| Course | BUSI 690 Policy and Strategy in Global Competition (BUSI690) |
|---|---|
| Module/Week | 5 |
| Assignment | Business Model Generation Exercise 2 |
| Paper type | Business model exercise |
| Length | about 652 words, 2 double-spaced pages plus title page and references. Course guide: an experiential exercise of 600 to 800 words that carries Osterwalder and Pigneur chapters 4 and 5 into an actual organization, in current APA format |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| Points | 75 |
| School | Liberty University Online |
| Program | MBA |
| Where it sits | Module/Week 5 in Liberty's published BUSI 690 course guide; current sections can differ |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for BUSI 690 Week 5
Rent the Runway After the Recapitalization: Environment, Assessment and a Blue Ocean Grid for a Clothing Subscription Model
[Student Name]
School of Business, Liberty University
BUSI 690: Policy and Strategy in Global Competition
Business Model Generation Exercise 2
[Instructor Name]
[Date]
The organization is real and its facts come from Rent the Runway's Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2026; the exercise follows the requirements in Liberty's public course guide for BUSI 690, and Osterwalder and Pigneur's own exercises are not reproduced.
Rent the Runway After the Recapitalization: Environment, Assessment and a Blue Ocean Grid for a Clothing Subscription Model
Introduction
Rent the Runway rents designer clothing to subscribers who swap items each month, and it also rents single items for events. Its subscription base grew in fiscal 2025 to 143,796 ending active subscribers, 20 percent more than a year earlier, and revenue reached $329.8 million, yet it still lost $57.5 million from operations (Rent the Runway, Inc., 2026). In October 2025 it completed a recapitalization that cut its debt and added capital. The question for this exercise is whether the business model, given a new financial footing, can earn a profit.
The Business Model Environment
Osterwalder and Pigneur (2010) map the environment in four areas. Under market forces, the customer segment of working women who want variety without owning more clothes is real but narrow, and many have tried and left the service. Industry forces include resale sites, cheaper rental rivals and fast fashion that makes buying new clothes inexpensive. Key trends cut both ways: interest in reducing clothing waste helps, while hybrid work reduced demand for office wear. Macroeconomic forces such as higher interest rates made the company's earlier debt expensive, which is why the recapitalization matters. Long-term debt on the balance sheet fell from $333.7 million at the start of the year to $156.6 million at its end, and the reported net result swung to a profit of $22.6 million even though operations still lost money, a reminder that one year's bottom line can reflect a financing event rather than the model itself (Rent the Runway, Inc., 2026). The environment, in short, has eased on the financial side while staying hard on the customer side.
Assessing the Canvas
Applying the chapter's strengths and weaknesses assessment block by block shows where the model stands. The value proposition is the strongest block: an unlimited closet of designer brands is hard to copy. The key resources block holds the main weakness, because the company must own and clean a large inventory that loses value with each wear. The company has addressed this through its partnerships. The share of products obtained through Share by RTR and Exclusive Designs, its more capital-efficient sources in which brand partners carry more of the inventory cost, rose from about 26 percent in fiscal 2019 to about 69 percent in fiscal 2025 (Rent the Runway, Inc., 2026). The partnership block is quietly rebuilding the cost structure block.
A Blue Ocean Grid
| Action | Change to the model |
|---|---|
| Eliminate | Low-margin one-time event rentals for non-subscribers |
| Reduce | Owned inventory bought at wholesale; slow, costly cleaning of rarely rented items |
| Raise | Fit data and styling help for each subscriber |
| Create | A resale shop for subscribers to buy items at the end of their rental life |
The blue ocean method, as the book adapts it to the canvas, asks a firm to raise value and lower cost together. Each row above does that. Ending standalone event rentals reduces logistics expense, fewer wholesale purchases reduce capital needs, better fit data reduce returns and a subscriber resale shop turns depreciating stock into revenue. Teece (2010) argues that a business model succeeds only if it captures some of the value it creates; resale captures value the company already paid for.
Where the Company Stands in the Process
Chapter 5 lays out five phases: mobilize, understand, design, implement and manage. Rent the Runway has passed through design many times; its subscription tiers have changed repeatedly. After the recapitalization and a board transition noted in its 10-K, it sits between design and implementation, with a stronger balance sheet but a model still unproven. Zott et al. (2011) observe that business models are systems of linked activities; changing one activity, such as sourcing, requires adjusting others, such as pricing. The company's next phase is to implement the grid and then manage it with discipline, measuring profit per subscriber rather than subscriber counts.
Conclusion
Rent the Runway's environment is difficult but not hostile, its value proposition is distinctive and its partnership model is lowering capital needs. A blue ocean grid that trades event rentals and wholesale inventory for fit service and resale offers a path to profit. Proverbs contrasts the simple, who believe whatever they are told, with the prudent, who weigh where each step will land (English Standard Version Bible, 2001/2016, Proverbs 14:15); the recapitalization gives the company time to weigh its next steps instead of reacting to lenders.
References
English Standard Version Bible. (2016). Crossway. (Original work published 2001)
Osterwalder, A., & Pigneur, Y. (2010). Business model generation: A handbook for visionaries, game changers, and challengers. Wiley.
Rent the Runway, Inc. (2026). Annual report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2026. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1468327/000146832726000020/wdq-20260131.htm
Teece, D. J. (2010). Business models, business strategy and innovation. Long Range Planning, 43(2-3), 172-194. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lrp.2009.07.003
Zott, C., Amit, R., & Massa, L. (2011). The business model: Recent developments and future research. Journal of Management, 37(4), 1019-1042. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206311406265
What the BUSI 690 Week 5 instructions ask
In Module/Week 5 of BUSI 690, students finish Business Model Generation with chapter 4 on strategy and chapter 5 on process, review Rothaermel for the cases still ahead and submit the second business model exercise along with the first peer evaluation. The rules carry over unchanged from Exercise 1. The paper still stays between 600 and 800 words, follows the current APA manual and works on an actual company through the familiar discussion, ethics, small-group and term project modes. Chapter 4 supplies four tools, a scan of the environment, a block-by-block assessment, the blue ocean grid and the management of several models at once, and chapter 5 gives a five-phase design process. The exercise is worth 75 points, the last individual paper before Group Case Studies 2 and 3.
How this BUSI 690 Week 5 example is built
Rent the Runway was chosen because its model is unusual and under strain, which gives chapter 4's tools real work to do. A short opening states the question: can a subscription closet earn a profit? The environment section takes the four areas in turn, from market forces to macroeconomic conditions. A paragraph then assesses the canvas, naming one strength and one weakness in the blocks that matter most. The blue ocean grid appears as a four-row table, followed by a paragraph on what it implies. The last section places the company in chapter 5's process, at the point between designing and implementing a revised model. Three margin notes mark the analytical choices.
BUSI 690 Week 5 grading rubric: where the points go
Graders reward application of the chapter tools to facts. Credit goes to an environment scan whose items are specific to the company's industry and year, an assessment that ties strengths and weaknesses to particular canvas blocks rather than to the company in general and a blue ocean grid whose four actions change costs and value together, which is the point of the technique. The process discussion should identify a phase and justify it. Because the word limit is tight, focus and clear organization weigh heavily, and every figure needs its source and year. Current APA format, correct use of the book's terms and a clean title page and reference list round out the 75 points.
BUSI 690 Week 5 help: mistakes that cost points
The usual mistake with chapter 4 is to run all four tools at length and run out of words. Choose the tools that reveal the most about your company, keep each to a paragraph and put the grid in a small table. In the grid, every raise or create action should be paid for by an eliminate or reduce action, otherwise it is a wish list rather than a strategy. Use recent filings, since a company's environment changes yearly; Rent the Runway's recapitalization, for instance, changes what is possible. Avoid repeating the canvas from Exercise 1 in full. Count words with the table included, and stay within the guide's 600 to 800 range.
Related BUSI 690 sample papers
Other BUSI 690 weeks
- BUSI 690 Week 1: Rothaermel Exercise 1: Lincoln
- BUSI 690 Week 2: DB Forum: In-N-Out Hybrid Strategy
- BUSI 690 Week 3: Rothaermel Exercise 3: Nucor
- BUSI 690 Week 4: BMG Exercise 1: Lovesac Canvas
- BUSI 690 Week 6: Group Case Study 2: Sprouts
- BUSI 690 Week 7: Group Case Study 3: Boot Barn
- BUSI 690 Week 8: Faith and Learning Paper
More MBA sample papers
- BUSI 685 Week 5: Forum 3: Lease or Buy the Jets?
- BUSI 686 Week 1: Forum 1: Plans Clients Ignore
- BUSI 687 Week 5: Forum 4: How Much Life Insurance?
- BUSI 688 Week 1: Forum 1: Claim at 62 or Wait?
BUSI 690 Week 5 questions, answered
What is BUSI 690 Business Model Generation Exercise 2?
The second 75-point exercise, due in Module/Week 5, applying Osterwalder and Pigneur's chapters 4 and 5, the strategy tools and the design process, to a real organization in 600 to 800 words.
Where can I find a free BUSI 690 Week 5 sample paper?
Above is a finished BUSI 690 Week 5 exercise on Rent the Runway, with an environment scan, a block-by-block assessment, an eliminate, reduce, raise and create grid and the design process phase.
What is the blue ocean grid in Business Model Generation?
Chapter 4 pairs the canvas with the eliminate, reduce, raise and create actions of blue ocean strategy, so a firm can cut costs and add value at the same time instead of trading one for the other.
What are the five phases in Business Model Generation chapter 5?
Mobilize, understand, design, implement and manage: the team prepares the project, researches customers and the environment, builds and tests options, launches the chosen model and then keeps adapting it as conditions change.
What is the peer evaluation in BUSI 690 Module/Week 5?
It is the first of three ratings each student gives teammates after a group case; the average multiplies the student's group grade, so it affects every group assignment.
Use it as a model, or ask for your own
This paper is an original model written by our desk for study. It is not a submitted student paper and not an official Liberty University document. Read it for structure and reasoning, then write your own to the instructions in your Canvas course. If you want a version built to your exact prompt and rubric, the first custom sample is free and arrives in 24 to 48 hours.
Ask for a custom BUSI 690 Week 5 sample · All BUSI 690 weeks · All courses