Building a business has always been – and will always be – more art than science. The good news is that there are new tools out there that help to add a degree of certainty to starting and launching a business – a scientific foundation for the art of entrepreneurship, if you wish.
Probably the best-known among these tools is Business Model Canvas.
Designed a few years ago by Alexander Osterwalder, the Canvas is a collection of building blocks which form foundation of every conceivable business. It is used as the departure point for discussions around business models all over the world – for startups but also for multinational corporations.
You can find the first 50 pages of Alex Osterwalder’s book here free of charge – the explanation of what each of the blocks is, and indication of how to use the tool. You can also read more about it on the blog of the Canvas’s creator at http://www.businessmodelalchemist.com/.However, the real value of the Canvas isn’t the book, the canvas or the sticky notes – and of course not the app. It is the people with whom you discuss how your business fits into the canvas, and the knowledge these people bring into the exercise.
This is why the Business Model Generation session opens up the Kick-off Days of the Brussels Boostcamp, and why the session is offered again during the second part of the Boostcamp in November.
Ben Piquard
Director of all Microsoft Innovation Centers across Belgium, Ben has an enormous and diverse experience in the software industry. Over the past 20 years he has exercised different functions and responsibilities: consulting, sales, pre-sales and business development for companies such as Business Objects, Siebel, PeopleSoft and SAS before joining Microsoft a few years ago. His encyclopedic knowledge of software-based business models is second to none, and his vast network of industry contacts will be a huge asset for the moment you’ll need to verify the assumptions that go into your business model.
Bruno Wattenbergh
Bruno is the Chief Operational Officer of the Brussels Enterprise Agency (ABE-BAO) as well as the President of the Board & the Credit Committee for the Brussels Guarantee Fund (Fonds Bruxellois de Garantie). He is also an Economic Editorialist at BEL RTL, an MBA Professor at Solvay Business School, and President of the Executive Committee at Microsoft Innovation Center Brussels. Through all his roles Bruno expresses fully his entrepreneurial nature and his enormous enthusiasm for supporting entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship.
Bruno is very active as a teacher – and the Business Model Canvas is his specialty. He was one of the coaches at the MIT Sloan School of Management for the “Entrepreneurship Development Program”, and he continues to give lectures on the subject in Belgium at ICHEC and at a variety of grassroots events such as Startup Weekend Brussels.
Leo Exter
Leo brings to Boostcamp 15 years of marketing, consumer research and communications experience. He has worked in four industries (from soft drinks to software), both on the client side and on the agency side. He’s worked with a huge, established brand (Coca-Cola) and launched a new brand of portable GPS, Mio Technology, across Europe. After two years at a PR agency where he had an opportunity to learn about a huge variety of businesses, he stated westartup.eu, a community for entrepreneurs. In his role as westartup’s founder and coach he gives workshops on marketing to entrepreneurs and organizes some of Belgium’s most important events for entrepreneurs - Startup Weekend Brussels and Bizcamp Belgium.
Interested? Register now by sending an email to [email protected] with your contact details (last name, first name, phone, mobile, email) and a brief description of your business project.
More questions?
Contact Leo at [email protected] or come see him at the Beta Group Coworking Brussels.
If you are interested to join the MIC Brussels Boostcamp :
Register to the 3 kick-off days (free of charge) by email :
[email protected]
Just indicate last name, first name, phone, mobile, email
and a brief description of your business project.
Places are limited. Be fast !
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