The Rapid Farm Assessment called an RFA, is a value chain assessment tool for evaluation of farm projects utilizing several methodologies in one form. The main elements of the form are:

1. Problem description
2. Causes and effects
3. Proposed solution to remedy the problem description

The RFA form depicts the progress in the 4 stages in the “Customer Development Pivot Model” (Blank) ¹

Project Evaluation of the Form.

The Pivot model has 4 stages:

1. Customer Discovery——This is accomplished by founders of a company. During this stage the founders of the company visit or gather information from customer needs for product or service development.
2. Customer Validation—Entrepreneurs or product builders meet with customers by presenting product prototypes and feature concepts to customers. The customer provides feedback to the prototype builders. The product is evaluated to meet the customer needs.
3. Pivot—The entrepreneurs or creators of the product utilize these lessons learned to change the product offering through engineering, re-prototyping, or rebuilding the product. These are rapid changes to achieve customer satisfaction of the product offering. This cycle is repeated until a repeatable product feature set is established through satisfied customers. Once the repeatable product offering is established and a profitable pricing structure can be maintained, customer creation is accomplished.
4. Customer creation—is planned through common features sets from different customer requests.
5. Company Building—Company building is initiated when sales effort of the product feature set are repeatable, and believed to be sustainable for a duration of time.

Steve's website.

discovery, test hypothesis problem and product concept

Validaton, build a repeatable and scalable sales process

creation, create end user demand and fill sales pipeline

building, scale via relentless execution

4. Causes and effects—several causes of the problem description may be inter-related. Therefore, arrows are pointed towards the main cause, and subsequent causes are listed as required.

The cause and effects are determined from the main categories of the business model. These business model categories are depicted in Alexander Osterwalder’s Business Model Canvas. (Osterwalder)²  If any main categories are non-existing in the business or supply chain, the opportunity may not be viable. i.e. lack of established transportation network or lack of adequate commercial power This, however, provides an opportunity to document unavailable resources for possible remedy.

Business Model Canvas Methodology

Alex Osterwalder’s method for the teaching the design of a business model are to demonstrate  why business models are important, explain the systematic approach by comparing existing companies business models in a one or two day workshop. This includes the attendee practicing the design of their own business model with sketchbooks and post it notes. This classroom setting enables a broader understanding of business model development through comparisons of different business models and motivations of business model construction for different types of companies.

Linking Farmers to Investors: Customer development for Sustainable Farm Growth

The simplification of the RFA form can enable investors, NGO’s, practitioners, Food Aid Organization, Farm Development Organizations the opportunity to quickly evaluate funding projects based upon the analysis parameters of the RFA.

Business Model Dashboard

A Value chain practitioners guide

A value chain practitioner provides expertise, computation and analysis of the value chain.  This includes traveling to remote areas, performing field studies and reports. The business model dashboard, provides a metric worksheet that can be easily used in the survey field for establishing a reference and development worksheet for determining the business model of the food enterprise. Completion of the complete metrics of the Business Model takes time and thorough research, or resource support from the company  or organization requesting the analysis. Some of this information may not be readily available in the field.

Key elements of the business model are explained in simple English below. End-to-end value chain analysis and data provides a starting point for construction of detailed metrics of the business model.  These categories provide further understanding of the operational success, and status of a farming company. Combining the Rapid Farm Assessment with detailed metrics from the Business Model Dashboard, the practitioner can provide productive recommendations for modifying the farming or business strategy to support a more effective Value Chain Strategy.

7 Categories of the Business Model explained.

1.    Key Partners—suppliers or strategic relationships that provide a value added service, raw materials or components for the success of the company product offering
2.    Key Activities—Activities in the supply chain that contribute to the sustainable competitive advantage of the company
3.    Key Resources—raw materials or capabilities that shape the sustainable competitive advantage of the company.
4.    Value Proposition—A description of the compelling features or benefits that drive customer’s purchasing behavior for the product or service offering.
5.    Customer Relationships— A description of the ‘customer satisfaction relationship’  the company’s product and support establishes with the customer.
6.    Channels—Methods, companies, and/or sales channels that connect the sales transaction of the product to the factory producer.
7.    Customer Segments—A group of purchasing attributes that are common among different customers that enable the company’s product to be marketed to a common group of people.
8.    Cost Structure—The structure of the value chain costs, and those that are most important or sensitive to the overall competitive advantage of the product offering.
9.    Revenue Streams—A product or product group that are marketed together for generating profit through organized company resources and activities.