Business models are designed and executed in a specific environment. Developing your own in-depth understanding of the business environment can help build a stronger, more competitive business model.

Continuous scrutiny of the business environment is particularly important, as an increasingly complex economic environment and severely disrupted markets present significant challenges to business model iteration.

We can think of the external business environment as the "design factors" of the business model that influence how the model is designed, conceptualized, or adapted, which can be divided into two categories - design and drivers. These factors can be divided into two categories - design drivers (e.g., new customer needs, new technologies, etc.) and design constraints (e.g., regulations, strong competitors, etc.).

From the perspective of domain scope, these business environments (business model design factors) can also be categorized into four groups: (1) market influences; (2) industry influences; (3) important trends; and (4) macroeconomic influences.

(1) market influencing factors ( market analysis): including market segments, needs and demands, market issues, switching costs, revenue attractiveness.

(2) industry influencing factors (competitive analysis): including suppliers and other members of the value chain, stakeholders, existing competitors, potential to enter the disruptor, alternative products and services.

(3) Important Trends (Foresight): including technology trends, regulatory trends, social and cultural trends, and socio-economic trends.

(4) Macroeconomic influences ( macroeconomic): including global market conditions, capital markets, economic infrastructure, business and other resources.

The business environment is ever-changing, and as it changes, our business models need to evolve. To be able to remain competitive, we often need to be innovative in designing our future business models. We can create scenarios about the future that lead us to design future-oriented business models by making assumptions about market forces, industry factors, key trends, and macroeconomic influences.

Scenario speculation is an important approach when predicting future business models. Map out various possible future business models, combine them with your metrics (e.g., level of acceptable risk, growth potential, window period, etc.), and make your choices accordingly.