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Getting to Plan B: Breaking Through to a Better Business Model. By John Mullins and Randy Komisar

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November 3, 2009: Getting to Plan B: Breaking Through to a Better Business Model

by John Mullins and Randy Komisar

About the book:

If the founders of Google, PayPal, or Starbucks had stuck to their original business plans, we'd likely never have heard of them. Instead, they made radical changes to their initial models, became household names, and delivered huge returns for investors. How did they get from their Plan A to a business model that worked? Why did they succeed when most new ventures crash and burn?

John Mullins and Randy Komisar argue that the startup process, largely driven by poorly conceived business plans based on untested assumptions, is seriously flawed. But there is a better way to launch new ideasâwithout wasting years of your time and loads of investor's money.

In Getting to Plan B, Mullins and Komisar present a field-tested process for rigorously stress-testing your initial business idea, and using the evidence you uncover to make swift corrections that tip the business equation in your favor. Focusing on five elements that determine any business model's economic viability - its revenue, gross margin, operating, working capital, and investment models - the author's approach significantly reduces your risk of failure by:

- Comparing your idea with existing models to steal what works, avoid what doesn't, and add improvements
- Identifying "leaps of faith": the as-yet-untested questions you are banking your business on
- Conducting fast, inexpensive, data-driven experiments to support or refute those questions
- Using this data to make smart strategic changes and course correct before it's too late

Through examples from their first hand experience and research in businesses around the world, Mullins and Komisar reveal how companies have used such systematic experimentation to transform their current business into a viable Plan B. Whether launching a new venture in the marketplace or inside your company, Getting to Plan B will help you replace assumptions with evidenceâand vastly improve your odds of success.

About the Author:

John Mullins is the author of the business best - seller, The New Business Road Test and an Associate Professor of Management Practice at London Business School. He researches and teaches entrepreneurship and venture capital at the School and in regular workshops on four continents. He is a veteran of three entrepreneurial companies, two of which he confounded and one he took public. He is the author of the definitive work on assessing entrepreneurial opportunities, The New Business Road Test: What Entrepreneurs and Executives Should Do Before Writing a Business Plan. He has written numerous journal articles and cases on entrepreneurial companies, and speaks regularly to a variety of audiences on topics on entrepreneurship and venture capital.

John Mullins recently released book "Getting to Plan B: Breaking Through to a Better Business Model" is smart and practical. This book is really effective for start-ups as well as entire business units in large companies. It engages reader attention with compelling cases from early stage ventures and established companies