New Business Road Test: What Entrepreneurs & Executives Should Do Before Writing a Business Plan

by John W. Mullins

This book shows how to assess market opportunities. Building on lessons learned by studying numerous entrepreneurs, the book details the author's seven domains model for assessing new business ideas. The model is comprised of four market and industry domains and three related to the entrepreneurial team. These seven domains address the central questions in the assessment of any market Are the market and industry attractive? Does the opportunity offer compelling customer benefits as well as distinct advantage over other solutions to the customer's needs? Can the team deliver the results they seek and promise to others? The book is practical and sets out how to run a customer-driven feasibility study that will guide the assessment of any new business idea or opportunity before any investment or time has been spent on the project.

Genres: Business, Entrepreneurship, Nonfiction, Buisness, Management, Startup, School

284 pages, Paperback

First published May 8, 2003

About the author

John Mullins is an Associate Professor of Management Practice in Entrepreneurship and Marketing at the London Business School. He earned his MBA at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and his Ph.D. at the University of Minnesota. An award-winning teacher, John brings to his teaching and research 20 years of executive experience in high-growth retailing firms including two ventures he founded and one he took public.

Since becoming a business school professor in 1992, John has published four books, numerous cases and more than 40 articles in a variety of outlets, including Harvard Business Review, the MIT Sloan Management Review, and tJohn Mullinshe Journal of Product Innovation Management. His research has won national and international awards from the Marketing Science Institute, the American Marketing Association, and the Richard D. Irwin Foundation. He is a frequent speaker to audiences in entrepreneurship and venture capital.

John’s now legendary first trade book, now in its fifth edition, The New Business Road Test: What Entrepreneurs and Investors Should Do Before Writing a Business Plan, is the definitive work on the assessment and shaping of market opportunities. His book, Getting to Plan B: Breaking Through to a Better Business Model, co-authored with Randy Komisar, a partner at the esteemed venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers in California, was named to “Best Books of 2009” lists by BusinessWeek and INC Magazine. John's book, The Customer-Funded Business: Start, Finance, or Grow Your Company with Your Customers' Cash, has been called "mandatory reading for every entrepreneur before even thinking about seeking angel or venture capital funding"; in it John offers the most sure-footed path to starting, financing, or growing your venture.

John has consulted with and done executive education on four continents for a variety of organizations both large and small, including Merck-Serono, Time Warner Communications, the European and African Venture Capital Associations, Pumpkin Ltd., the Young Presidents Organization, and the International Finance Corporation of The World Bank, among numerous others. He has served on the boards of fast-growing entrepreneurial companies in the United States, United Kingdom, Europe, and Asia.

Reviews

[Franco Arda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Many ventures never get off the ground. Of those that do, the majority will fail. This book certainly helps you improving your odds of success by giving you a structured approach to thinking about your idea with the 7 domains. The author achieves a great balance between academia & practice.

Personal highlights of the book:
- barriers of entry: too high, too low ...
- being competitive without patent protection
- the 2 CSF (Critical Success Factors) for high-tech innovation !!!
- the large market fallacy
- great opportunities: where do they come from?
- evidence-based forecasting
- the analogy method for new-to-the-world high-tech products

In particular high-tech ventures (Internet startups) will find this amazing book very useful.

[Denis Vasilev · Rating 5 out of 5]

Рыночный подход к оценке бизнес возможности и способности ее реализовать. Классика бизнес литературы. Некоторые примеры устарели, некоторые подходы признаны ошибочными. При этом рабочая 7ступенчатая схема оценки сохраняет пользу. Стоит знать если хотите затеять новый бизнес или расширять имеющийся

[Dakshin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Reading a book never ensures your way to a successful entrepreneurship.
It only shares the experiences of some renowned start ups or it provides a frame work upon which it dwells over and over throughout the chapters like this book by JWM does.

If you are awed by the structural models, the seven domains of attractive opportunities based on macro, micro level, drilled further into market and industry domains, before circling into 3 domains pertaining to team, is a very solid framework. This has been thoroughly visited on a repetitive mode in this book, ensuring it sticks to you through iteration though varying aspects are discussed each time.

The language employed is above par though simplistic. They bite into the gnawing questions that bother an entrepreneur in a striking manner of rhetoric questions. The book is also peppered with quotes which make the read interesting.

However, since I am not a staunch believer of such models, I prefer to be flexible and would not rate this book as the demi-god for entrepreneurs. It is one of the many frameworks and can be a good go-to book if you are in need of a proper framework to base your delivery or output upon.

[Jason de Carvalho · Rating 4 out of 5]

Starting this book I thought it may be written based on an incorrect premise: that you should start with an idea, then test it (better than not testing it still!). Instead it is targeted at people who start with this premise, and gently guides them back a step to focus on the 'micro-level of the market domain' of Mullins' 'seven domains model'. Having brought the reader back to a better starting point in evaluating opportunities, Mullins then covers the remaining six domains in turn, going over examples. Although the examples are somewhat dated (in the 2nd edition), they are timeless, using examples that are also used by "Good Strategy, Bad Strategy" and "Amped" (though here we see the other side of EMC's story). In the second section Mullins includes more high-level details on how to evaluate domains

The 2nd edition has the strapline: "what entrepreneurs and executives should do before writing a business plan", but the newer edition has: "what entrepreneurs and investors should do before launching a lean start-up". A much better framing and premise than what was necessary in 2003 when the first edition was published - although I was triggered to read this book to think about how to evaluate a business plan rather than a lean startup kernel.

Although the book doesn't go into enough depth, it provides a great entry-level overview of the different aspects of initial opportunity analysis.

[Pedram]

Easy to read and full of examples for each seven domains of an attractive business opportunity. It is a good guide for preparing a business plan for investors or customers.

[Kaitlynn Harvester · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good insights and case studies. Could be helpful if you're really struggling about where to start with your product.

[G.Bhatt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good business book!

[Alexandra Vidalon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really great book if you want to create a company with a lot of famous casea and a good framework

[C A Rollins]

Still waiting to receive book.

[Shae · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book for business owners and startups. It teaches you what you need to complete a successful and well thought-out business plan. The book highlights the importance of insight from customers, industry research, advisors, and so much more. The New Business Road Test was a requirement in Grad school (business), I gain a lot on why so many companies fail. Mullins does not guarantee that you will not fail, but he provides best practices on how not fail.

[Logan Streondj · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book that helps you step back and figure out if a business can work before plowing ahead.
He unfortunately didn't really tie it all together in the conclusion and his seven domains are a bit convoluted, but here is a link that explains them:
https://www.mindtools.com/pages/artic...

[Felix Leminen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is book a solid read to understand which factors to consider before writing a business plan (i.e., starting a business). Although some information might be outdated (e.g., how relevant a lengthy business plan is in today’s startup scene), most of the knowledge still hold true (e.g., the different parts in the seven factor model).

[Ruslik · Rating 2 out of 5]

Finally I have finished this shitty book maybe 🤔 it's worth read but there's no ebook around internet I was pissed 😡 I was reading this book in phone on pdf. Anyway my rate is 3.8 honestly readable but some pages here are water 🌊.

[Duncan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pretty boring book. Picked it up after reading his co-authored book "getting to plan B", which is well-written. this one isn't, which leads me to believe that the good writer is is coauthor.

[Kristiyan Vachev · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book for starting entrepreneurs who are currently working on an idea. There are a lot of examples, of mistakes made by real companies, that make it easier for the reader to remember.

[Nikoloz Shurgaia · Rating 5 out of 5]

John Mullins has provided a very useful methodology for evaluating a new business. I have the book in 2004 and continue using it every time I consider a new venture.

[Chriskelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was fine, and offers some pointers on how to do customer research.
The real Aha moment for me came with Lean Startup

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great way to navigate a new business idea.

[Ryan Young · Rating 4 out of 5]

it may not be rocket science but i don’t need to know any rocket science ok? jeez.

[Imzen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a must-read for everyone (be in entrepreneurs, VCs & equity investor). The basics of business are summarized in this book. Screening each opportunity under the factors presented would make anyone great.

[Pavel Annenkov · Rating 5 out of 5]

Одна из лучших бизнес-книг, которую я прочитал за последние годы. Заметил, что получается отличный материал, когда автор профессор бизнес-школы, а в прошлом предприниматель.

О ЧЕМ КНИГА:
В своей книге Джон Маллинс из Лондонской бизнес-школы напоминает нам, что если вы задумали новый проект, то не надо сразу бросаться писать бизнес-план и начинать привлекать инвесторов. Перед этим лучше протестировать вашу гипотезу в семи областях: макро и микро уровни рынка и индустрии, на которых вы собираетесь работать, а также три области компетенций вашей команды. Из этих семи блоков и складывается модель оценки бизнес-идеи, которая разбирается в книге. Важно, что модель Маллинса работает не как чек-лист, а как цельная система. Автор не просто преподает теорию, но и имеет личный опыт построения и продажи бизнесов. Очень ценная книга для предпринимателей.

ГЛАВНАЯ МЫСЛЬ КНИГИ:
Вероятнее всего первая концепция вашего нового бизнеса не оптимальна. Вы можете ее улучшить в процессе тестирования или даже понять, что от идеи стоит отказаться. В итоге, вы точно окупите время(недели или даже месяцы), которое потратите на оценку новой бизнес-идеи.

ЗАЧЕМ ЧИТАТЬ ЭТУ КНИГУ?
Чтобы получить фреймворк для оценки идеи нового бизнеса.

МЫСЛИ И ВЫВОДЫ ИЗ КНИГИ:
- Как часто предприниматели и инвесторы забывают задать себе вопрос - "Почему эта идея не сработает?"

- Не надо путать рынок и индустрию. Рынок состоит из клиентов (потребителей) продукта. Индустрия состоит из компаний - конкурентов или заменителей вашего продукта.

- Критерии оценки рынка и индустрии разные. Часто мы оцениваем только привлекательность рынка, а про индустрию забываем. Или наоборот.

- Необходимо знать ключевые параметры успеха в конкретном рыночном сегменте и оценить есть ли у команды бизнеса компетенции для успеха в этом сегменте. Не надо давать команде инвестиции, чтобы она училась за счет инвесторов.

ЧТО Я БУДУ ПРИМЕНЯТЬ:
- Техника The Long Interview для получения от потенциальных клиентов обратной связи.

- Отличный критерий оценки рынка - "Есть ли вероятность, что если мы зайдем в этот сегмент рынка, то за счет полученных компетенций, нам будет легче развиваться в других сегментах в будущем?"(пример Nike)

ЕЩЕ НА ЭТУ ТЕМУ:
Рэнди Комисар, Джон Маллинс "Поиск бизнес-модели"

[Fernando Torre · Rating 2 out of 5]

The ideas are extremely important to entrepreneurs. However, I felt the execution of the book could have been better. I got the impression that the author is great at giving college lectures, but not that much at writing for general audiences. Most of the content could have been exposed in far fewer pages. The examples given include far too much content irrelevant to the point being made. The Lessons Learned section in every chapter, although a useful summary, duplicates too much information and could have also been shortened quite a bit.

In short, the ideas and tools in the book are useful, but the book itself was too long and sometimes a drag to read.

[Jose Papo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting analysis of what you need to know before opening a business. The questions commonly asked by VCs and who will help you fail less: what is your market? What can you do better than what exists today? What is the size of the market? How is the industry structure? Who is the team and how much commitment to the idea do you have?

[David Mayes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best book I have seen focusing on the need for market research and competitive advantege. Mullins 7 Domains force entrepreneurs to think analytically not only about their idea but more importantly themselves and their capabilities.

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent guide to assessing the quality of good business ideas. I highly recommend this book to any aspiring entrepreneurs out there who are thinking about the next big thing.

[Siju Odeyemi · Rating 4 out of 5]

very good ideas in theory.

[Judy Logback · Rating 5 out of 5]

Definitely one of the most useful books for entrepreneurs to assess their idea before starting.

[Ash Barot · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great insight. But you can get the entire knowledge in probably a 30 mins presentation.
5 sectors to focus on is great..

[Nattapol Lerdudomviriya · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book provides a beneficial framework to draw a business plan. It not just about check-list of entrepreneur.

[Siim · Rating 5 out of 5]

The steps you need to take before a business plan. This is my go-to book when it comes to road testing ideas.