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Business plans are the tool existing companies use for execution. They are the wrong tool to search for a business model.
Steve Blank
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Interpretation

What this quote means

Business plans are useful for executing a company's strategy but not for finding a viable business model.

Steve Blank emphasizes that while business plans serve as an important operational tool for established companies, they fall short when it comes to developing the foundational ideas and strategies that form a successful business model. Entrepreneurs should focus on exploring and testing their concepts rather than relying solely on traditional business plans, which may not adequately capture the uncertainties and dynamics of starting a business.

Themes

Business ModelExecutionEntrepreneurshipStrategyStartups

In practice

Example use cases

In a presentation about entrepreneurship, one could use this quote to illustrate the difference between execution and discovery in developing a business.

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