Getting to Plan B: Breaking Through to a Better Business Model

by John Mullins, Randy Komisar

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781422126691
Publisher:	Harvard Business Review Press
Publication date:	09/01/2009
Pages:	272
Sales rank:	869,555
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

John Mullins is Associate Professor of Management Practice at London Business School, and a veteran of three entrepreneurial companies. Randy Komisar is a Partner at venture-capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers and has served as a Consulting Professor of Entrepreneurship at Stanford University.

Editorial Reviews

“...it is both a handbook for those already on the way to building a successful business as well as encouraging others to think they could do it.” - The Financial Times, September 30, 2009

From the Publisher