If you are currently looking at adopting a popular business model, whether it be for a new business idea or innovating or updating an existing business, a strong strategy would be to familiarise yourself with today's popular business models. Then adopt one (if possible) that will be widely adopted over the next 5 years. That way you can get ahead of your competition. Here is some useful information and a resource to get you started:
Business models:
A strong, precise business model(s) can be a powerful tool for innovation, competitive advantage, decision-making, and culture development.  Business models (BM) can either be explicit, written/drawn out, or implicit, unspoken/ undocumented, yet no less powerful.  A business model can be a graphic, template, or text heavy document in the form of a business plan.  Often businesses have more than one business model (BM). For example, a business may have one BM for each of the following:
Innovation
Change
Technologies
Building and developing strategic partnerships
Acquisitions
There are over 50 types of BM’s that most businesses fall into (Gassmann et al, 2014). Some of the most common today are:
Freemium (18) - use some of the service for free, upgrade for additional functionality;
Subscription (48) - pay a monthly fee starting at an affordable price point with the option to increase or decrease over time;
E-commerce (13)- sell products/services online;
Performance based (38) - the client pays on results.
Resource:
St Gallens Business Model Navigator (Gassmann et al, 2014)

The economist Schumpeter (1939) identified a close relationship between technology developments and business cycles. Throughout history technology revolutions have occurred in tandem with business cycles or waves. In simple terms a new wave begins with each new technology bringing a surge of new products, services, skill developments, and devices over a period followed by a period of decline. Schumpeter shows the first wave starting in 1785 with the introduction of water power, textiles, and iron.  Throughout the upward surge of the wave companies identify new opportunities and pivot to create new products/services/process or find new ways to do old things for greater revenue and competitive advantage.
Currently we appear to be experiencing the slowing down/decline of the 5th wave of digital networks, software, media, which started around 1990. Digital technologies removed geographical borders so anyone anywhere can conduct business/shop/interact at any time. Consumers have more choice. Also, the explosion of digital access to knowledge has created a far more informed consumer. The overall effect is the consumer no longer has to accept an unpleasant supplier experience because there are so many other suppliers to choose from and other more pleasant options available.
So the best way companies have pivoted to meet consumer demands over the past 30 years is to strive to provide good quality customer-centric all round experiences rather than expecting the customer to adapt to their way of doing business. In other words, its all about the customer.
The customer experience starts from the start of the customer journey whether it be buying in to the explicit company culture, mission, vision, to quality, affordability, availability, convenience, interaction and engagement, satisfaction, to name a few. Hence the explosion for the past few years of surveys, reviews and questionnaires. The data from these sources is collated and skillfully applied to pivot the company to meet their customer demands ahead of competition. As Jack Welch, retired CEO of General Electric said, “ An organisations ability to learn, and translate that learning into action rapidly, is the ultimate competitive advantage.”
The ability to dynamically pivot business models, service delivery, products, customer experience, using technologies as the business context changes is key to company survival and competitive advantage. 

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To succeed in any business environment a business requires both core and dynamic capabilities.  Our focus here are dynamic capabilities, the ability to learn, apply the learning skilfully to adapt quickly. 

Dynamic capabilities are necessary because the business environment is never static, it changes constantly, so a business needs to adapt with it. I like to use the athletics race analogy.  Imagine a 100 metre race. A runner bursts off the start line as the gun goes off, immediately striking and maintaining a steady, strong pace, never changing, even when competitors pass by on the track. Who will get to the finish line first?   Like the runner, without adaption the business becomes stagnant, and competitors who are adapting, pass by reaching the customer first.

From a technology and innovation perspective, the need for adaptability stems from technology advancements. In today’s environment advancements occur every 18 months. Advancements mean a new set of competitors offering new, more convenient, more enticing and exciting ways to interest a finite number of customers. New technologies have removed geographical borders, so competitors are global, and therefore, are unknown, compared to previous years where competitors where more local, easier to recognise and keep an eye on.   As Jack Welch, retired CEO for General Electric, said “ An organisation’s ability to learn, and translate that learning into action rapidly, is the ultimate competitive advantage".

So getting ahead, and staying ahead, of the competition requires, robust competitor and business environment research that informs a good strategy, and which dynamic capabilities to develop.  Here are 3 common dynamic capabilities using Zoom under COVID as an example where a thorough simple STEEPLE/PESTLE analysis can help identify changes and new opportunities.
 
1.Business contextual factors
Zoom has flourished due to the global need for video conferencing for communication. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/jun/03/zoom-booms-as-teleconferencing-company-profits-from-coronavirus-crisis

2.Megatrends
Zoom application and infrastructure was in place when the world needed it, was easy to set up and use, and low cost. Entrepreneurs recognising the trend early have developed alternative applications that offer all the things Zoom doesn’t offer. Megatrends can also help identify ‘sub’ trends sprouting from the megatrend. For example, online video teaching, though around for quite a few years already, has exploded recently. 

3.Technologies
In both the examples above businesses have used technologies to grasp opportunities in delivering a service to satisfy the demand of the consumer.  
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Develop the capability to stay up to date, and recognise changes, in these 3 dynamic areas, then apply your findings to your advantage, to get ahead, and stay ahead, of your competitors.

A strong, precise business model(s) can be a powerful tool especially during COVID and beyond.

Business models (BM) can either be explicit, written/drawn out, or implicit, unspoken/ undocumented, yet no less powerful.

Often businesses have more than one business model (BM). For example, a business may have a BM for innovation, change, technologies, building and developing strategic partnerships, acquisitions that focus on buying up established competitors with key skills/products/services that complement the business.

There are also over 50 types of BM’s that most businesses fall into (Gassmann et al, 2014). For example, freemium, subscription, flat rate, e-commerce, retainer.

Business model(s) (BM) are powerful tools to any size contemporary business if applied skillfully. Here are a few examples:

• BM’s can be used as a powerful graphic that represents the core of the business (often expressed in a business plan).
  
• Graphic representation of a BM is easy to communicate and easier for others to understand
• The more precise the BM, the more effectively the business can be managed
• A BM can be powerful for informing and driving all business decisions
• BM’s is powerful for supporting consistent decision-making in the business.
• A BM can be powerful for keeping staff, management, investors (stakeholders) focused on the core,    high priority elements of the business
• BM’s is a powerful tool for facilitating staff and management in working together as a unit towards a    common goal.
• When innovation/change is required in the business, like those experienced since COVID, BM’s are        powerful tools for easily identifying which aspects of the BM can be adapted to current business         environment without losing the solid core of the business or disrupting day to day activities.
• BM are powerful for driving the formulation and actions of a good, strong strategy.
• BM are powerful for reveal the competitive advantage of the business. Competitive advantage is changeable as the present becomes history. Knowing what can be adapted to retain or create further competitive advantage is the crux of a business succeeding.

So, a business model is a vital, powerful tool at any time for any size business at any stage of development. During COVID especially because a business needs to know what decisions can be made, within which boundaries, while retaining its core and lead over competitors so that they business continues to succeed during and beyond COVID.

Published on Quora.

Business owners and leaders are adopting a strategy of inquiring and learning to facilitate decisions going forward.

Managing a business under the COVID 19 situation as the traditional, linear, project-like approach commerce favours cannot produce a successful outcome. Why?

1. Because there is no history or experience of this kind of situation to inform management the business how to progress the business. In other words, there is no safe ‘blueprint’ to follow for a successful outcome. Everyone is learning as the situation unfolds.

2. There are so many people involved, each experiencing different emotions that will explode if a decision is made that makes them feel more uncertain.

3. Everyone has different needs. If these needs are not addressed, riots can break out and civil unrest.

So, a different management approach is needed, one that captures, learns, and considers everyone’s emotions and needs within legislation so that outcomes are favourable (not necessarily ideal) for everyone.

The different management approach is a systemic approach, one that embraces change, uncertainty, is always acutely on the ball with the needs and emotions of their workers, customers, shareholders, legislation, technologies, and are insightful about the impact their decisions will have on all these factors.
To do this successfully organisations are continuously capturing feedback from these groups, and the wider society, and learning along the way as the situation unfolds. This collective knowledge informs the business owner/leaders what steps to take going forward. Both governments and employers provide weekly updates because they need to learn as the situation unfolds before making the next decisions going forward. 

The original question was “What are the three stages of strategic management?” but was merged and published under “How many types of strategic management are there?”  Each question has a different answer.

“What are the three stages of strategic management?”
From a technology, innovation and change management perspective, the three stages of strategic management are below in no specific order:
Stage 1: Diagnose the problem.
Stage 2: What is the guiding policy that will influence and impact any proposed solutions.
Stage 3: Coherent actions. A strategy is not a to do list, it is coherent set of precisely planned and scheduled actions for implementing and reviewing the strategy at pre-set intervals.
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“How many types of strategic management are there?”
There are too many to mention all, so here are a few examples:
Technology
Innovation
Change
Corporate
Horizontal vs vertical
International

A business plan, explicit or implicit, is the blueprint of your business. So it is different for each business. Below are some general questions to answer.

In my experience working with start-ups and existing businesses, I find the best place to start is to graphically represent the business as a business model. It is far easier for everyone to understand the business when viewed as a graphic, and to build on.
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I like to use an adapted version of Gassman, Frankenberger, and Csik (2014) “magic triangle” framework (below) as it provides a simple, easy to understand graphic of the information needed to create a business plan and model with the focus on the view from your customer’s perspective of the value you provide. 

Each corner of the triangle and the centre can be developed with more information as your research develops. The details can easily transfer into a business plan and an interesting pitch deck for those presentations to potential investors.

Simply fill in the four circles. Who is your target market, what value are you providing your target market, how will you provide it, at what cost, price, and mark-up (pricing model)?

Now build onto your initial answers for each circle providing much more detail as you progress. Detail comes from your knowledge of your business and experience. It also comes from thorough research and analysis. For example:

• Competitor analysis - who are your competitors; where are they located; what do they offer; how does your service/product differ and why; what plan do you have in place  when your competitors start offering the same as you do?
• STEEPLE analysis - Keeping your business and target market in mind, look at current and upcoming changes to the economy, technologies, legislation, the environmental impact, politics, ethics, and the impact it will have on your business achieving its goals, on your customers.
• SWOT analysis - from the above two analyses, what are your strengths and weaknesses as a business, what opportunities can you take advantage of and how will you manage the threats.
• Value proposition - what value are you providing your customers? How do you stand out above your competitors? Do your customers want what you offer? How do you know? What research have you done? How many orders do you have already?
• Income/Expense projected for the business - how much will it cost to set up and run the business each month; what equipment, staff, materials, will be required; what revenue are you expecting each month; what will your cashflow look like? Here I recommend asking an accountant to put this together for you if you have no training in this area.
• Technologies – what processes do you need; what technologies support the workflow that provide customers with a good experience working with you.
• Outsourcing- What aspects of the business will you need to outsource because you do not have the resources internally. An example, accountants, lawyers, technology experts, to name a few.
• Forcefield analysis – taking all this information, what aspects drive your business and support its success, and what aspects will work against your business.

 
These are some of the questions to answer. Once answered add the information you accumulate to the different triangle circles. Show you know your business, market, and finances.

Now you can easily transfer the information from the graphic into a old format business plan with headings such as described by SmartAsset Top 10 Components of a Business Plan - SmartAsset

Mulgan (2007) [1] describes innovation as “new ideas that work”. Social innovation can refer to innovation in interactions and relationships. It can also refer to innovation aiming to overcome a social need rather than a market need. Here we focus on the latter.

Social innovation ecosystem can occur across a national, regional, global scale, across sectors, organisations, and entrepreneurs. As technologies advance, new opportunities for any individual, organisation, or company to innovate, to find new ways to do old things, arise, often providing solutions to social problems. And, of course, lets not forget that without society social innovation would not be required.

In recent times it has become very expensive for organisations to have their own in house R & D department. Technology has provided a platform for global collaboration. Together, innovation can happen faster and produce more effective innovations than any one company can produce. In addition, the availability of funding for innovation and product development is often directed at solving pressing social needs.

Here is one practical example of how innovation addresses social needs from The Alzheimer's Society[2]:

Problem:
Lewis’s grandmother Pat has reduced cognitive function as a result of Dementia. Pat forgets to drink, or does not enjoy, water throughout the day, as a result of the reduced cognitive function. The result is dehydration for which Pat needs to be hospitalised. How can dehydration be prevented, or at least reduced so that Pat can continue to live a full, independent life?

Possible social solution:
Because Pat enjoys sweets, Lewis has developed large sweets called JellyDrops that are 90% water. Pat can eat as many as she wants, whenever she wants. Pat can place jars of Jellydrops throughout the home in every room. The bright colours attract attention, look tasty, so encourage regular consumption. The more consumed the less chance of dehydration.
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This solution can be easily distributed across society at low cost supporting everyone with a similar problem.
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Footnotes
[1] http://eureka.sbs.ox.ac.uk/761/1/Social_Innovation.pdf
[2] Jelly Drops sweets to tackle dehydration in dementia

​Most innovations are build on what already exists. Very few are inventions. The definition of innovation according to BIS (2012), is “innovation is the process by which new ideas are successfully exploited to create economic, social, and environmental value.”

In today’s business environment all businesses are developing the internal capabilities to innovate their products/services/processes dynamically and continuously. The capability is a necessity born out of the exponential growth of technological developments. New technologies are developed every 18 months (Moore’s Law). So most business are innovative. Those that have not adapted by developing this capability have closed, are closing, or have bought smaller, more innovative companies.

Here are a few household names who innovate services/products/processes since around 1995:
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Apple (IPod),
Air BnB (holiday accommodation),
IBM (their business model)
Procter and Gamble (their innovation business model)
Amazon (online books, Cloud services)
Uber (Taxis)
Elon Musk (space travel, electric cars)
Facebook, You Tube, Instagram, Snapchat, Whatsapp (social media apps)
Boston Dynamics - Google (robotics)
Google - (machine learning)
Ebay (online auction).
These are examples of how companies formed through skillful application of technologies to create new products/services/processes/business structures valuable to new and existing markets.

The short answer is that until the start of widespread technology adoption around 2008, small businesses had the upper hand in many ways. Examples are:

• Decisions could be made instantly
• They were in touch with their customers’ needs and understood their expectations
• They offered a personal service
• Their business was far more transparent than larger companies
• Staff felt their contribution was making a difference.
• Integrate new technologies quickly.

Since then big companies have been forced to consider these aspects of business management largely as a result of technological advancements. The advancements have removed geographical boundaries so there are far more competitors than previously. And, as technology changes every 18 months (Moore’s Law) new types of competition spring up every 18 months so competitors are unknown. At the same time, consumers are far wiser shoppers, their shopping habits have changed because of technologies, therefore their expectations are different. A familiar example, technology allows consumers to have something instantly by touching a button.
To survive businesses have employed skilled CTO’s over 10 years to adapt their business. Here are a few:

• Large head offices are being replaced by smaller, distributed offices that are managed entrepreneurially. That is, an office that can make fast decisions, are more in touch with customers on a local level.
• Large businesses are developing cultures of transparency and customer-centric value hence the explosion of surveys and feedback forms that keeps the company in touch with every customer, so personalise the service for each customer. It is this culture that staff buy into now, so feel their work makes a difference.

So, for the moment, what small businesses have is the ability to integrate new technologies quickly. Unfortunately, many small businesses, from the sole trader upwards, do not know how to use technologies in this way, or that it is a key advantage for them at the moment. In other words, small business could have the potential to offer all of the above faster than major corporations.

The question implies you are a business owner trying to adapt your business to Google Sites.

Try approaching this question the other way around.

In other words, start by working out the optimum workflow and processes from your customers perspective. Then adapt Google sites (or any other software) to your business. If Google sites can’t be adapted, choose another app that can.

Doing it this way around provides all the answers you need. 

​Both the culture and a business’s objectives, vision, aim are unique to each business so there is no ‘1-size-fits-all’ step by step guide. Rather, an holistic approach is required, skillfully applied by specialists in cultures, competitive advantage, and innovation. Specialists can identify the elements within a culture that can be used for competitive advantage successfully. The specialists also need to be up to date with your competitors, sector, and the business environment you operate within to effectively position your business and its culture within the business environment so that you outperform competitors.