I’ve been helping clients transform their enterprises over the last couple of years. And if you follow me on LinkedIn, you know that I use EDGY a lot—actually, in every project since it came out.

I also started telling people, “Hey, I do enterprise design!” And yeah, I know it’s not well known, but still, enterprise design has a significant impact on my work, and it’s been gaining traction lately.

More often than not, people talk to me about what they know best—and that would be the Business Model Canvas. And while it’s not exactly the same, I understand the comparison.

Plus, Strategyzer is a good reference point, so… I’ll take the comparison any day!

But what’s the real difference? To make sure I’m not too far off, I asked a friend who knows way more about the BMC than I do. These are my words, but they seem like a good starting point. Also, Alexandre Joyce—thanks for sharing your point of view. 😉

The Business Model Canvas (BMC)

The Business Model Canvas (BMC) tool developed by Alexander Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur to help organizations visualize, design, and refine their business models. It provides a structured way to describe how a company creates, delivers, and understands value.

Like EDGY, the model is divided into key business elements, which are:

1. Customer Segments – Who are your customers? What are their needs and pain points?
2. Value Propositions – What unique value do you offer? Why do customers choose you?
3. Channels – How do you deliver your value proposition to customers?
4. Customer Relationships – How do you interact with and retain customers?
5. Revenue Streams – How does your business make money?
6. Key Resources – What assets are essential to delivering your value proposition?
7. Key Activities – What are the critical things your business needs to do to succeed?
8. Key Partnerships – Who are your strategic partners and suppliers?
9. Cost Structure – What are the main costs involved in running your business?

As you can see, there are similar words in there. And if you dig deeper into the theories behind the BMC, you’ll notice that each of these categories answers multiple questions.

The BMC can be lightweight, but you can also dive deeper and conduct significant research to create or refine your business model.

Where the BMC Shines

Strategic patterns

One of the main advantages of the BMC is that you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. There are strategic patterns—repeatable configurations of the nine building blocks that businesses use. These patterns help you create scenarios for your business model and save time.

For example:

• “If you want a Software as a Service (SaaS) model, these three blocks need to be connected like this.”

• “If your strategy is the razor-and-blades model, here’s how it works.”

So, save yourself some precious time and focus on innovation in other blocks.

Monetisation

The BMC is particularly strong in addressing business and monetization aspects. It can be used as a tool to assess whether a model is profitable. After all, no monetization means no business, no user experience, no job—nothing.

EDGY as a visual language and a model

Weird, I know. There aren’t many things to compare EDGY to. But let’s do a quick EDGY 101 for those who are new to the concept.

The team that built EDGY at the Intersection Group came up with 16 elements split into three categories (Outcome, Activities and Object). These words, when placed in the Facet Model, gain meaning within their context.

By using a carefully selected set of words, we eliminate a lot of subject-matter-specific jargon that other disciplines might struggle to grasp.

These words and their respective facets are :

• Identity – The values and beliefs enterprises exhibit through their messages and actions.
• Organisation – The structural setup of the enterprise.
• Architecture – The structures needed to make an enterprise operate and connect to the ecosystem.
• Product – What we make, offer and deliver for people’s benefit.
• Experience – The impact through interactions the enterprise has on people and their lives.
• Brand – Our name and what it stands for.

I’ve written other articles on that subject, but for now, here’s an image with the Facet Model and the 16 elements.

Where EDGY and the Facet Model shine

Solve problems efficiently

To understand tensions, you need a system that maps complexity. EDGY helps you understand how elements are connected, identify gaps, and share insights across people, teams, and silos.

Imagine Custom Strategies

Use EDGY as a strategy development tool. You can also apply its language on top of other methodologies to bring consistency and depth to your various initiatives.

When used with multiple maps and models, it allows you to develop a strategy that is tailored to your context.

Coherence on planning and implementation

EDGY can help you keep track of your strategic decisions. By making conscious choices and tracking them, any team can make decisions faster and more easily.

Planning with EDGY also helps people understand a plan across its facets and intersections, making it easier to align planning with strategy.

The BMC with EDGY

Since EDGY is a language, you can actually layer it on top of other models. And every time I do, I’m reminded that “Every model is wrong, but some are useful.”

I say that because there are always things in EDGY that aren’t present in other models, and elements in the Facet Model that don’t appear elsewhere. And that’s ok.

It’s easier to show you what I mean with a visual representation of the language applied over the BMC and on top of the Value Proposition (a part of the BMC).

Notice anything? While very powerful, the BMC doesn’t have a lot of green in it. In Edgy, it represents the identity part.

To the best of my knowledge, the Business Model Canvas (BMC) does not explicitly include elements like identity, mission, vision, core values, or other abstract and motivational aspects of a business. The BMC is a strategic tool focused on operational and financial mechanics rather than the philosophical or cultural foundation of a business.

And… Every enterprise needs both.

What I’ve learned while writing this article

At its core, the Intersection Group is all about interdisciplinary collaboration and communication. One of the core principles we follow (or at least try to) is humility. As part of our identity, we aim to work with others—not against them. To make things better, we need to share, listen, and understand one another.

While collaborating (and softly debating) with Joyce, he made a comment about “the missions of a business” and wrote:

“According to Peter Drucker, the sole purpose of a business is to create and keep a customer, and to achieve this, businesses have two basic functions: marketing and innovation.”

Haha! We don’t start with the same vision… so we don’t use the same tools. Or maybe we do—but in different ways. So, here is my starting point : « Henry Mintzberg argues that the mission of an enterprise is not solely about maximizing shareholder value but rather about serving a broader purpose within society. He believes enterprises should balance the interests of multiple stakeholders—including employees, customers, communities, and shareholders—while contributing to economic, social, and environmental well-being.»

While I’m certain he doesn’t neglect the other aspects that Mintzberg highlights, they might not be his focus given the context he works in.

This article is a conversation

EDGY is not in competition with any other model. Au contraire, mon ami! We encourage you to use it with other models.

When people speak the same language and share the same goals, it becomes easier to understand one another and build better enterprises.

Même s’il y a probablement plusieurs angles morts dans ce texte, je comprends maintenant mieux la perspective d’Alexandre. Et j’espère que c’est réciproque.

Peace. ✌️