Business plans are the tool existing companies use for execution. They are the wrong tool to search for a business model.
Steve BlankRead
Unless you have tested the assumptions in your business model first, outside the building, your business plan is just creative writing.
Interpretation
A business plan is meaningless without real-world testing of its assumptions.
This quote emphasizes the importance of validating the assumptions underlying a business model through actual market testing rather than just theoretical planning. It suggests that without empirical evidence from real-world interactions, what may seem like a solid business strategy might simply be fiction or a fantasy, lacking the robustness to succeed in the competitive environment.
In practice
This quote can be used during a business seminar to highlight the importance of market research.
Business plans are the tool existing companies use for execution. They are the wrong tool to search for a business model.
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.
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.
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Greatest risk is not development of new product, but development of customers and markets
Build and they will come’ is not a strategy, it’s a prayer.
There is a huge body of business evidence now showing that energy savings give better service at lower cost with higher profit. We have to tear down barriers to successful markets and we have to create incentives to enter them.
Look after the customer and the business will take care of itself
There is one and only one social responsibility of business - to use it resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits so long as it stays within the rules of the game, which is to say, engages in open and free competition without deception or fraud.
Helping doing business easier, we choose the name Alibaba because it is a global company. It is founded in China, but it was created for the world.
Business is not just doing deals; business is having great products, doing great engineering, and providing tremendous service to customers. Finally, business is a cobweb of human relationships.
Eventually, all companies are replaced.
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