Insight Out Learning - Business Blueprinting

Purpose
This model explores operational activity within a creative business. It addresses how it's going to work and places all the various activities and pieces of the map together. It involves creating a flow chart of all the activities associated with the creation, production and delivery of a product or service; it then requires the participant to organise this information into set categories - see the 'Business Blueprinting Model' Handout.

All these activities will compete for time and energy; some activities will be on show to the customer/audience; some will be done behind the scenes. Some activities can be directly charged to the client/audience, others not. Some activities will run concurrently and stress points and bottlenecks in business activity can be identified through using the model.

Business Blueprinting provides a model to analyse these activities and illustrates the need to balance activities in order to effectively manage ideas, their development, their promotion and the client to bring income into the business.

Application
This model is particularly useful for exhibition / live project management where teamwork is particularly important. Once a flow chart of activities has been developed through adopting a timeline approach (e.g. Future History), the complexity of a project can be further analysed. The model is particularly useful in the analysis of managing complex activities where reliance on the organisation of external services, and other individuals, is crucial for project success.

Projects in Stage 3 where greater organisation and external business awareness skills are required would use the 'Business Blueprinting Model' to fully explore the implications of day-to-day activities on business success.

Equally the model could be used during the honours year to plan for the degree or post-graduation shows (eg. New Designers, Fresh Art, New Blood). This, in combination with using the 'Future History Model', would enable the individual to plan long term and move into the micro-planning that 'Business Blueprinting' requires. Group work is important to the delivery of this model. Discussion, analysis, evaluation, planning and critical feedback on the group work is fundamental to its successful delivery.

Duration
This session should be delivered within a suitable timeframe to allow appropriate discussion, usually about 2 hours. The facilitator should be sympathetic to the participant engagement with the tasks and move the session on as appropriate.