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The Lean Startup by Eric Ries

August 5th, 2012

The Lean Startup is a guide book by Eric Ries for enterpreneurs on how to build a successful startup using lean methodology. In fact, The Lean Startup is a business approach coined by Eric Ries that aims to change the way that companies are built and new products are launched

The book cover has this statement: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses.
It sounds so much like software development with continuous development or continuous deployment, and it actually is. Something similar to agile software development but to create a successful business.

About Author
Eric Ries is an entrepreneur and author of the popular blog Startup Lessons Learned. He co-founded and served as CTO of IMVU, his third startup which has today has over 40 million users and 2009 revenue over $22 million, and has had plenty of startup failures along the way.

Chapters
The chapters in this book are divided into three distinct parts, namely VISION, STEER and ACCELERATE.

The Lean Startup calls on building a minimum viable product instead of trying to achieve perfection with a product that could never be delivered or results in something that is not wanted by customers. He also encourages the usage of validated learning, learning from testing fundamental business hypotheses (or leap-of-faith assumptions), then take next actions based on the results of such experiments.

The second part of the book goes into the details of the Build-Measure-Learn feedback loop which repeats the validated learning and lead the startup’s engine of growth into higher gears.
However, it is also good that the author warns about being happy with vanity metrics. Instead of looking at vanity metrics, a startup should look at actionable or auditable metrics.
While every startup strives for success, it is also common for startups to reach a junction where a decision need to be taken on to pivot or to persevere. This book has a chapter dedicated to pivoting.

The third part goes into details about startup acceleration or growth. However, the author also uses examples from Toyota lean production that stops its manufacturing line whenever a problem is encountered to avoid chain effects on the production. There are many instances where Toyota lean model is used in this book.
The book then ends with a chapter on Innovation, as typically for large organizations, they tend to lose in innovation, creativity and growth.

Marvin’s Take
I got to admit that Lean methodology is not new to me, so a book titled ‘Lean Startup’ rings a bell and I really do not expect to learn anything new other than how to bootstrap a startup, run it with the lowest costs and etc.
I actually bought the book because I thought the price was cheap. At $15, I bought it to see what else is in store.
I was totally wrong that there is nothing new to learn about lean startup. This book does not teach you how to bootstrap or run at lowest costs, but everything else that might have skip the eyes of most entrepreneurs.
Unless you are already a millionaire startup and have a few large organizations under your stable, this book might be useful for you.
Even if you own a couple of large enterprises, some tips in here might prove beneficial too.

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One Click: Jeff Bezos and the Rise of Amazon.com – Richard L. Brandt

February 6th, 2012


One Click: Jeff Bezos and the Rise of Amazon.com by Richard L. Brandt is not a autobiography of Jeff Bezos and not even a biography of him in my opinion, although the book is in that category.

Through interviews with Amazon employees, competitors, and observers, Brandt has deciphered how Bezos makes decisions. The story of Amazon’s ongoing evolution is a case study in how to reinvent an entire industry, and one that anyone in business today ignores at their peril.

Though this is not entirely an official book about Amazon or Jeff but the author manage to provide insights on how Amazon operates or how Jeff Bezos runs his business.

There are bound to be many details that even one Amazon customer will not know but can be found in the book.

During the early days of entrepreneurship, Amazon is one of those who starts to collect or patent everything or anything. As the title of the book ‘One Click’, Amazon was the one who patented the concept of purchasing online with a single click.
There are also many other patents that Amazon owns too but they do not sue others who violated it.

It is also through this book that I learn that Amazon was NOT the one who makes profit the main objective initially, but to gain the most share from the book market.

This book slowly go through the history of Amazon and its eventual success in reinventing the book industry, from making purchases online, at low prices until the release of its digital ebook reader, the Kindle.

Chapters

  1. One Click Is Not Enough
  2. Potrait of the Entrepreneur as a Young Man
  3. Jeff Gets A Job
  4. Jeff Discovers the Internet
  5. Three Nerds and an Accountant
  6. How to Build a Better Bookstore
  7. Growing Pains
  8. Money to Burn Through
  9. Growing Up
  10. Who You Calling a Bookstore?
  11. The Crash
  12. Bezos Bets Big on the Kindle
  13. Is Amazon Killing the Bookstore?
  14. A Cool Guy with a Funny Laugh
  15. But What Kind of Manager Is He?
  16. Head in the Clouds
  17. Step by Step, Courageously

My Conclusion:
The book is a very good read for the weekend and could well possibly be a very quick read for seasoned readers as well.
I would take a pinch of salt though, from its content as it does not seems to show reputable source for the information provided other than interviews or public accessible information about Amazon or Jeff Bezos himself. However, as the facts are all in general, I think there could be least possible anything could go wrong too.

Following is what the author wrote about himself.

Having written two books in which the subjects would not give me interviews (interesting that the founder of a book-selling site does not give interviews for books) and one book in which the subject had too much control over the manuscript, my next book will be one in which I have direct access to the subject AND complete control over the content.

I figure its either you get interviews or you do not try a biography. Credibility is important in writing a biography, in my opinion.
Having said that, this is still a good read.

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The Amazin Amazon Success

May 27th, 2011

Amazon.com, Inc. is a US-based multinational electronic commerce company, headquartered in Seattle, Washington, and is the largest online retailer in the United States.

I spare you from reading more of the boring stuff, but spend some time checking out the slides and Bloomberg’s Game Changers video below.
If you do not have time, bookmark this blogpost and come back later.

And I have previously reviewed the book by Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos.
Zappos was mentioned as the largest corporate acquisition by Amazon in the video at 18:22.

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