GigVistas: Understanding Gig Models Beyond the Business Canvas

It was 2022. Just a few years had passed since the young company GigVistas, an AI (artificial intelligence)-backed freelance platform that matched gig professionals with companies and jobs, had emerged and announced its entry into the rapidly growing gig industry. GigVistas had capitalized on the evolving work conditions and fluctuating demand/supply of talent brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, while dealing with the accompanying uncertainties. The pandemic led to the creation of a "work-from-home" environment, which many companies took as a chance to review the global work culture. It was this changing face of employment in India and elsewhere that the GigVistas team had observed. In response, GigVistas was developed as a digital platform that would efficiently match and connect gig professionals with companies across various fields and industries. However, the GigVistas team needed to resolve the many concerns and issues that they grappled with: What was the overall value addition that GigVistas sought to offer its clients? How could GigVistas identify ways to boost fulfilment on the platform? How should it build the right ecosystem by selecting suitable partners? What should be the platform's revenue model? How could GigVistas scale over time to evolve as a global player?

Learning Objectives

1. How a fledgling firm can make its mark and set itself apart from a host of competitors in a rapidly growing, highly competitive market.
2. The importance of ecosystems in a multi-player industry such as the gig economy, and how players in such an ecosystem can generate value for all the participants by being either adapters or shapers in the dynamic context
3. The importance of the right value proposition (to onboard target customers) and customer acquisition, particularly in a market where a business must cater to both business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) segments
4. The importance of a robust, tailor-made revenue model to optimize the growth of a young firm, help keep it afloat, and plan for self-sufficiency in the future
5. How to achieve legitimacy for business model innovation (BMI) among the firm's stakeholders and
6. How to build a strategic business model (SBM) in order to prevent imitation by competitors