A working playbook synthesized from Vanderbilt Owen MGT 6521 (Business Models, Mod IV 2026, John Murdock) and the canonical literature of business-model thinking: Osterwalder, Blank, Ries, Christensen, Kim & Mauborgne, Porter, Kawasaki, and HBR's Must Reads.
A strategy is a bet. A business model is the machine that pays off if the bet is right. The strategy says "here is how we will compete." The business model says "here is exactly how value is created, delivered, and captured — customer by customer, dollar by dollar, function by function." Without that machine, a strategy is a slogan. With it, a strategy becomes a business.
Most MBA programs teach strategy. Few teach business models with the operational specificity that lets a manager actually build, evaluate, or invest in one. The Vanderbilt Owen course this masterclass is built on — MGT 6521, taught by John Murdock (Principal of Strategic Planning at Shore Capital, former President of the Nashville Entrepreneur Center) — closes that gap. It teaches business models from an investor's perspective: not just what they look like, but how to read them, stress-test them, evolve them, and recognize when they are about to be disrupted.
This masterclass synthesizes that course's core arc with the underlying academic and practitioner canon: Osterwalder's Business Model Canvas and Value Proposition Design, Blank's Customer Development methodology, Ries's Lean Startup, Christensen's Innovator's Dilemma, Kim and Mauborgne's Blue Ocean Strategy, Porter's Competitive Strategy, and Kawasaki's Art of the Start. The result is roughly 30,000 words organized into 9 modules plus a Master Playbook.
Murdock, drawing on Christensen, Johnson, and Kagermann's Reinventing Your Business Model (HBR, 2008), defines a business model as four interlocking elements:
The simpler form Murdock uses in class: a business model tells the story of how a business creates, delivers, and captures value. Memorize that triad. It is the spine of every framework in the masterclass.
A second course-level commitment: a business model is a hypothesis, not a blueprint. The Business Model Canvas (Osterwalder's nine blocks) is a hypothesis board, not a static plan. Every block is a testable claim about the business; every interaction with the market either validates or invalidates those claims; every change to one block propagates changes through the system. This dynamic stance is what separates the working understanding of business models from the textbook understanding.