A simple way of capturing contract essentials on a page

What is the Commercial Model Canvas? Contracts are complex, multi-faceted documents, which is why we have Commercial professionals who’s role it is to create, agree, understand and convey those contracts to those around them who have to rely on the successful delivery of the goods or services the contract covers. In this role, one of the most overlooked but vital responsibilities is communicating the contract to those who need to know most – whether they be senior executives, delivery teams, or other stakeholders. Many times you may need to brief over 100, perhaps up to and over 1000 people in very large agreements. The Commercial Model Canvas was created to provide a simple and elegant framework for capturing pertinent elements of a contract that can be used in workshops, briefs or presentations. It is just one tool that can be employed and is available in PDF that prints up to A3.

How does Commercial Model Canvas work? A contract is “a written or spoken agreement, especially one concerning employment, sales, or tenancy, that is intended to be enforceable by law” and in the UK, to create an enforceable contract you need agreement, capacity, consideration and intention. But that doesn’t really help describe the contracts we work with. What we need is a description that helps provide us with a good structure of a typical contract – so let’s use the following (written from a customers point of view): A contract is: An agreement for you to achieve a result, By undertaking a set of actions, In accordance with the terms we agree, To the standards and measures I set out, In exchange for compensation. These form the building blocks of the Commercial Model Canvas, along with an important addition: Why are we entering into this agreement.

How to populate Commercial Model Canvas? Simply, in any way you want! The canvas should be used, re-used, populated, deleted and populated again – it’s a working template to fit the needs of what you’re doing that day. Working on a bid and want to quickly note down key facts that you don’t want the team to overlook – print it out on A3 and put it on the wall. Workshopping a brand new idea for a procurement with a team – use it to brainstorm ideas. Briefing a delivery team on the elements of the contract that they need to know for their specific area – use it in a presentation. Providing a pack to a senior exec and want to capture the things they will want to know – use it as part of the pack. Really the options are endless – it’s a tool, not perfect, not going to cover every eventuality – but part of the toolkit that helps get the job done. The next page has some ideas of what might fit where to get you started.

Anything else I should know? The original idea was inspired by the Business Model Canvas, from the book Business Model Generation. I recommend reading both as an excellent guide to how to use frameworks to explain complex businesses. Read more about the Business Model Canvas at https://strategyzer.com/canvas/business-model-canvas The Commercial Model Canvas is licensed under the Creative Commons CC BY-NC 2.0 UK license which means please use it - it’s free! Use it, abuse it, adapt it, and make it fit your needs. That’s all fine, but please provide credit to the original and adhere to the rest of the terms of the license at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/uk/ If you want a copy of the Commercial Model Canvas in other formats please take a look at www.commercialmodelcanvas.com to see if it’s available. If you have any other questions or feedback please email me - rob@robfisher100.com I really hope you find it useful!

A simple way of capturing contract essentials on a page