Jan Kyhnau holds a position as Associate Professor at the Technology & Business Schools of UCN, University College of Northern Denmark. UCN provides 40 full degree programmes to a total of 9,000 students at 6 locations as well as 9,500 course participants in continuing education. Furthermore, he is a member of UCN’s research group specializing in Sustainable Business Development & Innovation.
In addition to his Associate Professorship, Mr. Kyhnau has a B. Ed. – Bachelor of Education degree and a Strategic Planner degree from the Danish School of Advertising. Besides, he has a professional Strategic Board Room education and is a licensed board member. Being one of the first practitioners to adapt Osterwalder’s Business Model Canvas method & tools, Mr. Kyhnau was also one of the first to complete a Strategyzer Masterclass programme led by Mr. Alex Osterwalder and Professor Yves Pigneur.
Parallel to his role as professor and researcher, Mr. Kyhnau is a trained practitioner within business model design and innovation. He brings a wealth of experience as a strategic planner specializing in business models and value proposition design. Among his positions of trust are: Member of Alex Osterwalder’s pre-reader team, Danish representative of Business Model You®, member of the Journal of Business Models’ Editorial Team, member of the Business Model Conference’s Teaching Forum organizing team.
Mr. Kyhnau has extensive experience in marketing and business development. With a background as a strategic director and co-founder of one of Scandinavia’s first mobile marketing companies, he is now dedicated to development and innovation of sustainable business models and business model teaching. He has contributed to several international business model conferences and publications on business model design and innovation, including “Value Proposition Design – How to create products and services customers want”.
In recent years, Mr. Kyhnau’s research and development efforts have to some extent been concentrated on game based business model teaching which has crystalized into an innovative board game. The “Doing Good Business Game” (Kyhnau, 2022) is based on the Triple Layered Business Model Canvas (Joyce & Paquin, 2016) and aims to provide students with better prerequisites for developing sustainable business models.
Using Reflective Practice-based Learning principles, the game is structured as an exemplary process that inspires and transforms learning into value creating sustainable business model design. The “Doing Good Business Game” has been presented at international conferences and workshops in France, Germany, India, Italy and the Netherlands.
Currently, Jan Kyhnau is writing a chapter about gamified teaching approaches for a new international book on Teaching Business Models (Edward Elgar Teaching Guides, expected release 2025).