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From Concept to Scale: Creating A Gospel-Minded Organization
Armed with big ideas and filled with the hopes of making a considerable impact through businesses and nonprofits alike, each year millions of people step out into the great unknown of entrepreneurship. This self-starter spirit runs deep in our culture and the effort often leads to rewarding results. However, great ideas and hard work don't always equal success, and the strains of entrepreneurship can take a heavy toll on our lives.
From Concept to Scale tackles the inevitable challenges every entrepreneur faces when bringing something new into the world. Starting with a Gospel-minded approach to organizational development, the authors examine the opportunities and common pitfalls leaders encounter in the areas of product development, financing, organizational culture, board development, partnerships, time management, and more. Designed around three frameworks for understanding the life cycle, underlying elements, and essential mindsets for building an organization, this book serves as a field guide for anyone wanting to grow an organization.
From Concept to Scale tackles the inevitable challenges every entrepreneur faces when bringing something new into the world. Starting with a Gospel-minded approach to organizational development, the authors examine the opportunities and common pitfalls leaders encounter in the areas of product development, financing, organizational culture, board development, partnerships, time management, and more. Designed around three frameworks for understanding the life cycle, underlying elements, and essential mindsets for building an organization, this book serves as a field guide for anyone wanting to grow an organization.
- GenresLeadershipChristian
246 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 2013
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January 6, 2017
I first learned of Praxis academy and Praxis Labs a few years ago, and I was quite impressed with their desire to empower young people of faith to be successful entrepreneurs. I also admire the desire of the folks behind Praxis to do everything at a very high level of quality, as this is also an expression of their faith commitments. A collaborative effort from several Praxis-aligned people, From Concept to Scale represents the culmination of both of the aforementioned impulses. The results are mixed.
The book is hard to categorize. At one level it is designed to be a field manual or resource guide for those who want to start their own business. Inside, the reader will find places where they can answer questions about their own start-up, fill out questionnaires and assessments and scribble notes. On the other hand, the design and structure of the book seem to belie the idea of a high-use, hands-on item. Printed on glossy paper, with an abundance of images, graphs and sidebars, the book has the appearance of a (long) college view book or a classy coffee table book. It is beautiful and has a nice tactile feel to it - but I am not sure I would feel good about writing in it. It is a conundrum.
Nonetheless, the content of the book leads the reader through the four stages of developing a new business or organization (Concept, Prove, Launch and Scale) with aplomb. The material is solid, with a number of great questions for the would-be entrepreneur to ask him or herself at each stage. I am not a entrepreneur, but I have worked with a number of young people who are or want to be entrepreneurs and I can see how useful some of this could have been to some of them.
I have two quibbles with the book. One is with the idea of a "gospel-minded organization." The term appears in the title, and is used occasionally throughout the book, but I felt it was ill-defined. Clearly the authors are trying to make a statement about the particular commitments that an entrepreneur who comes from the point-of-view of Christian faith might have or make in developing a business. As a Christian myself, I can make some assumptions about what they intend when they say "gospel-minded organization" and they even use some examples - but all in all, I was uncomfortable with the ambiguity of this language.
My second minor concern is the length. Perhaps no one is intended to read the book from cover to cover anyway, but I found myself questioning whether a high-spirited, entrepreneurial person under the age of 30 would read a book like this (or read a book at all, for that matter). I found the sidebar stories of entrepreneurs who had dealt with the various challenges and obstacles described in the text to be good, but not essential. I think some length could have been preserved in reducing the number of these anecdotes.
Still, there are lots of great ideas in here and the questions for entrepreneurs reminded me of Quaker queries, which I have often found spiritually useful. So this is worth a look for those interested in entrepreneurship, especially from a faith-based perspective.
The book is hard to categorize. At one level it is designed to be a field manual or resource guide for those who want to start their own business. Inside, the reader will find places where they can answer questions about their own start-up, fill out questionnaires and assessments and scribble notes. On the other hand, the design and structure of the book seem to belie the idea of a high-use, hands-on item. Printed on glossy paper, with an abundance of images, graphs and sidebars, the book has the appearance of a (long) college view book or a classy coffee table book. It is beautiful and has a nice tactile feel to it - but I am not sure I would feel good about writing in it. It is a conundrum.
Nonetheless, the content of the book leads the reader through the four stages of developing a new business or organization (Concept, Prove, Launch and Scale) with aplomb. The material is solid, with a number of great questions for the would-be entrepreneur to ask him or herself at each stage. I am not a entrepreneur, but I have worked with a number of young people who are or want to be entrepreneurs and I can see how useful some of this could have been to some of them.
I have two quibbles with the book. One is with the idea of a "gospel-minded organization." The term appears in the title, and is used occasionally throughout the book, but I felt it was ill-defined. Clearly the authors are trying to make a statement about the particular commitments that an entrepreneur who comes from the point-of-view of Christian faith might have or make in developing a business. As a Christian myself, I can make some assumptions about what they intend when they say "gospel-minded organization" and they even use some examples - but all in all, I was uncomfortable with the ambiguity of this language.
My second minor concern is the length. Perhaps no one is intended to read the book from cover to cover anyway, but I found myself questioning whether a high-spirited, entrepreneurial person under the age of 30 would read a book like this (or read a book at all, for that matter). I found the sidebar stories of entrepreneurs who had dealt with the various challenges and obstacles described in the text to be good, but not essential. I think some length could have been preserved in reducing the number of these anecdotes.
Still, there are lots of great ideas in here and the questions for entrepreneurs reminded me of Quaker queries, which I have often found spiritually useful. So this is worth a look for those interested in entrepreneurship, especially from a faith-based perspective.
Displaying 1 of 1 review