Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8593 in Books
• Published on: 2008-10-26
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 226 pages

Synopsis
Explains how to transform ideas into action, offering a step-by-step approach to launching great products, services, and companies and demonstrating how managers can unleash a creative approach to business at established companies.

Customer Reviews

Highly Recommended!
This is not a manual, but rather a collection of mostly useful tips for people who wish to start businesses, or even, as author Guy Kawasaki claims, other sorts of projects, including nonprofit organizations. Kawasaki may overuse business-babble such as "bootstrapping" or "rainmaking" (in fact, he recommends coming up with a brand name that can enter the language as a verb, such as Google or Xerox) - but his style is good-natured and humorous. The chapters are divided accessibly with subheads, charts, bullet points, "minichapters," answers to "Frequently Avoided Questions" and reading lists, making it easy to find important points. Many of Kawasaki's "exercises" are tongue-in-cheek, like, "Go to eBay and search for used Aeron chairs." He got his start working at Apple Computer, marketing early MacIntoshes, and he now runs a venture capital firm, Garage Technology Ventures. He refers to both frequently, and most of the book's examples come from these venues, not from inside knowledge of other start-ups, even though the author has been involved in several. This isn't the only book you'll need to read when you decide to start a business, but we find that its iconoclastic pointers are useful and fun, and its sections on pitching, recruiting and branding, in particular, apply to businesses of any size.

Good
A very good practical book for startups and those who plan who start one. Many books miss completely the point, having been written when the memory of the bootstrapping effort has faded, or by people who had almost bottomless marketing funds. This books assumes that you're cash strapped and looking for external equity financing.
It's also nice that it covers a section on charities although the intended audience are technology companies.
In my opinion, this is the only "operational" book you need for a startup, while the others should be focused on the specific market you're after (i.e. like G. Moore's Crossing the Chasm if you're in technology).

A good fast read for people too busy building a business
I got this book for free through one of Guy's investment companies (www.istock.com).
However I would have gladly paid double the amazon price!
If you are starting a new business or are in the throws of setting something up, take the time to read this. It's one of the most practical guides there is and is the ONLY one that I've immediately started re-reading after finishing it.

It will certainly put things into context when times get tough in your new business.