The purpose of this thesis was to support market entry in emerging markets in case of waste utilization in Sultanate of Oman. In general, this means that the main deliverables of this thesis were planned to be tested methods and tools for business model creation for new markets. Thus, for this tool and method creation and testing the case of waste utili-zation in Sultanate of Oman was selected, as it was a relevant and interesting case for the company for which the thesis project and its deliverables were to be conducted.
The main tools for the future business model generations created in this theses were the feasibility calculation tool and the Weighted Sum Method and ELECTRE III multicriteria decision-making tools. On the other hand, the most important methods for the future busi-ness model generations were the use of simulating the customers’ behavior and utilizing the Business Model Canvas to illustrate and design the actual business model through the accumulated knowledge from the customer behavior simulation. These two, main tools and methods, are briefly discussed in more depth in following separate chapters. After that, a synthesis over the deliverables and the template nature is discussed.
8.1 Main tools
As mentioned earlier, the main tools for the company created in this thesis are the excel-based feasibility calculation tool and the Weighted Sum Method and ELECTRE III mul-ticriteria decision-making tools, which are also excel based tools. Thus, both of the main tools are concrete numerical calculation tools to be used for aiding future business model generation cases and to provide deeper insight over the situation and possibilities at hand.
The feasibility calculation tool is in essence a profitability calculation tool for various investments. This tool takes into account, for example, the original investment, financing options, discounting factor, and annual cash flows. As an output the tool provides the decision-maker with, for example, net present value, internal rate of return, payback time, various graphs, and option to iterate with values in real time and see the changes imme-diately.
Another important delivered actual tools were the Weighted Sum Method and ELECTRE III decision-making calculation tools. A multi-criteria decision-making tool called SANNA 2014 was used in this thesis, as it was considered to be reliable and easy to use and thus no reason to create an own version was seen. This tool allows the use of multiple multi-criteria decision-making tools, two of them being the selected Weighted Sum Method and ELECTRE III. On top of Weighted Sum Method and ELECTRE III, the said tool contains various other multi-criteria decision-making tools, but for the purposes of this thesis only the Weighted Sum Method and ELECTRE III were used. Since the
amount of alternatives per location was limited and no robust sorting and narrowing of the alternatives was needed, the ELECTRE III tool was used without thresholds, simply ranking the alternatives through straight forward scoring. The tool itself calculated the preference and indifference thresholds according to the provided data to enable sufficient distinction between alternatives.
The SANNA 2014 Excel based multi-criteria decision-making tool, containing the tools for Weighted Sum Method and ELECTRE III tools and other criteria decision-making tools, presented by Jablonsky (2014) in his text turned out to be a great way to simulate the decision making process of the customer. The use of the tool gave deeper understand-ing about the conclusions the customer might end up to through decision-makunderstand-ing and evaluation of the alternatives on the table. This tool might turn out to be extremely valu-able to easily and cost efficiently prove some business cases either extremely unfeasible or feasible in the future. However, the use of the tool requires thorough understanding over the customer value, which was discussed in depth in the literature review. The short-comings of this thesis on this regard is that the input from the customer was only second hand information through the selected professionals’ workshop.
8.2 Main methods
The main methods learned and adopted in this thesis regarding the future business model generation cases were the simulation of the customers’ behavior and the use of the Busi-ness Model Canvas template. Together these processes force the supplier to position themselves to the customers’ point of view and thus to gain understanding about the cus-tomers’ needs and definition of value. This is important starting point for business models and creation of new business, as was discussed in the literature review. The supplier should strive to transform from the product centric view of the market to the value based view, fulfilling the customers’ needs according to the capabilities the company has and even try to develop the capabilities according to the identified customer value compo-nents.
The simulation of the customers’ decision-making was achieved in this thesis through quantitative tools, Weighted Sum Method and ELECTRE III. However, this simulation could be achieved as well by other means. For example, by a business game, where man-agers from the supplier company play as the manman-agers of the customer company (Laine et al. 2012). Mentioned game concept could force the supplier company managers to view the situation from the customer’s point of view and the competitive game nature could help to increase the effort to understand the customer’s business and its values. However, the Weighted Sum Method and ELECTRE III methods were the selected tools for this specific case, as those were seen as more suitable tools for current decision-making sim-ulation.
To succeed in the customers’ decision-making simulation the supplier has to focus on understanding the customer value. In the used Weighted Sum Method and ELECTRE III methods the value components and their valuation or weights are first identified sepa-rately and then included as index numbers into a calculation spreadsheet. The weakness of selected methods is that they do not really take any stand on how the customer value assessment should be concluded. For this reason the literature review part of this thesis handled this subject in some depth. In comparison, the business game concept presented by Laine (2012) enables a very specific and intuitive way to assess customer value as a part of the game and simulation. However, regardless the method, the assessment of cus-tomer value is extremely important for the purposes of cuscus-tomer decision-making simu-lation. Furthermore, when done on a solid base of accurate customer value assessment, the customers’ decision-making simulation provides the supplier company with increased understanding over the direction where it should steer its new business model.
The second main method was the use of Business Model Canvas to illustrate and design the actual business model through the accumulated knowledge from the customer behav-ior simulation. This method positions the customer value proposition into the center role, but also forces the supplier to systematically assess all other relevant components of the business model as well. Thus, the Business Model Canvas could be seen to even function as a check list, so that all important aspects of a business model are surely considered before the business model is finalized. The graphical form and template nature of the Business Model Canvas also enables the supplier to easily and efficiently iterate and com-pare the different rivaling business models an quickly present the main idea of each busi-ness model.
An important factor noted in the use of Business Model Canvas was that the separate segments of the Business Model Canvas can be discussed and considered in varying depth, depending on the situation at hand and what is relevant for the supplier company.
For example, in this case, the most important segments were arguably the customer value propositions, cost structures, and revenue streams and these were considered in more depth than other components of the business model canvas. As there were assumed to exist only one customer, be’ah, the customer segments part was handled only briefly.
8.3 Synthesis of the main deliverables and the template nature
The main deliverables were divided into two groups: the main tools and the main meth-ods. The main tools were two Excel template tools, the feasibility calculation tool and the multi-criteria decision-making tool. The first was created in-house for the purposes of this thesis and evaluating the monetary profitability of different investments. The latter, SANNA 2014 Excel tool, was created by a third party and it is presented by Jablonsky (2014) in his text. The SANNA 2014 tool was created for the purposes of making multi-criteria decisions. This tool was found through scientific articles citing to this tool when and it is publicly available on web and works as an excel add-in (Jablonsky 2014).
The main methods are the customers’ decision-making simulation and the use of Business Model Canvas to illustrate and design the actual business model through the accumulated knowledge from the customer behavior simulation. The adopted multi-criteria decision-making excel tool was utilized, amongst customer value assessment, to simulate the cus-tomer’s decision-making. The Business Model Canvas was then utilized in order to create and to present the final business model.
Together the methods and tools enabled to view the situation and supplier’s offering from the customer’s view point and to compare it to rivaling technologies and the understand-ing gained from this process was utilized in creation of the business model. The purpose of this thesis was to support market entry in emerging markets in case of waste utilization in Sultanate of Oman. For this purpose the required processes or methods and tools needed to be created and validated. Thus, it was seen that the selected and created tools and methods were successful, fulfilling the set demands.
Another important aspect, which was noted only afterwards, was that the two Excel tools could be also utilized in a consultative manner and during the actual sales process together with the customer. If applied successfully, together these tools could then function as a valuable sales tools, proving the customer the value and justifying the investment. Thus, the delivered tools could turn out to be even more valuable to the supplier company than was initially expected. However, due to the limited timeframe of the thesis project, it was unable to guarantee also the sales force adoption of these tools.
Also, in the literature review it was noted, that by developing the capabilities to identify customer value, the company might also develop a capability to operate in consultative business, bringing the company new business opportunities (Keränen 2014). The use of this tools and bringing them into every day operation might increase these skills in the company, later allowing even the consultative business operations, as described by Keränen (2014). Thus, the adoption of these tools and methods might result, at least in theory, into significant value increase for the company.