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Think Agile: How Smart Entrepreneurs Adapt in Order to Succeed
Funding falls apart. A similar product is unveiled by a more established company. A key employee jumps ship to work for a competitor. These are the unexpected obstacles that derail even the most promising new ventures. Entrepreneurs determined to keep up with today's constantly changing business environment need to stay nimble enough to shift their strategies, products, and services on a dime. Yet many fail to master this essential new mindset: agility.
Featuring real-life case studies and invaluable tools,Think Agile helps entrepreneurs assess their level of flexibility--and learn to be open-minded and option-oriented in key areas including:
* Funding sources * Launch timetables * Planning * Repurposing everything from products to people to names * And more
When entrepreneurs lock themselves into one strategy, one product, one distribution method--and one way of thinking about their business--they limit their potential, and lower their chances of capitalizing on economic, industry, or market changes. Think Agile is an indispensable guide to an undeniably essential new skill.
Featuring real-life case studies and invaluable tools,Think Agile helps entrepreneurs assess their level of flexibility--and learn to be open-minded and option-oriented in key areas including:
* Funding sources * Launch timetables * Planning * Repurposing everything from products to people to names * And more
When entrepreneurs lock themselves into one strategy, one product, one distribution method--and one way of thinking about their business--they limit their potential, and lower their chances of capitalizing on economic, industry, or market changes. Think Agile is an indispensable guide to an undeniably essential new skill.
- GenresBusiness
224 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2014
8 people are currently reading
40 people want to read
About the author
Taffy Williams
2 booksTAFFY WILLIAMS has been a successful entrepreneur and advisor to entrepreneurs for over 30 years. The founder and president of Colonial Technology Development Company, which assists start-ups in technology commercialization, he writes the popular “Startup Blog,” as well as articles for Examiner.com.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
November 8, 2014
Before I quit my job I read a bunch of books on entrepreneurism and they all went in one ear and out the other. Or in one eye and out the other, whatever it might be. In the last three years that I have owned my company, I’ve gone back to some of those books and suddenly they were packed with wisdom.
So I felt like a genuine member of the entrepreneurs’ club when I got to the first example in this book and recognized an old beginner habit of mine- putting the cart before the horse. The brand new entrepreneur has already sold his business and retired to a tropical beach… in his mind. Someone who has been in business a few months might have a detailed five year plan. Once you’ve owned a business for a year or so, you think you know what is going to happen this afternoon but you totally accept the fact that really you have no idea. Four years of philosophy training didn’t shake me of my belief in a predictable chain of causality, but a year of business ownership sure will.
This is the real world of entrepreneurship that the author is taking on. I’ve read a few book touting agility and it all sounds like great stuff, which inevitably opens the question, “Then why aren’t you doing it?” What sets this book apart from other books about agility is that it aims to help you resolve that question. What is it about you as a leader that is holding your company back from agility? What are your experiences, motivations and fears?
In reading the book, I discovered that the principle misconception I had about agility was it was all about how to be faster and bigger. Agility means the ability to change, therefore it can also be about being slower and smaller (duh). The author recommends a variety of ways to give you and your company the space to change- not to be faster and bigger, but to *change.* And change may well be slower and smaller, but you sure can’t do any of those things if you’ve built yourself into a corner with pointless commitments and rigid thinking.
Early in the book the author mentions brain plasticity and problem solving, and I marked in my notes to see if the author was going to address exercise and meditation. Indeed, exercise and vacation come up. Let me recommend meditation as well. And two books to go from here:
The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses
The Complete Idiot's Guide to Meditation
*Note: Three stars is not a ding- it means the book meets its goal. But I save five stars for War and Peace.
So I felt like a genuine member of the entrepreneurs’ club when I got to the first example in this book and recognized an old beginner habit of mine- putting the cart before the horse. The brand new entrepreneur has already sold his business and retired to a tropical beach… in his mind. Someone who has been in business a few months might have a detailed five year plan. Once you’ve owned a business for a year or so, you think you know what is going to happen this afternoon but you totally accept the fact that really you have no idea. Four years of philosophy training didn’t shake me of my belief in a predictable chain of causality, but a year of business ownership sure will.
This is the real world of entrepreneurship that the author is taking on. I’ve read a few book touting agility and it all sounds like great stuff, which inevitably opens the question, “Then why aren’t you doing it?” What sets this book apart from other books about agility is that it aims to help you resolve that question. What is it about you as a leader that is holding your company back from agility? What are your experiences, motivations and fears?
In reading the book, I discovered that the principle misconception I had about agility was it was all about how to be faster and bigger. Agility means the ability to change, therefore it can also be about being slower and smaller (duh). The author recommends a variety of ways to give you and your company the space to change- not to be faster and bigger, but to *change.* And change may well be slower and smaller, but you sure can’t do any of those things if you’ve built yourself into a corner with pointless commitments and rigid thinking.
Early in the book the author mentions brain plasticity and problem solving, and I marked in my notes to see if the author was going to address exercise and meditation. Indeed, exercise and vacation come up. Let me recommend meditation as well. And two books to go from here:
The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses
The Complete Idiot's Guide to Meditation
*Note: Three stars is not a ding- it means the book meets its goal. But I save five stars for War and Peace.
July 8, 2015
Good read, but a lot of common sense. I expected to learn more new concepts.
October 23, 2015
The book covers some basic agile business clues and compares them to traditional lead business. It is easy to read but I can not agree with some ideas.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews