledge to pivot their value chain toward the fulfillment of their new value proposition. They are truly entrepreneurs worth emulating. —CONTRIBUTED

Josiah Go is chair and chief innovation strategist of Mansmith and Fielders Inc.