

What customers expect from a bank, by which means and via which methods customers’ wishes are fulfilled, as well as how these services can be rendered while generating sustainable corporate success, have fundamentally changed in recent years. Therefore, the questions that traditionally have to be asked are: what is a bank to a customer? Or: which services do customers expect from a bank? What are the company’s profit sources and influencing factors? An essential dimension in determining a business model is innovation, and the customer remains the primary reference point for this. Determining a business model continues to bring together customer and corporate perspectives through the overarching objective of generating and securing a competitive advantage.

This can be defended both commercially and with regard to the competitive position achieved.

A company must deal with the dimensions of effectiveness and efficiency in its work, which ultimately determine its comparative competitive advantage. This requires that the company asks itself about not only the benefits that it brings to the customer, but also about which sources it can generate profits from along the value chain. The traditional view has not lost its significance, even if business models today are presented as a type of unit of analysis going beyond the traditional approach. It typically includes a whole set of integrated components, all of which can be looked on as opportunities for innovation and competitive advantage.”īusiness models have many dimensions and levels. Magretta delineated the business model from the point of view of an entrepreneur: “Who is the customer? And what does the customer value? It also answers the fundamental questions every manager must ask: how do we make money in this business? What is the underlying economic logic that explains how we can deliver value to customers at an appropriate cost?” According to Skarzynski and Gibson, “We define a business model as a conceptual framework for identifying how a company creates, delivers and extracts value. In the past, was an entrepreneur who had decided to run a bank ever asked about their business model? What is a business model? The vast array of legal and supervisory requirements for determining a business model draws attention away from the inherent and indispensable need that a successful entrepreneur has for such a model.

The banks’ business model – between function and transformation
