Reflective Critical Essay: Opportunity Canvas Analysis

This reflective essay critically analyzes the Opportunity Canvas, a model presented by Dr. Griesbach David, used for innovation in business design. The essay begins with an introduction and then discusses the importance of innovation for organizational success, emphasizing the Opportunity Canvas as a tool to understand problems and identify innovation opportunities. The analysis breaks down the Opportunity Canvas into four key levels: customer segments, organizational problems, solutions, and technology stage. The essay also reflects on the practical application of the Opportunity Canvas, offering insights from the student's perspective as a potential manager. The author concludes that the Opportunity Canvas is a comprehensive tool that can be successfully applied in a firm, although implementation may require addressing challenges related to cooperation and resource allocation.

Running head: REFLECTIVE CRITICAL ESSAY
REFLECTIVE CRITICAL ESSAY
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1REFLECTIVE CRITICAL ESSAY
Introduction
Innovation can be considered to be an essential part of the organization and with respect to this, it
can be mentioned that, it is crucial for every organization as present in the business environment to take
considerable measures and steps so as to ensure that they are successfully able to engage in the procedure
of opportunity recognition and innovation which would then go a long way in assisting the individual to
work for the benefit of the overall organization at large (Anderson, Potočnik & Zhou, 2014). According to
Berry and Berry (2018), Opportunity Canvas as presented by Dr. Griesbach David forms one of the most
essential tools which are generally used by the different organizations in order to understand the problems
which are being faced by the organization and to come up with different potentials with respect to the
innovation which can take place. The Opportunity canvas can be stated to be an essential tool by the
organizations in the highly competitive environment. The main aim of the essay is to critically reflect on
the Opportunity Canvas as presented by Dr. Griesbach David and to form an opinion about the same. The
essay will begin with an introduction which will then be followed by an analysis on the same. The
summary of the argumentation line will also be provided.
Discussion
As per my analysis as done on the particular Opportunity Canvas, the concept of innovation has
become highly critical for all the organizations to abide by and with respect to this, it can also be
mentioned that in order to gain long term success, it is critical for any business organization to make use
of a quintessential model which will assist them during the procedure of change ( Souto, 2015). According
to me, the Opportunity Canvas serves as a helpful model which can be adopted by the different
companies in order to engage in substantial change and innovative prospects. The Opportunity canvas as
presented by Dr. Griesbach David, is generally used to assist any organization on a general level to
compare the different problems as lying within the realm of the organization with the different innovation
levels which the different companies may adopt in order to combat against the same. As per my study,
the Opportunity canvas can be stated to be a systematized timeline between the primary levels of an
organization. These levels are mainly four in number and can be stated to be the customer segments,
problems lying in the organization, solutions which are plausible in nature and the last one is the
technology stage. I believe that in the first level which is of the customer segments, the target market
which the company aims to serve is generally defined which helps in the determination of the overall
focus of the organization and large and assists in understanding the stipulated moves which can be taken
by an organization in order to improve the relationship of the firm with the designated target audience
(West & Bogers, 2014).

2REFLECTIVE CRITICAL ESSAY
The second level of the particular canvas comprises of the organizational problems which are
being faced by the organization at large and these are the problems which the organization has been
troubling the firm since a long period of time (Griesbachconsulting.com ,2016). However, as per my
observation I recognized that the most crucial level as present in the Opportunity Canvas is the third level
which comprises of the recognition of the different solutions for the different problems as being faced by
the firm at large. This is because the solution formation forms the essential part of the organization and
with respect to this, it becomes essentially important for the firm to try and match the solution with the
problems as being faced by the organization. The last relevant stage of the model which I identified after
the third stage is the technology stage. The technology stage is one of the most critical stages as well as it
goes a long way in assisting the firm to resolve the problems of the firm by formulating solutions which
shall make use of the advanced technology and engage in long term success (Drucker, 2014).
Figure 1: The Opportunity Canvas
In regard to the question which states that if I was the manager of a mid-sized organization, and I
had planned to bring about innovation in the organization, I would like to state that, after analyzing the

3REFLECTIVE CRITICAL ESSAY
Opportunity canvas as presented by Dr. Griesbach David I believe that it is an appropriate tool which I
could make use of in order to achieve success within my organization. The tool takes into its
consideration the four different realms like the customer segments, the technology in the firm, the
problems as well as the different solutions in consideration, which thereby makes it possible for the firm
to understand the problems which the firm has been facing and to gain an understanding of the different
resources as present within the realm of the firm and their ability to sole the overall scenario of the firm
(Christensen, Raynor & McDonald, 2015).
According to me, the innovation strategy formed by the usage of an opportunity analysis is highly
useful and goes a long way in ensuring that the firm is successfully able to identify all problems and
elevate its positioning. If I were the innovation head of the firm, I would use the Opportunity canvas to
define the innovation fields which would take place in the firm, to gain new ideas, during the annual
procedure and before any new product is being designed. In addition to this, I do not believe that the
Opportunity Canvas requires any changes to be made within itself as it’s a comprehensive model and is
self-sufficient. However, I do believe after the readings on the same, that the implementation of the
opportunity Canvas in the firm could be a challenging task. This is because, it requires the cooperation
and combination of all the four levels of the model, which often becomes very difficult to implement and
the confirmation of the organizational resources or the employees needs to be taken (Cheng, Yang &
Sheu, 2014). I would recommend that these challenges could be overcome by conducting meetings and
engaging in the employee opinion which makes cooperation easier.
Conclusion
Therefore, from the given analysis it can be understood that the Innovation and Creativity forms
an essential aspect of the firm and with respect to this, it can be mentioned that any firm who wants to
gain success in the long run would be required to ensure that they are being able to undertake a suitable
model and apply the same. The essay undertook to critically evaluate the opportunity canvas as presented
by Dr. Griesbach David. The different levels of the Opportunity Canvas were examined which was then
followed by the analysis of the scenario whether the canvas can be successfully applied in a firm or not.
The essay critically examines the use of the Canvas and presents my view on the same. However, further
analysis needs to be conducted in order to understand the application of the model.

4REFLECTIVE CRITICAL ESSAY
List of References
Anderson, N., Potočnik, K., & Zhou, J. (2014). Innovation and creativity in organizations: A state-of-the-
science review, prospective commentary, and guiding framework. Journal of management, 40(5),
1297-1333.
Berry, F. S., & Berry, W. D. (2018). Innovation and Diusion Models in Policy Research. In Theories of
the policy process(pp. 263-308). Routledge.
Cheng, C. C., Yang, C. L., & Sheu, C. (2014). The link between eco-innovation and business
performance: a Taiwanese industry context. Journal of Cleaner Production, 64, 81-90.
Christensen, C. M., Raynor, M. E., & McDonald, R. (2015). What is disruptive innovation. Harvard
Business Review, 93(12), 44-53.
Drucker, P. (2014). Innovation and entrepreneurship. Routledge.
Griesbachconsulting.com (2016). Innovation Training. [online]. Available at:
https://www.griesbachconsulting.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Lean-Innovation-Training-
Griesbach-Consulting-GmbH.pdf (Retrieved on: 02 Jan. 2019).
Souto, J. E. (2015). Business model innovation and business concept innovation as the context of
incremental innovation and radical innovation. Tourism Management, 51, 142-155.
West, J., & Bogers, M. (2014). Leveraging external sources of innovation: a review of research on open
innovation. Journal of Product Innovation Management, 31(4), 814-831.