A business model framework by Martial Bombrault
Global Business Model Canvas
One canvas, three dimensions: economic, societal, environmental.
The Global Business Model Canvas (GBMC) is a one-page business model framework that maps how an organisation creates, delivers and captures value, and reads that value in full. Global as in whole, not as in worldwide: every key block is examined for what it means for the economy of the business, for society, and for the environment.
Created by Martial Bombrault, Academic Director at IRIIG, Lyon
The canvas
Select a block to read what it covers. Swipe sideways to see the whole canvas.
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Blank canvas for workshops: A3 PDF, English · A3 PDF, français
What it changes
The canvas keeps the familiar logic of the Business Model Canvas by Alexander Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur, so anyone who knows it can start at once. Five shifts make it global.
Customer Segments
Beneficiaries
Value reaches more people than those who pay. Users, communities and the wider environment count as beneficiaries too.
Key Partners
Partners & Ecosystems
A business depends on networks, territories and natural systems, not only on contracted partners.
Key Activities
Key Processes
The focus moves from separate tasks to the chains of activity that produce value from start to finish.
One layer
Three layers
Partners, value propositions and beneficiaries are each read on economic, societal and environmental levels.
Costs vs revenues
A three-part balance
Societal and environmental costs sit beside economic ones, each set against what the business gives back.
The blocks
Thirteen blocks, each with the question it asks. Blocks marked with three dimensions are filled in once for each.
Key Partners & EcosystemsPartenaires & Écosystèmes Clés
The organisations, networks and territories the business works with and depends on: suppliers and investors, but also associations, schools, public bodies and the natural systems it draws on.
Who do we create value with, and which ecosystems do we belong to?
Key ProcessesProcessus Clés
The chains of activity that turn resources into value, read as end-to-end processes rather than isolated tasks.
Which processes must we master to deliver our value propositions?
Key ResourcesRessources Clés
The assets the model cannot work without: people, know-how, physical assets, finance, data and natural resources.
What do we need, and what do we consume, to make the model work?
Value PropositionsPropositions de Valeurs
The value the business offers, stated three times: what it brings economically, what it brings to society, and what it brings to the environment.
What value do we create, and for whom, on each of the three levels?
Beneficiary RelationshipsRelations Bénéficiaires
The kind of relationship the business builds and maintains with each group of beneficiaries.
How do we engage with our beneficiaries over time?
ChannelsCanaux
How value propositions reach beneficiaries: communication, distribution and delivery.
Through which channels do our beneficiaries receive the value we create?
BeneficiariesBénéficiaires
Everyone who benefits from the value created, whether or not they pay: paying customers, users, communities, and the environment itself.
Who benefits from what we do, on each of the three levels?
Economic CostsCoûts économiques
The financial costs of running the model.
What does the model cost us to operate?
Revenue StreamsFlux de Revenus
How the business earns money from the value it creates.
What are beneficiaries willing to pay for, and how?
Societal & Social CostsCoûts sociétaux & sociaux
The negative effects of the model on people and society: on employees, communities and the wider public.
What does our activity cost society?
Contributions to SocietyContributions à la société
The positive effects the model has on people and society beyond what is paid for.
What do we give back to society?
Environmental CostsCoûts environnementaux
The pressure the model puts on the environment: emissions, resource use, waste and harm to ecosystems.
What does our activity cost the planet?
Environmental ContributionsContributions environnementales
The positive effects the model has on the environment: what it avoids, restores or regenerates.
What do we give back to the environment?
Reading the balance
The lower half of the canvas is where the model shows its full result. Each row sets what the business takes against what it gives, on one dimension at a time. A model can be profitable while running a deficit with society or the environment, and the canvas makes that visible at a glance.
Martial Bombrault
Martial Bombrault created the Global Business Model Canvas out of more than 25 years of teaching business models, strategy and entrepreneurship in French business schools.
He is Academic Director of IRIIG, the International Research Institute for Innovation & Growth in Lyon, which runs MSc and Executive MBA programmes in innovation, and leads the three "Manager de Projet d'Innovation" programmes at ITECH Lyon, in innovative products, circular economy and Industry 4.0. He has taught corporate strategy at EDHEC Business School since 2005.
Earlier, he helped bring the "learning by doing" pedagogy of HEC Entrepreneurs to EDC Paris Business School and EM Normandie, taught business models and strategy at IDRAC for nearly eighteen years, and co-founded Vatel E-Learning. His work focuses on training design, digital learning and innovation in teaching.
- Currently at three schools
- IRIIG, LyonAcademic Director, since 2019
- ITECH LyonLead for the three MS Manager de Projet d'Innovation programmes, since 2024
- EDHEC Business SchoolLecturer in corporate strategy, since 2005
- Fields
- Business models, strategy, entrepreneurship, training design
- Based in
- Lyon, France
How to cite
Using the Global Business Model Canvas in a thesis, a paper or a course? Please credit its creator.
Bombrault, M. (2026). Global Business Model Canvas. https://globalbusinessmodelcanvas.com/
Questions
What is the Global Business Model Canvas?
A one-page tool created by Martial Bombrault for designing and analysing business models across three dimensions at once: economic, societal and environmental.
Why is it called global?
Global here means whole, not worldwide. The canvas looks at the full value a business creates and consumes. It is not a tool for international expansion.
How is it different from the Business Model Canvas?
It keeps the logic of Osterwalder and Pigneur's canvas, but splits partners, value propositions and beneficiaries into three layers, replaces customers with beneficiaries, and sets three kinds of costs against revenues and contributions to society and the environment.
How is it different from the Triple Layered Business Model Canvas?
The Triple Layered Business Model Canvas by Joyce and Paquin (2016) uses three separate canvases, one per dimension. The Global Business Model Canvas keeps all three on a single sheet, so the trade-offs between them are visible side by side.
Who is it for?
Students, entrepreneurs, managers and consultants who want to design or review a business model with its societal and environmental effects in view from the start.
Can I use it in a course or with clients?
The canvas is © IRIIG. To use it in teaching, training or consulting, contact Martial Bombrault on LinkedIn.
How do I cite it?
Bombrault, M. (2026). Global Business Model Canvas. https://globalbusinessmodelcanvas.com/