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.

Hardcover, 272pp

Harvard Business Press, September 2009

ISBN-13: ISBN-13: 9781422126691

Barnes & Noble online price: $21.56

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SYNOPSIS

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. Readers will discover strategies for:

• Identifying the leap-of-faith assumptions hidden in your plan;
• Testing those assumptions and unearthing why the plan might not work; and
• 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.

In its “Best Books for Business Owners of 2009″ list, Inc.com says of Getting to Plan B: “One of the most accessible books on strategy to come along in some time, Getting to Plan B shatters the myth that great businesses emerge from their creators’ brains full formed and explains the sometimes messy, almost always ingenious methods by which entrepreneurs arrive at workable models.”

FROM THE BACK COVER

“This is a fantastic book. The stories are excellent … deep and insightful … and the storytelling is real. Getting to Plan B isn’t as much about second tries as it is about the authors’ helping you understand what it takes to drive an early-stage company to success.” -Bill Campbell, chairman of Intuit

“This great book will guide business leaders and help them stay focused as they transform their plans. Whether they are reshaping a new business model, or executing a quarterly strategy review in an ongoing business, this book will help leaders overcome the unpredictable waves and obstacles that stand in the way of their envisioned goals.” -Takaaki Hata, partner at Globis Capital Partners in Tokyo

“Getting to Plan B is the definitive handbook about the mind-set and moves required to lead any company in our messy and ever-changing world. This is more than the most useful book I’ve ever read on entrepreneurship: Mullins and Komisar challenge and redefine how organizational strategy and innovation ought to be managed in any company.” -Robert Sutton, professor at Stanford University and author of The No Asshole Rule

“Getting to Plan B is a treasure trove of clear, practical lessons for entrepreneurs. It is real-world, hard-hitting, and prescriptive — not the fuzzy theoretical stuff found in too many business books. Komisar and Mullins repeatedly challenge conventional wisdom with experience and insight. This is a must-read.” -John Doerr, partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers

“John and Randy perfectly capture the trials and triumphs of entrepreneurship. They weave antidotes [sic.] that can be successfully applied. I wish this book was published a decade back — I could have used it as an entrepreneur. Now, as a venture capitalist, I would suggest this as required reading to all my CEO’s.” -Vani Kola, founder of Indo U.S. Ventures in Bangalore