Randy Komisar

John Mullins

You have a new venture in mind. And you've crafted a business plan so detailed it's a work of art. Don't get too attached to it. As John Mullins and Randy Komisar explain in Getting to Plan B, new businesses are fraught with uncertainty. To succeed, you must change the plan in real time as the inevitable challenges arise. In fact, studies show that entrepreneurs who stick slavishly to their Plan A stand a greater chance of failing-and that many successful businesses barely resemble their founders' original idea. The authors provide a rigorous process for stress testing your Plan A and determining how to alter it so your business makes money, solves customers' needs, and endures. You'll discover strategies for: -Identifying the leap-of-faith assumptions hidden in your plan -Testing those assumptions and unearthing why the plan might not work -Reconfiguring the five components of your business model-revenue model, gross margin model, operating model, working capital model, and investment model-to create a sounder Plan B. Filled with success stories and cautionary tales, this book offers real cases illustrating the authors' unique process. Whether your idea is for a start-up or a new business unit within your organization, Getting to Plan B contains the road map you need to reach success.

Breaking Through to a Better Business Model

Getting to Plan B

Provides an overview of business plans that didn't require an influx of cash from a venture capitalist, but rather received money from their customers and describes five ingenious approaches used by innovative entrepreneurs at companies like Threadless, TutorVista and GoViral.

Start, Finance, Or Grow Your Company with Your Customers' Cash

The Customer-Funded Business

Its History, Truthfulness, & Practical Utility

The Divining Rod

Discover the six counter-conventional mindsets to be a changemaker In Break the Rules!: The Six Counter-Conventional Mindsets of Entrepreneurs That Can Help Anyone Change the World, celebrated London Business School entrepreneurship professor, keynote speaker, and best-selling author Dr. John Mullins delivers an eye-opening and insightful exploration of what sets successful entrepreneurs apart from other business people and from those who fail to reach their goals. You’ll discover a compelling argument that successful entrepreneurs exhibit one or more of the six break-the-rules mindsets revealed in this book. Each of these six mindsets can be learned, practiced, and built upon—by anyone, in any business setting large or small, old or new—, to create thriving businesses that grow and prosper. Mullins draws on over two decades of research to show you how to do exactly that. You’ll also find: Explanations of why the six break-the-rules mindsets fly in the face of conventional business and business school wisdom Strategies for dealing with, skating around, or otherwise overcoming the daunting obstacles that stand in every innovator’s way Ways to challenge assumptions and mitigate risk in order to take advantage of opportunities that present themselves along your entrepreneurial path Steps you can take now to make one or more of these mindsets your own. An essential new take on entrepreneurship and on what it takes to be or become more “entrepreneurial,” Break the Rules! sheds new light on an oft-discussed—but rarely understood—area of business.

The Six Counter-Conventional Mindsets of Entrepreneurs That Can Help Anyone Change the World

Break the Rules!

Who needs investors? More than two generations ago, the venture capital community – VCs, business angels, incubators and others – convinced the entrepreneurial world that writing business plans and raising venture capital constituted the twin centerpieces of entrepreneurial endeavor. They did so for good reasons: the sometimes astonishing returns they've delivered to their investors and the astonishingly large companies that their ecosystem has created. But the vast majority of fast-growing companies never take any venture capital. So where does the money come from to start and grow their companies? From a much more agreeable and hospitable source, their customers. That's exactly what Michael Dell, Bill Gates and Banana Republic's Mel and Patricia Ziegler did to get their companies up and running and turn them into iconic brands. In The Customer Funded Business, best-selling author John Mullins uncovers five novel approaches that scrappy and innovative 21st century entrepreneurs working in companies large and small have ingeniously adapted from their predecessors like Dell, Gates, and the Zieglers: Matchmaker models (Airbnb) Pay-in-advance models (Threadless) Subscription models (TutorVista) Scarcity models (Vente Privee) Service-to-product models (GoViral) Through the captivating stories of these and other inspiring companies from around the world, Mullins brings to life the five models and identifies the questions that angel or other investors will – and should! – ask of entrepreneurs or corporate innovators seeking to apply them. Drawing on in-depth interviews with entrepreneurs and investors who have actually put these models to use, Mullins goes on to address the key implementation issues that characterize each of the models: when to apply them, how best to apply them, and the pitfalls to watch out for. Whether you're an aspiring entrepreneur lacking the start-up capital you need, an early-stage entrepreneur trying to get your cash-starved venture into take-off mode, an intrapreneur seeking funding within an established company, or an angel investor or mentor who supports high-potential ventures, this book offers the most sure-footed path to starting, financing, or growing your venture. John Mullins is the author of The New Business Road Test and, with Randy Komisar, the widely acclaimed Getting to Plan B.

Start, Finance, or Grow Your Company with Your Customers' Cash

ROAD TEST YOUR IDEA BEFORE YOU WRITE YOUR LEAN START-UP Thinking about starting a new business? Stop! Is there a genuine market for your idea? Do you really want to compete in that industry? Are you the right person to pursue it? No matter how talented you are or how much capital you have, if you’re pursuing a fundamentally flawed opportunity then you’re heading for failure. So before you launch your lean start-up, take your idea for a test drive and make sure it has a fighting chance of working. With an accompanying app, available on iTunes and Android, that will enable readers to easily capture their road test data - notes, interviews, photos or videos - while they are on the go. www.newbusinessroadtest.com

What entrepreneurs and executives should do before launching a lean start-up

The New Business Road Test

Si los fundadores de Google, Inditex o Starbucks hubieran seguido con sus planes de negocio originales es probable que nunca hubiéramos oído hablar de ellos. En cambio, introdujeron cambios radicales en sus primeros modelos de negocio, se convirtieron en marcas globales y proporcionaron enormes rendimientos a los inversores. ¿Cómo llegaron a un modelo de negocio eficaz desde su Plan A? ¿Por qué tuvieron éxito, cuando la mayoría de nuevas aventuras empresariales fracasan de forma espectacular? Existe un modo mejor de lanzar nuevas ideas sin perder demasiado tiempo ni en un montón de dinero de los inversores. Es un libro práctico, contundente y enseña el camino a seguir. Ofrece lecciones claras y prácticas para los emprendedores. Casos reales de conocidas empresas. Tanto si se trata de una nueva empresa o que ya esté en funcionamiento este libro ayuda a mejorar el modelo de negocio para el éxito. Original publicado en inglés por la Harvard Business School.

Cómo transformar su modelo de negocio en un plan B viable

Mejorando el modelo de negocio

Orville Walker

Harper W. Boyd, Jr.

Marketing Strategy 5/e is a flexible, short, paper-back text which can be used on its own or packaged with a case book. It covers the concepts and theories of creating and implementing a marketing strategy and offers a focus on the strategic planning process and marketing’s cross/inter-functional relationships. This book helps the student integrate what they have learned about analytical tools and the 4Ps of marketing within a broader framework of competitive strategy.

Marketing Strategy: A Decision Focused Approach

ROAD TEST YOUR IDEA BEFORE YOU LAUNCH YOUR LEAN START-UP Thinking about starting a new business? Stop! Is there a genuine market for your idea? Do you really want to compete in that industry? Are you the right person to pursue it? No matter how talented you are or how much capital you have, if you’re pursuing a fundamentally flawed opportunity then you’re heading for failure. So before you launch your lean start-up, take your idea for a test drive and make sure it has a fighting chance of working. Now in its fifth edition, The New Business Road Test is the essential handbook for anyone wanting to launch a start-up. The new and fully updated case studies – Ella's Kitchen, Whole Foods, eBay and more – and ‘seven domains’ framework will help you avoid impending disaster and enhance your chances of achieving your entrepreneurial dreams. This book will help you answer the live-or-die questions: · Are the market and industry attractive? · Does the opportunity offer both customer benefits as well as competitive and economic sustainability? · Can you deliver the results you seek? The accompanying app (available on iTunes and Android) makes it easy to assemble all the evidence you need for your road test, wherever you are. www.newbusinessroadtest.com

John Mullins

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