Author’s acknowledgements
For the ideas that have coalesced into this book, there are more people who deserve thanks than there are stars in the Milky Way splashed across the midnight sky in Colorado, where most of this book’s first edition was written in the summer of 2002. But two people stand out. First is John Bates, my friend and colleague at the London Business School, whose clear thinking and entrepreneurial insights and instincts inform many of its pages. John’s access to the venture capital community in the UK was instrumental in the research that underlies the book’s first edition. Without it, the book simply would not exist. Thank you John, and Wendy too. Second, Suzanne Stoller uncovered and researched the companies whose case studies – successful and otherwise – would bring to life the lessons of the seven domains. Her opening vignettes in each chapter make the book more engaging and readable, and her humour and intellect made the work more fun and engaging. Many thanks, Suzanne. But the case studies have moved on, and my thanks go to Elizabeth Philp for conducting the painstaking research in the autumn of 2012 to bring them up to date.
At the heart of the book, informing the research that led to the seven domains model, are some two dozen venture capitalists and entrepreneurs in the UK and USA who shared their time and candid insights with me. If the ideas in this book make a difference in how the current generation of aspiring entrepreneurs fares, it is these thoughtful men and women who deserve the thanks. Most of the good ideas are probably theirs. Any errors in fact or interpretation are, of course, mine. Thanks, too, to Grant McCracken’s The Long Interview for teaching me how to interview them.
To my students who, over the years, helped these ideas grow, many thanks for challenging them as they took shape in our class discussions. Just like opportunities, ideas can be shaped. The very best thing about being a teacher is how much one learns. To my teachers of a lifetime – my parents Jack and Alice Mullins, the late Larry Cummings, and many, many more – who taught me to always ask questions and helped me learn how to think clearly in search of answers, this book is but one manifestation of my thanks to you all.
My readers and I owe thanks to everyone at Pearson, especially my editors Stephen Partridge, Linda Dhondy, Liz Gooster, and Nicole Eggleton, whose gentle candour and careful reading have made this a more readable book. To the many entrepreneurs who have used and commented on the seven domains framework as its form and its application have emerged over time, thanks, too. There are fewer factual errors and fewer erroneous insights thanks to all of you.
I would be remiss if I did not thank my family – Donna, Kristina and Heather – for embracing both our temporary move from our home in Colorado to the PhD programme at the University of Minnesota more than 20 years ago and my move to London Business School in 2001. I’m one of those fortunate people who loves his work, but I couldn’t do it without you.
Conducting research that forms the basis of all four of the book’s editions takes both time and money. Thanks go to the University of Denver’s Daniels College of Business for financial support and for the sabbatical that took me to London to begin the research, and to London Business School for providing both my livelihood and generous research support, which permits and encourages me to write. Thanks, too, to the Marketing Science Institute, whose research grant was crucial in the early stages of the initial research. Likewise to my friends and incomparable colleagues at London Business School, who from the beginning supported, believed in and helped with this project. It remains a genuine pleasure working with all of you.
I and the entire entrepreneurial ecosystem also owe a huge vote of thanks to several recent authors whose work, taken collectively, has debunked the business plan as the centerpiece of entrepreneurial practice. The first edition of this book, back in 2003, may have been among the first chinks in the armour, but there are more chinks now, and anyone who reads this book will want to read one or more of the others that have contributed so much to entrepreneurial practice. In chronological order, then, thanks go to Steve Blank (The Four Steps to the Epiphany, 2005), my co-author Randy Komisar (Getting to Plan B, 2009), Alex Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur (Business Model Generation, 2010), and Eric Ries (The Lean Startup, 2011).
Finally, to tomorrow’s entrepreneurs, whose passion and dreams will make this a better and more humane world for all of us, thanks in advance for your entrepreneurial inspiration, vision and efforts, and for the jobs and economic development you provide. If this book helps you in any way, please tell me about it. If it doesn’t, please tell me that too. I’d love to hear from you.
John Mullins
London, May 2013
[email protected]
http://faculty.london.edu/jmullins
www.newbusinessroadtest.com