Key activities, doing.
In context: Stage 04 · Evaluate · Business model canvas
The handful of things the business has to do well for the model to actually work in practice.
Key Activities is the doing, not the having. It names the most important work the business must get right to deliver its value, reach customers and earn revenue. Strip it to the few activities the whole model leans on, then make sure you can run them reliably.
What this block is
Key Activities is the block in the Strategyzer Business Model Canvas that names the things a business must actually do well for the model to work. Not the resources it holds, not the partners it leans on, but the work itself: the recurring activities without which the value proposition never reaches a customer.
The discipline is to keep the list short. Most businesses do dozens of things; only a few are load-bearing. Key Activities asks which handful the whole model rests on, because those are the ones you have to be able to run consistently, day in and day out.
How it applies
For the £149 sourdough proofing box, my key activities sort into four. First, the engineering and design work that turns a thermal brief into a buildable product. Second, supply-chain orchestration across the Stoke-on-Trent ceramic supplier and the Manchester PCB house, keeping a £38–55 BOM landing on time and to spec. Third, DTC marketing to the Sourdough School audience, where the buyers already are. Fourth, quality control tight enough to hold 26°C ±0.5°C, because that tolerance is the product.
Miss any one of those and the model stalls. I can buy in help on each, but the business still has to own that they happen and happen well.
Where it fits
Key Activities sits alongside Key Resources and Key Partners on the cost side of the canvas, and the three only make sense read together. See how the blocks connect on the Business model diagram.
Try it yourself
List everything your business does to deliver its value. Then cross out anything the model could survive without. What is left is your real Key Activities block, and it is usually shorter than you expect.
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The Business Model Canvas is the work of Strategyzer (Alexander Osterwalder & Yves Pigneur), shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 licence. Source: strategyzer.com.
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