In that case, following Wickham Skinner, Terry Hill or Michael Porter one could say that perhaps they don't have a strategy.

In that case the use of the business model canvas for each BU would be straitghforward.

But for the corporation as a whole, the business model components should be different, because the corporation those not sell to customers, the corporation promotes the sinergy between the BU.

1. It depends on your objective. In some cases you need to look at the overall picture to assess synergies. Then you need to look at all elements. In other cases you might just want to look at one specific value proposition and the related elements separately.

2. Very good question. I think you need to think in versions of business models (two different Canvas sketches). It is probably too confusing to map it all into the same model. With software like http://www.bmdesigner.com you can also work with layers.

I'm a MBA student from Brasil and I've been checking your blog out for quite a while now. Your ideas are very interesting and the Business Model Canvas has been a great help when I need to explain different business models to different people around here (that means you may expect to have some books sold here in Brasil).

But I have two aspects I'd like you to consider:

1 – I've been facing a little dificulty when I analyse a business or a company that has a few different value propositions (at the same time) that are somehow tied together or directed at many different customer segments.
2 – And also I've been questioning myself of a way to consider a time perspective (in the case of changing or evolving business models) using your building blocks.

Have you faced any of those challenges? I was wondering if you could give some insight on how you deal (or would deal) with those two aspects.

And thanks a lot for your posts! I'm learning a lot.