Using the Business Model Canvas To Examine Ireland's Housing Crisis

Ireland as we know is experiencing an ongoing chronic housing shortage which is contributing significantly to the homelessness crisis in Ireland – the critical issue needs an innovative approach to develop a solution. How can elements of the lean startup approach used in the entrepreneurial world be used to analyse a public problem and start to develop solutions? In particular, how can a lean concept such as the Business Model Canvas (BMC) be used to start to think about what a solution might look like and how it logically might fit together?
 
The Business Model Canvas is a strategic management and lean startup template for developing new or documenting existing business models. It is a visual chart with elements describing a firm's or product's value proposition, infrastructure, customers, and finances.
 
The Business Model Canvas has given a good framework to start to think about building businesses where generally the aim is to earn more money than you spend. What if you’re local or central government, a public body or part of the not-for profit sector? In these cases, you don’t earn money (all the time!), but you mobilise resources and a budget to solve a particular problem and create value for a given group (e.g. HSE – service recipients, GPA – players, SEAI – households & companies, Arts Council – the general public, NTA – drivers on the countries roads, etc.).
 
With a focus on benefits delivered over revenue and profitability the Business Model Canvas needs four tweaks to make is a useful tool in this sector:

• Customer Segments is changed to Beneficiaries
  
• Cost Structure is changed to Programme Costs/Budget
  
• Channel is changed to Programme Deployment Route
  
• Customer Relationships is changed to Buy-In
  

Taking the current housing crisis as a case study the attached article explains the how and why of these changes to the original Business Model Canvas to make it more useful for the Public and Not-for-Profit sectors and illustrates how it could be used.

business_model_canvas_in_not_for_profits.pdf