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
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.

Table of Contents

Preface vii

Introduction 1

Chapter 1 Don't Reinvent the Wheel, Make It Better: Assembling Analogs, Antilogs, and Leaps of Faith to Get to Plan B 13

Chapter 2 Guiding Your Flight Progress: The Power of Dashboards 37

Chapter 3 Air, Food, and Water: Your Revenue Model 65

Chapter 4 Avoiding Rocks and Hard Places: Your Gross Margin Model 89

Chapter 5 Trimming the Fat: Your Operating Model 113

Chapter 6 Cash Is King: Your Working Capital Model 133

Chapter 7 It Takes Money to Make Money: Your Investment Model 157

Chapter 8 Can You Balance a One-Legged Stool?: Multidimensional Business Models 179

Chapter 9 Getting Started on Discovering Your Plan B 205

Notes 217

Acknowledgments 229

Index 233

About the Authors 251

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