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From PhD to boardrooms – interview with Alex Osterwalder, inventor of the Business Model Canvas

IMD innovation expert Bill Fischer discusses the journey of the influential framework with its originator

By William A. Fischer

1 min.

February 2019

IMD Professor of Innovation Management, Bill Fischer caught up with frequent IMD collaborator and CEO of Strategyzer, Alex Osterwalder, to discuss the Business Model Canvas, a tool Osterwalder invented to help companies innovate.

In the interview, the experts discuss how the Business Model Canvas began as Osterwalder’s PhD dissertation with Yves Pigneur and grew into a tool that is now being used by companies around the world like MasterCard, Nintendo, and many more.

Learn how a simple but not simplistic framework has helped companies large and small and how Bill Fischer contributed, or not, to its inception.

Bill Fischer is a Professor of Innovation Management at IMD. He co-founded and co-directs the IMD program on Driving Strategic Innovation, in cooperation with the Sloan School of Management at MIT.

Find out more about Alex Osterwalder, who has spoken at IMD programs like Orchestrating Winning Performance (OWP)

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Research Information & Knowledge Hub for additional information on IMD publications

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