Ingeniero Civil Industrial / El siguiente proyecto es la evaluación del modelo de negocios de Hydro Iron, empresa comercializadora de dispensadores purificadores de agua para espacios a la intemperie. Se basa en las metodologías Lean Start-Up y Lean Canvas, que evalúan los aspectos del negocio investigando e iterando. El proceso metodológico llevó a cambiar el foco inicial: de abordar temáticas globales de hidratación saludable y reciclaje, a un modelo de negocios con un producto y una propuesta de valor validada por los clientes. Estos fueron detectados en las iteraciones propias de la metodología, en empresas con faenas en ambientes poco protegidos y que buscan promover la alimentación e hidratación saludables entre sus trabajadores; reducir índices de obesidad; mejorar la productividad y cumplir con la regulación laboral vigente. El objetivo de Hydro Iron es modificar malos hábitos de hidratación en Chile, los que han sido detectados por la OMS. Así, se pretende mejorar la salud y la productividad. Según la OIT, el objetivo puede alcanzarse implementando estas soluciones. El proyecto circunscribe la validación en empresas constructoras. La metodología Lean Canvas, detectó en ellas el deseo de cumplir con la normativa vigente acerca de la hidratación, y eliminar el problema que provoca, (en productividad y tiempo), que los trabajadores dejen sus labores para ir hidratarse. Se testearon organolépticamente distintos tipos de agua, con un focus group. Se definió un fuerte canal de venta y comercialización de los dispensadores al desarrollar una alianza con empresas como Disal, aprovechando su red de contactos y capacidad instalada. Los principales ingresos de la empresa provienen del arriendo de los dispensadores. Finalmente, se evaluó la factibilidad económica del proyecto, que arrojó un VAN de CLP$24.071.998 a tres años, requiriendo una inversión de CLP$68.785.579, que se recupera en diez y siete meses. Por dicho aporte se ofrece transferir un 17,32% de la compañía a inversionistas dispuestos a participar en el emprendmiento.

Autor no autoriza el acceso a texto completo de su documento hasta el 18/3/2021. / Ingeniero Civil Industrial / Según una publicación de la ODECU el 2012, Chile es el país con mayor consumo de mayonesa a nivel latinoamericano, llegando a un total de 33.978 toneladas vendidas el 2013, esto es un poco más de un tercio de las ventas de aderezos totales. Estas cifras son preocupantes ya que la mayonesa en un alimento con alta cantidad de grasas y gran aporte calórico, además no aporta significativamente a la nutrición del consumidor. En la presente memoria, el proyecto a desarrollar consiste en un modelo de negocios para un producto nuevo en la industria de las salsas y aderezos premium. En el comienzo del proyecto de memoria, el producto se encuentra desarrollado en su etapa básica, siendo testeado en dos locales. Uno focalizado solo a la venta del producto y el segundo en el que se utiliza tanto en la venta como en la cocina para hacer distintas preparaciones. El modelo de negocio es sumamente importante para esta empresa, ya que ayudaría a reducir los riesgos y costos de entrada a esta industria y poder llevar a cabo su ingreso al mercado de forma rápida. Para esto se utilizará la metodología Lean Start Up en conjunto con Design Thinking, incluyendo actividades mencionadas por Ash Maurya en su libro Running Lean. Una vez testeado el prototipo se logra dar cuenta de dos segmentos personas claves quienes compran los productos y los atributos más importantes del producto para ellos. Mediante distintos métodos cualitativos y cuantitativos se logra encontrar que existe interés de variadas tiendas por el producto, que se reafirma con la frecuencia en que lo compran y conjuntamente, el interés de los clientes de estas tiendas, quienes están dispuestos a pagar por él. Con las ventas que obtuvo la empresa durante el desarrollo del proyecto, se genera una estimación de demanda en torno a variados factores, con la cual se evalúa económicamente el proyecto por medio de un flujo de caja. Al analizar este flujo, se destaca la rentabilidad del proyecto ya que se obtiene un VAN calculado con una tasa de 30% de CLP$47.701.574 y una TIR del 52%. Además la inversión es recuperada totalmente al tercer periodo. Es por esto, que se decide continuar con el proyecto, esta vez dedicándole jornada completa y postulando a distintos fondos para financiarlo.

Everyday ideas are born that change the world, ideas that beat the high-risk market of entrepreneurship. Relating to the question, what gives way to an optimal market establishment? The purpose of the thesis is to provide information related to what type of methodologies that contribute to the endeavours of a startup to successfully create a product that serves the markets needs. Achieved through careful and qualitative assessments of relevant sources in an abductive approach. The empirical findings from an observed startup serves as the basis for research, subsequently correlated and defined through scientific findings of the methodologies of the business model canvas, minimum viable product, and Lean Startup Methodology. The foundation of observations revolves around the startup company Swift, whose vision is to eliminate the risk of discrimination in the job-searching process through innovate and technical measures. Furthermore, quantitative data was gathered to assess the applicability of this study to the general startup market. The analyses of the startups utilization of the methodologies indicated flaws revolving human bias factors of interpreting data, and the effects of presenting minimum viable products to the market could effect the market establishment, relating to the customer perception within the innovation- spectrum. Conclusively, by utilizing methods that optimize multi-variable understanding, and continuous feedback by customers to validate market related hypothesises; give way to higher chances of an optimal product-market-fit.

Background: There is a great interest in researching prescriptive methods as entrepreneurs demand guidance for start-up processes. A learn-by-doing methodology called lean start-up methodology has influenced tech entrepreneurs. Further, design thinking is another methodology for developing innovation that has been suggested to benefit in a software context. The uncertain nature requiring rapid innovation for software start-ups has sparked the interest in exploring the combination of the methodologies in an entrepreneurial context to utilize the benefits of both. However, the methodologies have been criticized due to a lack of rigor. It is therefore an opportunity to explore applicability of lean start-up in practice and design thinking in a software context to develop a unique methodology integrating lean start-up and design thinking.Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore the occurrence of the two innovation driven methods lean start-up and design thinking in successful software start-ups, to develop a theory of an integrated methodology that utilizes the benefits of both. The intent is to provide explicit guidance for both scholars and entrepreneurs. Methodology: An exploratory qualitative method was used with an inductive approach, conducting semi-structured interviews with six founders of successful software companies. Conclusion:  The findings advance the understanding of the lean start-up methodology in practice, by extending the aspect of idea development and clarifying the use of iterating aspects of the business model. The findings update the sequence of design thinking when applied in a software context and extend the iterating aspect, to adapt to the need for rapid development. The theory of suggested integration confirms that the first stages of design thinking initiate the idea process, emphasizing early consideration of desirability, viability, and feasibility, while lean start-up is integrated into the product development process, emphasizing rapid iterating development for validation.

When developing new products, it is important to be able to evaluate their readiness as this helps organizations manage three major challenges of product development, performance, schedule, and budget. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) discovered this in 1990 and developed a nine-level framework to measure the progression of technology development, Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs).  The framework has since then been adopted by many different industries, among them OEMs. However, there are more aspects of the innovation process than just technology. Research topics such as user centered design and business model innovation has lately gained much attention, indicating that user and business aspects of the innovation are important. Therefore, the purpose of his thesis was to propose a framework to evaluate the readiness of business, user and technology aspects. To do so, a case study was performed at the Swedish OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) Husqvarna Group, a global producer of equipment for garden and park care, as well as for the construction industry. A literature study was performed to create an understanding of the current knowledge on the topic. Semi structured interviews were used to investigate how innovation is performed at the researched company. The result from these interviews was contrasted with the results from interviews at four other Swedish OEMs, to increase external validity. Lastly the findings were validated through focus group interviews at Husqvarna Group. The case study resulted in the identification of important steps when developing viable, desirable, and feasible products. From these, the nine most important for business and user was identified and frameworks for business and user readiness respectively were developed, along with attainment criteria for each level. The findings showed that the TRL framework still holds relevance, however the attainment criteria were adjusted to better suit OEMs. Together these three frameworks create the Innovation Readiness Level (IRL) framework. / Vid utveckling av nya produkter finns det tre stora utmaningar i produktutvecklingen; prestanda, tid och budget, därför är det viktigt att ständig stötta processen genom att utvärdera projektets mognadsgrad. År 1990 utvecklade NASA en niogradig skala som kan tillämpas som ett ramverk för att mäta mognadsgraden av en teknikutveckling, Technology Readiness Levels (TRL), detta har sedan dess införts av många industriföretag. När det kommer till innovation finns det dock fler aspekter än enbart teknik att ta hänsyn till. Forskning inom användarfokuserad design och affärsmodellsinnovation har fått ökad uppmärksamhet den senaste tiden, vilket indikerar att användare och affär är viktiga aspekter inom innovation. Syftet med denna studie är att föreslå ett ramverk för att utvärdera mognadsgraden utifrån ett affärs-, användar- och teknikperspektiv. För att genomföra detta gjordes en fallstudie på det svenska industriföretaget Husqvarna Group, en global tillverkare av skogs-, park- och trädgårdsprodukter samt utrustning för konstruktionsindustrin. För att skapa en förståelse av den befintliga kunskapen inom ämnet gjordes en bred litteraturstudie. Semi-strukturerade intervjuer genomfördes för att undersöka hur innovation hanteras inom Husqvarna Group. Resultatet från det undersökta företaget ställdes i kontrast med intervjuresultat från fyra andra svenska industriföretag för att skapa ett mer generaliserbart resultat. Till sist testades resultatet genom validering med fokusgruppsintervjuer på Husqvarna Group.  Fallstudien resulterade i identifiering av betydelsefulla steg vid utveckling av en ny produkt som ordnades kronologiskt. Vid varje nivå i skalan föreslogs en rad kriterier från ett affärs- respektive användarperspektiv som ett produktutvecklingsprojekt bör uppnå för att öka chansen att bli väl mottagen när den når marknaden. Resultatet visade även att TRL-ramverket fortfarande är aktuellt och relevant, men uppnåendekriterier anpassades för ett industriföretag. Tillsammans skapar dessa tre faktorer det föreslagna ramverket Innovation Readiness Levels (IRL).

Sustainability issues have been a popular and important topic on the world’s agenda the recent years, which has caused businesses to follow the policies of operating more sustainable. One of the latest introduced guidelines is the Global Goals imposed by the United Nations to be met by 2030. In light of these goals, awareness regarding sustainability issues among consumers and other stakeholders has increased, leading to that change is inevitable for businesses to start operating sustainably. The concept of sustainable business model innovation therefore becomes relevant. There is a lot of research regarding sustainable business model innovation. However, the research is heavily focusing on theoretical aspects of it, and less is given to the practical creation and implementation of sustainable business models. Further, less focus is given to start-up companies specifically. Due to the identified research gap, this study aims to answer the research question: “How can start-ups successfully create and implement sustainable business models to become an established actor on its specific market?” The purpose of this study is to create an understanding and contribute with extended knowledge of how sustainability is practiced in start-ups. More specifically, how sustainable business models are created and implemented in start-ups. A qualitative abductive approach was used to fulfill this purpose. Additionally, six semi-structured interviews were conducted with founders of start-ups and business coaches from Swedish incubators, which were structured based on the themes from the Lean Start-up Framework (LSF). This framework, along with the Triple Layered Business Model Canvas (TLBMC) showed to be of importance after the theoretical review. The key findings retrieved displayed that the LSF is suitable to describe the sustainable start-up process as well. Yet, the TLBMC needs to be integrated to fulfill the purpose of sustainability. Further, the benefit versus impact is shown to be of great importance whereas the framework’s components were modified in that sense as well in those cases needed. This study theoretically contributes to extended knowledge and additional components of the Lean Start-up framework that are advocated to be crucial to create a sustainable business model. These additional components are further of value for the existing field of research. Practically, by the extended and modified framework, it offers valuable insight for entrepreneurs with a business idea where the purpose is to offer a sustainable value proposition. Lastly, this study contributes to a social level by providing guidelines on the implementation of sustainability in the business model, leading to the encouragement to operate sustainably and towards a better environment and society.