Since posting about our digital twin business models recently, many people have asked “What the heck is this digital twin thing any way?” or even “How on earth can you make a claim like that?“
Now I get really annoyed when people make huge claims for feeble ideas or methods. So I have held off claiming that our dynamic business models [DBMs] are “digital twins” for a long time.
But – the more examples I see, the more confident I am that I can make this claim. Why? Well, if done properly, a dynamic business model features:
- items visible and measurable in the real world – not proxies or abstract items
- actual time-series values on any of those items where data can be found or estimated
- detailed, causal relationships that match the real world
- calculated time-series values that match – with reasonable accuracy – those real-world values
- … and all of this over time-scales and in time-units that are useful for operational and strategic planning and management
Below is a screen-capture showing the kind of thing a digital-twin model can do, for a new product launch.
This GIF shows about 10% of the whole model, which includes:
- how marketing and word-of-mouth drive the capture of new customers and repeat sales
- price and value-for-money impacting on the uptake and repeat-sales rate
- changing affordability of the product as consumer incomes rise
- ‘experience-curve’ cost reductions as product output grows
- profit contribution and NPV results
- a competitive race against a similar rival with its own launch timing and strategy
… and the model can capture parallel time-series for real-world results for any or all of its elements, as time passes, allowing continuous planning and management of the strategy.
What more would you want a digital twin business model to do?
See our full range of courses on how these models work, how they are built (not difficult!), and how they are used to plan and manage any business initiative, challenge or strategy.