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

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.

More from Steve Blank

Unless you have tested the assumptions in your business model first, outside the building, your business plan is just creative writing.
Steve BlankRead
People talk about getting lucky breaks in their careers. I’m living proof that the “lucky breaks” theory is simply wrong. You get to make your own luck... The world is run by those who show up…not those who wait to be asked.
Steve BlankRead
You need to ask yourself, ‘Where do you want to work: startups, mid-size or large companies?’ If you find yourself debating the ‘startup versus large company’ choice you’ve already chosen the big company. Entrepreneurship isn’t a career choice it’s a passion and obsession.
Steve BlankRead
We now know that something between 85 and 90 percent of most software product features are unwanted and unneeded by customers. That is an enourmous ammount of waste of time and money that ends up on the floor.
Steve BlankRead
Greatest risk is not development of new product, but development of customers and markets
Steve BlankRead
Build and they will come’ is not a strategy, it’s a prayer.
Steve BlankRead

Similar quotes

The game business reinvents itself every five years.
Nolan BushnellRead
If the employees come first, then they're happy. A motivated employee treats the customer well. The customer is happy so they keep coming back, which pleases the shareholders. It's not one of the enduring green mysteries of all time, it is just the way it works.
Herb KelleherRead
The antidote to inequality is equality. The question is how do you achieve equality? I believe that, for business, which is where I can speak, we have to shift from shareholder maximization to stakeholder maximization.
Marc BenioffRead
Corporations hope that the right concept will turn things around overnight. This is what you might call the crash-diet approach: starve yourself for a few days and you'll be thin for life.
James SurowieckiRead
When you're thinking about your next product or current product and wondering how to make it different so you don't have competition, understand the job the customer needs to get done.
Clayton M. ChristensenRead
I may be a businessman in that I set up and run companies for profit, but when I try to plan ahead and dream up new products and new companies, I'm an idealist.
Richard BransonRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.