Think Agile
How Smart Entrepreneurs Adapt in Order to Succeed
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
In today’s constantly changing business environment, the question is not if any unexpected obstacles will try to derail your promising company, but when will they rear their ugly heads. Your biggest investor bails on you, having been lured away to the next new sure thing instead. A similar product is unveiled by a more established company. A key employee jumps ship to work for a competitor. When these obstacles--yes, plural!--arrive, will you be able to shift strategies, products, and services on a time, if necessary? Unfortunately, many entrepreneurs lock themselves into one strategy, one product, one distribution method, and one way of thinking about their business. In doing so, they limit their potential and lower their chances of capitalizing on economic, industry, or market changes. Think Agile wants to help the entrepreneur both assess their level of flexibility and learn to be open-minded and option-oriented in key areas such as:• Funding sources• Launch timetables• Planning• Repurposing everything from products to people to names• And much moreFeaturing real-life case studies and invaluable tools, Think Agile is the indispensable guide every entrepreneur must have in order to self-evaluate and develop the undeniably essential skill of agility--the secret to surviving whatever tomorrow brings!
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Williams (Startup Blog) begins this well-intended but superficial business guide by announcing that he aims to help entrepreneurs become nimble in every part of their business. His proposal sounds plausible, especially considering his background: he's founded a number of companies, including Colonial Technology Development Company. What he shares in this book is a collection of lessons for "entrepreneurs of all types," starting with the importance of believing "you can do anything." Throughout the book, Williams employs well-known entrepreneurial success stories Argo Tea, Spanx, Pandora to illustrate his points. To involve readers, Williams includes chapter exercises and assessments ("Putting Concepts into Action"). He covers a wide variety of topics, from funding sources to repurposing products and people to managing the unexpected. What the book rarely does, however, is dig deeply into the topic at hand and provide specific recommendations. Williams clearly understands the importance of "entrepreneur agility," both practically and theoretically, but it's less clear that this book will help readers achieve this skill set for themselves.
