Assessing Threats

Excerpt from Business Model Generation - Written by Alexander Osterwalder & Yves Pigneur

As you consider threats specific to your business model, ask yourself these questions as you think about ways to address each threat.

Value Proposition Threats

1. Are substitute products & services available?
2. Are competitors threatening to offer better price or value?

Cost/Revenue Threats

1. Are your margins threatened by competitors? By technology?
2. Do you depend excessively on one or more Revenue Streams?
3. Which Revenue Streams are likely to disappear in the future?
4. Which costs threaten to become unpredictable?
5. Which costs threaten to grow more quickly than the revenues they support?

Infrastructure Threats

1. Could you face a disruption in the supply of certain resources?
2. Is the quality of your resources threatened in any way?
3. What key activities might be disrupted?
4. Is the quality of your activities threatened in any way?
5. Are you in danger of losing any partners?
6. Might your partners collaborate with any competitors?
7. Are you too dependent on certain partners?

Customer Interface Threats

1. Could your market be saturated soon?
2. Are competitors threatening your market share?
3. How likely are customers to defect?
4. How quickly will competition in your market intensify?
5. Do competitors threaten your channels?
6. Are your channels in danger of becoming irrelevant to customers?
7. Are any of your customer relationships in danger of deteriorating?