Key resources are the most important physical, human, intellectual, and financial assets your organization uses to make your business model successful and sustainable. They include:
- Physical resources: Equipment, raw materials, buildings, manuals, and procedures, e.g., any hardware you use is a physical resource
- Human resources: Key people and skills that are needed for the business model to work
- Intellectual resources: Intellectual property, codified systems and processes, and the intangible know-how of your team
- Financial resources: Cash and lines of credit
Resources can be tangible or intangible and are defined in the following way:
- Tangible resources: Physical resources that you can see, e.g., a training manual or a finance assistant
- Intangible resources: Nonphysical resources, e.g., customer knowledge, connections, and networks
Not all of your resources should be listed in your business model canvas. Only the main ones are important for this process. Your key resources can be described as those that:
- Your business model would fail without
- Are difficult to replace
- Make you distinctive or provide you with a competitive advantage
For many business models, you may not have all of the key resources within your organization, so you may need to partner with other organizations and individuals to access them.
Questions that you may want to consider are: Is there a risk for the business model if the resource may not be available in the future? To what extent will the resource allow for growth? When and how do you decide whether a key resource should be held within your organization or can sit with a partner? Have you developed tangible or intangible assets as key resources through your key activities that you could use to innovate your business model?
To complete the key resources building block in your Business Model Sustainability Canvas, you will need to look at the most important inputs and assets your organization uses to make your business model work and determine whether any are accessed through a partner. In section 7.1, there is information on the importance of making effective resource decisions that will support long-term sustainability.
Section 7.1: Resourcing Decisions
This section highlights the importance of evaluating your key resources through the lens of sustainability.
Key discussion areas:
- Understand how the insourcing or outsourcing of activities has an impact on the key resources you develop
- Highlight how key resources can become key capabilities that will potentially deliver new revenue, reduce costs, and create new impact for BUTI segments
Key Takeaways
- Key resources are the assets that you need to have in place (or have access to through a partner) for a sustainable business model.
- When defining the necessary resources, concentrate on what’s necessary to perform key activities in your business model.
- Identify your key resources and determine whether they are yours or a partner’s.
FAQs
Key Takeaways
What are key resources in a business model? ›
Key resources
At the most basic level they include the physical space and/or equipment needed. Human capital and financial capital are almost always key resources and often intellectual property be it trademarks, trade secrets, copyrights, patents or proprietary business practices are also implicated.
What are the 5 principles of a sustainable business model? ›
Systems theory identifies 5 elements for a sustainable business model: Diversity, modularity, openness, slack resources and matching cycles.
What are the five elements of a sustainable business model? ›
What are the five key elements of a sustainable business model? In order to create a sustainable business model, businesses need to focus on five key elements: their mission, their stakeholders, their resources, their operations, and their impact.
What is a sustainability toolkit? ›
Sustainability Toolkit to provide collaboratives, organizations, and programs with the. tools needed for planning and implementing a sustainability approach for innovative projects.
What are the 5 types of business resources? ›
Financial Resources, Physical Resources, Intellectual Resources, Human Resources, and Digital Resources are the top five crucial resources that small business owners need to focus on. Gaining access to funding is a significant hurdle for any business owner.
What are the 5 C's of sustainability? ›
the 5Cs. Wolwedans' 5Cs of Sustainability are Consciousness | Conservation | Community | Commerce | Culture. They are deeply interconnected – one cannot have optimal impact when out of balance with another – and they frame the holistic and harmonious approach to all that we do.
What are the 4 C's of sustainability? ›
Segera finds that balance between conservation, community, culture and commerce, and puts the environment at the heart of the development.
What is the sustainability checklist for business? ›
Create a sustainability strategy:
Think about your physical business space, how your employees get to work and do their jobs, technology needs, the resources you use, your procurement strategy, the waste you generate, how you market your business and communicate externally, and so on. Conduct an energy audit.
What are the 5 Ps of sustainability? ›
The 17 SDGs are structured around the five pillars of the 2030 Agenda: People, Planet, Prosperity, Peace, and Partnerships. These 5 Ps highlight how the SDGs are an intertwined framework instead of a group of solo goals.
It can be a key driver of long-term competitiveness and of resilience in an increasingly resource-constrained and more environmentally conscious world. The essence of real innovation in corporate settings can be defined by three pivotal elements: constraints, context, and commitment.
What are the 4 P's of sustainability? ›
The 4P's: Purpose, Profit, People and Planet – Beyond Governance.
What is ESG toolkit? ›
A toolkit to equip businesses to identify and address ESG gaps against international good practice.
What are the 5 resources of an organization? ›
They encompass adequate and stable funding, staffing, facilities and equipment, technology, informational resources, and program materials.
What are the three key organizational resources of any business? ›
There are three key organizational resources that are relevant and important from the perspective of MIS and that help to create competitive advantages for businesses: information, people, and information technology.
What are the three resources in business? ›
There are three types of resources in business: human, financial, and physical. Human resources are the people who work for the company. They include employees, managers, and executives. Financial resources are the money that the company has to spend.
What are the key elements of the business model? ›
Key Elements of a Business Model. To build a successful business model, it is essential to consider several key elements. These include the value proposition, customer segments, channels for distribution and communication, and revenue streams and cost structure.
