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The core activities on the Extended Canvas are all business activities required for your business’s success in the market. Typical business activities include product or service development, marketing, production, sales, service, and administration. The core activities naturally depend on your business idea and vary greatly.

Examples of core activities

For a yoga studio, this includes selecting and setting up the studio, advertising, running yoga classes, and bookkeeping.

For a soup service, this includes advertising, selection of dishes, purchase of ingredients, preparation, storage, and delivery.

That is your task for today:

Now take Post-its with two different colors and think – ideally with your sparring partner – about the tasks that need to be done to develop your business idea and run your business. Think about them until you can’t think of anything else. You can also add more later.

Then evaluate the activities by their importance for success from both customer and financial perspectives. In other words: Which activities will be particularly attractive to your customers if implemented outstandingly well, and which can deter your customers if implemented poorly? In a yoga studio, the quality of the course management, the location, and atmosphere of the premises are much more important for success than the quality and efficiency of the bookkeeping.

Sort the Post-its by descending importance on your Business Model Canvas and consolidate tasks that can be summarized if necessary.

With the previous task, you should have already sufficiently mapped your business model with activities.

Second part of the task:

The next step is to examine how and where you can differentiate yourself further from your competitors to increase your chances of success.

The choice and quality of your channels and customer relations are particularly important for your competitiveness, as they link your customer segments to your value proposition.

So, take another close look at the chain “customer segment” ó “channels” and “customer relations” ó  “value proposition”, and consider which activities could play the greatest role here.

Example: Yoga Studio

My customers are health-conscious employees in the industrial estate with little time [= customer segment], which I gain by addressing them personally (e.g., with a retractable banner in the foyer of the companies = channel) to establish a personal customer relationship [= customer relationship]. This enables me to implement my value proposition of making an effective and individual health offer that takes the job reality of employees into account as much as possible [= value proposition].

From this consideration, it follows that the activity “Personal Interaction” is of particular importance, not only when the yoga studio is opened but also for its continued operation. This high-touch interaction can be a decisive competitive advantage but must also be planned and paid for with time and resources when the business idea is born.

So, finally, mark on your Extended Canvas, which core activities play an outstanding role in differentiating yourself from the competition.