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Business Management Book Store > Business Management books beginning with N
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The new business road test: What entrepreneurs and executives should do before writing a business plan (2nd Edition) |
Author: John Mullins
Published: 2008-01-25 |
List price: $29.99
Our price: $64.98
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As of: September 06th, 2010 09:37:16 AM
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Customer comments on this selection.
 A great resource to help going back to the basics of any Venture (Customer, Customer, Customer)
A great resource to help going back to the basics of any Venture (Customer, Customer, Customer)
 Dry-even for an academic
I teach entrepreneurship so I read lots of books on the topic. Even on a cross country plane flight I could not force myself to finish this one. There are a few good bits but they are buried in a dull mountain of words. If you are curious go to the library or borrow a copy.
 Reasonable, but overrated
I bought this book on the basis of the 16, almost suspiciously short 5 star reviews here. It has a catchy title - which is a good way to scare budding entrepreneurs into buying it. I was worried that there was some hidden flaw in my business plan that was going to bring everything tumbling down. After all, I had already invested several thousand dollars on my germ of an idea. I wanted to read this book just to make sure.
I read the book after I had already finished my first business plan draft and midway through a redraft. The basic idea of the book is that there are 7 domains that, if not in the business's favor, will cause failure. There are checklists at the end of the chapters. They boil down to: market (customers), industry (competitors), and what your business brings to the table - drive, tolerance for risk, ability, connections. Look familiar? A good business plan template will cover all of these topics as a matter of course, so if you go to the trouble of making a business plan I think it is mostly unlikely that you won't cover these points.
After completing the checklists there were only two things that I thought to ask myself that I had not really thought before. I guess that is reasonable. I'm not sure I wouldn't have thought of them with another iteration of the business plan finished. Perhaps it is worth the cost of the book, perhaps not. I have purchased 3 other books on business plans, I suspect that will cover those issues. I now have 13 pages of notes on this book in relation to my business that is not part of a business plan. Wasted effort? Extra conservatism? Not sure. I think it is good to take a somewhat pessimistic view at starting a business, so that all the potential flaws are out in the open at least.
Is there good material here? Sure. One thing I do like is that the book acknowledges that not every business needs investors to succeed, and that you only need to tick the boxes related to investors if you require those investors. Investors require more market research - market research can sometimes tip off competitors, and maybe you don't want to give them any lead time. If you have a good understanding of how the market thinks, then maybe you don't need to do market research to the extent that is often advocated. The example of Phil Knight of Nike would suggest this - a running fanatic who wanted a better shoe and made it himself. Venture capital is also not all-knowing, the whole model is predicated on having a few businesses succeed big and most crash and burn.
Maybe I'm just not that impressed because I have long been a student of business, son of a successful business owner and have read many, many business books with avid interest. I have internalized many of the lessons of all these sources, and whenever I think about a business my mind is always drawn to the potential flaws. Perhaps that is why I'm only starting my business now after having saved up enough that I won't have to dilute equity, and have chosen a business that should pass the tests of this book. For someone who does not have this background, it could save a lot of money I suppose. If you have to learn these lessons from this book perhaps you should consider why you are starting a business. But lack of a clue certainly doesn't stop many people from starting and failing in business, so I guess this book has use to prevent some life savings being blown.
So, that's why I rate it 4 stars. I think the material is good - it does comprehensively deal with most things that could make a business fail. Is it mind-blowingly good enough to be worth 5 perfect stars? I doubt it. However, I'm not going to rate it punitively. It's probably 4.5 stars worth.
Great book!
This is the type of book you always look for but rarely find. The practical information that you wish you knew is in here.
Outstanding !!!
Many ventures never get off the ground. Of those that do, the majority will fail. This book certainly helps you improving your odds of success by giving you a structured approach to thinking about your idea with the 7 domains. The author achieves a great balance between academia & practice.
Personal highlights of the book:
- barriers of entry: too high, too low ...
- being competitive without patent protection
- the 2 CSF (Critical Success Factors) for high-tech innovation !!!
- the large market fallacy
- great opportunities: where do they come from?
- evidence-based forecasting
- the analogy method for new-to-the-world high-tech products
In particular high-tech ventures (Internet startups) will find this amazing book very useful.
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