THE FIRST MILE
A launch manual for getting great ideas into the market
Scott D Anthony
Harvard Business Review Press
242 pages; Rs 995
In another age, people who felt shortchanged in their careers went looking for magic lamps, buried treasure, or streets paved with some priceless metal. Today, we know it is entirely up to us to change our lives. We have to step out, roll up our sleeves and get our hands dirty. But that's the easy part. The not-so-easy part is figuring out what we can really do and how to get started and, more importantly, assess the probability that people will pay for what we can offer. That's one reason there is a thriving market for books like The First Mile: A Launch Manual For Getting Great Ideas Into The Market.
Don't get me wrong. There's nothing wrong with saying "Go for it"- most self-help books do that with great aplomb. Books that make the cut for me are the ones that are able to say, "So you're ready to take the plunge? Here's how you actually do it."
In that sense, The First Mile… nails it. First, this is not about theoretical, cookie-cutter information that you could find in any entrepreneurship 101 textbook. Scott D Anthony is a talented writer and his book can be a huge help for the person out there who thinks he has the idea for the perfect mousetrap but has never bothered to ask around or test his ideas with people outside his immediate circle of family and friends. It walks you through the process of setting up a business from planning to execution, with handy checklists, case studies and model business plans.
Anthony clearly has an advantage here. As managing partner of consulting firm Innosight, he has advised senior leaders in companies such as Procter & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson, Cisco and LG on growth and innovation. He also has extensive experience in emerging markets, particularly in India, China, and the Philippines. The impact of that experience and research comes through clearly in the book.
The format of the book is interesting. It has just two parts. Part 1 focuses on just one thing: how to get started - the idea, the resources you would need and the drill you ought to go through. In part 2, the author takes great pains to anticipate the problems potential entrepreneurs may face in identifying markets, building teams or taking decisions.
One of my favourite parts in the book is a discussion on how to maximise flexibility. The rules of thumb can be summed up in seven bullet points: prototype before you build; fake it before you market; borrow before you buy; contract before you hire; test before you commit; research before you do it; and, finally, outsource before you ramp up. These principles are applicable to modern management much more broadly.
I also enjoyed Anthony's discussion on how to prototype the purchase experience. He says people often associate prototyping with physical products, but since the ultimate point of commercial innovation is to earn revenue and profit, it is worth considering how to prototype key elements of the business model. "The purchasing experience in particular offers rich insight into the depth of the target consumer need, other elements in the customer's consideration set, the mechanics of motivating and consummating purchase…". I remembered a recent conversation with Rahul Sharma of Micromax, in which he said he doesn't believe in focus groups. He would rather stand at the sales counter in a multi-brand outlet and strike up a conversation with the guy on the other side of the counter to gain "market insight".
Coming back to this book, while you'll ultimately have to make your own decisions about what's right for your business, The First Mile… can get your entrepreneurial endeavour headed in the right direction. Yes, the book is weighted towards technical instruction than inspiration, but the good thing is it is not biased towards a particular industry. You can apply the start-up principles in any type of business - from manufacturing to mail order, retail to office-based.
The author's Pollyanna tone can get to you but remember, Anthony is genuinely enthusiastic about the start-up process. In any case, at 242 pages (including the author introduction, acknowledgements and references), The First Mile… is a breeze. The only other book on the subject that I remember finishing in one sitting was The Beermat Entrepreneur: What You Really Need to Know to Turn a Good Idea into a Great Business by Mike Southon and Chris West.
If there is one flaw, it is that the book doesn't have much of a discussion on marketing, and I'm sure start-ups these days spend a lot of time and effort on this part of the drill, even in their early days. Of course, marketing by start-ups is really a book in itself; so this is just a minor thing.
