Customer Reviews

Entrepreneur Journeys v.3: Positioning: How To Test, Validate, And Bring Your Idea To Market (Volume 3)

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I liked this book very much. In its appendix the following questions are listed regarding competitive positioning and pricing:

>>Who is the competition, and how do you differentiate from them?
>>What are the various classes of products in immediate and related categories?
>>Which, of those, compete directly with you?
>>Which ones are likely to move into your space?
>>How do your product features compare with the competition's? Can you compete on the basis of functionality?
>>How does your product pricing compare with the competition's? Can you compete on the basis of price?
>>How do customers and prospects view your offering, vis-à-vis competition? Do they see you as one-tenth the functionality? One-fifth the functionality? 300% the functionality?
>>What value does the customer see?
>>What are the customers willing to pay for your solution? One-tenth the key competitor's price? Same price? 200% the price?
>>What price can you charge based on perceived value?
>>What is the ROI for the customer? How long will it take to realize the ROI?
>>Can you offer both better performance and lower price?
>>Whom do you need to partner with to offer a full solution?
>>How do you position win-win deals for partners?
>>Can you turn some of the competition to partners/channel/OEM relationships, so as not to go head-to-head?

After reading these questions you should have a pretty good idea as to what this book is about. There is such a thing as Total Available Market ("TAM"). And the subject of this book , i.e., Positioning, is all about being able to segment the TAM your company wants to operate in and be able to identify a well-defined market opportunity involving one or more segments therein. By segmenting a TAM you should be able to create and focus on a cost-efficient go-to-market strategy that can be used in your startup's written business plan. Entrepreneurs who can "Position" well see with clear vision how their startups are going to succeed and be able to find the low-hanging fruit and pick it. Entrepreneurship is all about minimizing risk and making profits at the same time. Do your research. Do your planning. Strategize on known facts - don't guess. And if you focus you will succeed.

For me this book was comprised of a prologue, an epilogue, and 16 interviews of entrepreneurs who are skilled at positioning. I recommend one read the prologue and epilogue first, and then casually read the interviews. This book is not a How-To on how to actually segment markets. It is a book that will help you to understand that markets can be segmented and that only some of those segments are worth pursuing and others are not.

In my humble opinion, this book will be a valuable addition to any entrepreneur who is still trying to master the art of creating quality business plans that can be used to create a successful startup. Positioning is just one aspect of writing a sound business plan, but it is a critical one. 5 stars!

I wrote this review in January 2010... when I was just Sramana's fan. In full disclosure, I am now working for the 1M/1M Initiative and 1M/1M Premium Program that Sramana launched in late December 2010.



I have been Sramana's fan for about a year, since I came across her website: [...] Sramana is passionate about entrepreneurship. She is a tireless entrepreneur advocate and coach through her writing and online strategy round tables.

This book rocks as her two previous books:[...] And although this book is intended for entrepreneurs, I see at least five groups of people who should read this book. Here they are:

1) As intended, budding entrepreneurs with ideas. Read the book slowly to refine your ideas or possibly discard them all together and get much better ideas.

2) Of course, people who are in business. Borrow some ideas for your growth. Although the book doesn't have step by step instructions, with little brain work you can adopt many ideas to your own situation.

3) Looking for a new job? The book can prompt you to interesting employment opportunities.

4) Have money to invest? The book points out quite a few areas of rapid growth.

5) Love consumer tech? Learn about innovation in self-publishing, or new things you can now do with your photos, etc.

As for the intended audience, namely entrepreneurs, here are a few points I gleaned for myself.

1) Define your customer. Most entrepreneurs fail to define the user for their product and run out of steam before they reach profitability.

2) Ask yourself, what other ways already existing product or services could be used?

3) Don't sell tool sets, sell solutions.

4). Analyze the market and look for a gap.

5) Look for established businesses where you can plug in and add value.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I am off to re-read the book. :o) It is so idea rich, I couldn't possibly get it all in one pass through.

I got this book for my significant other, who started a business developing products for the renewable energy market a little over a year ago. While he's brilliant technically, marketing isn't his strength. He was quite keen to read the book, since he has essentially completed R&D for his first product and has been somewhat in the dark about what to do next.

Alas, instead of the step-by-step guide he was expecting, he found this book was little more than a series of anecdotes about the author's friends. The common theme was "I did X, and then I got lucky," which wasn't exactly helpful for a small business owner struggling to make a go of it in the worst economy in 70 years. He was also disappointed that virtually everything was about Web 3.0, with no real theoretical or practical foundation with application to other industries.

Judging from the other reviews, others have found the book helpful, but for him it was far too thin on actual content to be helpful when he was hungry for some real substance and guidance. His search continues for a useful book on bringing products to market.

Sramana's book on positioning is written in a similar format as the first two; she interviews successful entrepreneurs to demonstrate to support her conclusions. Volume three is exceptionally interesting as it highlights a subject that is often overlooked by many entrepreneurs. The key take away from the book is that the market and your company's positioning in that market is just as important as the product offering. The book expresses the importance of fulfilling a customer need to identify the value proposition and by whom the value will be coveted most.
I think the book should be read by all aspiring entrepreneurs. She does a fantastic job of demonstrating ways successful startups exploit niches in the market through tackling highly segmented customer base. In the book Sramana highlights Kosmix, an internet search company that has positioned itself to compete against a number of smaller players avoided competing directly with the big guys like Google. Her interviews not only convey successful stories but also force you to think out of the box about your own business ideas. One of the most effective parts is the appendix of the book as it provides a list of questions to identify and test the total available market (TAM) of your offering. As she goes on to explain the by identifying the TAM the entrepreneur will increase the likelihood of succeeding.

As a first time entrepreneur I was anticipating a book that would walk through some guides on how to "test, validate and bring your idea to market." However, this book is more of a collection of interviews on a variety of companies and how they positioned their businesses in the marketplace. While I enjoyed reading the interviews most of the companies were technology based and I had a difficult time reading the business specific vocabulary. The Appendix in the last five pages in the book will be the only pages I refer back to for my business positioning.

I rarely read a book in one setting, but Sramana's book is unlike any other books. Rather than putting out a lot of theoretical content, she has presented real life interviews and cases, which make the book like a story. Different verticals she covered include cloud computing, content, collaboration, and web 3.0 and there are several case studies in each section. It gave me a very good idea of who are some of the players in those verticals and how they are providing solutions and targeting their customers differently. I enjoyed reading several entrepreneurs stories, and in the process also learned a lot about positioning and marketing in general, and certain sectors in specific. In every chapter she analyzes the interviews in a few pages - concise and crisp.

Great read for any would be entrepreneurs, anyone interested in these sectors, or anyone who would want to learn more about positioning.

I've enjoyed volumes 1 and 2 of Sramana Mitra's Entrepreneur Journeys series. Learning what works and doesn't work from people who have been in the trenches is an excellent way to avoid making the same mistakes yourself. She's now back with a third volume in the series titled Entrepreneur Journeys v.3: Positioning: How To Test, Validate, And Bring Your Idea To Market. In here, you'll find out what it takes to position your company and your product to target a specific market niche. This is vitally important in today's economy, as there's not an abundance of money floating around to throw at ideas to see which one(s) might make it. Mitra's interviews look at entrepreneurs who have successfully positioned their offering and are making an impact in business.

Contents:

Going Vertical: Web 3.0 - Under Construction (Siva Kumar - TheFind, Venky Harinarayan - Kosmix, Mattias Miksche - Stardoll); Bootstrapped Web 3.0 (Samir Arora - Glam Media)

Cloud Computing: Deconstructing the Cloud (Ken Rudin - LucidEra, Mike Cordano - Fabrik, Kent Plunkett - [...]); India, Inc., Beware (Umberto Milletti - InsideView, Steve Adams - Sabrix); SaaS-ing Back at the Economy (Jim Heegar - PayCycle, Brian Jacobs - Emergence Capital); Saas on a Shoestring

Collaboration: Kill the Business Trip (Sharat Sharan - ON24, D. D. Ganguly - DimDim)

Content Publishing: Lost Talent Found Online (Kevin Weiss - iUniverse, Jeff Housenbold - Shutterfly); Gaming the Recession (John Welch - PlayFirst)

Epilogue; Appendix - Clarify Your Story

When first starting out, it's tempting to want to try and hit all the different market niches you can so that at least one of them will pay off. But by doing that, Mitra shows that the odds of failure increase dramatically. The company's offering gets diluted by trying to be all things to all people, and as such nobody wants the product or service. It's either too much for one niche or not enough for another. A good (successful) example is the Shutterfly story. They were one of the first online digital photo sharing sites, but by and large they were not differentiated from any other offering in that space. It's only once they focused on their digital press capabilities that they found their stride. They don't aim to compete with Flickr for showing millions of photos online. Instead, they are targeting the consumers and businesses who want to turn their pictures into a book that can be shared with others. These small-run digital books are perfect for creating ties and bonds, and through positioning they've established their product as the leader in that field.

I enjoy the way that Mitra has structured the books in this series. The interview style allows for the personality of each company and owner to come through, and it seems to work much better than a structured analysis of her thoughts and theories. Hearing the successes and failures coming straight from those who lived them adds a human element to the information that is often lacking from other business books. It also allows the interviewees to share little pearls of wisdom that they were given as they grew up. For instance, D. D. Ganguly of DimDim once asked his father a question, to which he got a response, "Men can do what men have done." In other words, if someone else has done it before you, there's no reason you can't do it also. It stuck with him from that point forward, and it's been gnawing away at me all day also...

Before you get too far down the line with your "next big idea", a reading of Positioning might do wonders to help you narrow your focus and improve your chances of success.

Disclosure:
Obtained From: Publisher
Payment: Free

I haven't read her blog or the other two volumes in this series, but I liked this book. The case studies/interviews give a wealth of information about how a variety of real-life entrepreneurs have gone about positioning their companies and succeeding for reasons that might not be apparent (i.e. its not about necessarily having the "best" product in your market. It's about understanding the market, and what the best position in it is--not worrying about the rest).

The prologue and epilogue lay out this point, and the 16 chapters provide examples of it. This would be a great book to use in a business class because studying these interviews and discussing the points about T.A.M. and positioning would be a valuable and interesting assignments. There is a lot of good information for people who want to start their own businesses--and increase their chances of succeeding. Recommended.

Ms. Mitra continues her series of interviews with entrepreneurs in this third edition of entrepreneur journeys.

The pros:
- easy reading with simple everyman language, even for non-MBAs.
- interesting interview style format not only contributes to the ease of reading but is also critical in understanding Ms. Mitra's approach to breaking down positioning problems.
- demonstration of the guidance by Ms. Mitra to get interviewees to reveal their positioning strategies, one can get a feel of how she would consult in these companies.
- wide range (16 interviews) of companies exposes the reader to many diverse viewpoints and many emerging companies in the Silicon Valley.
- good classification into currently relevant interest areas (web 3.0, cloud computing, collaboration, content publishing) helps guide the learning.

The cons:
- due to the narrative structure, one does not get Ms. Mitra's perspective on the positioning approach adopted by these companies. It would have been interesting to get her take on each of these cases.
- the interviews are all forward-focused, it would have been interesting to do a post-mortem on previously successful or failed positioning strategies.
- learning may be somewhat restricted to "silicon valley type" businesses.
- the title may imply (to some) that one will get a cookbook on designing positioning. It must be noted that this book points out positioning approaches adopted but even with the checklist in the appendix one probably needs more information/training to design positioning for one's own company.

Overall an interesting read, particularly if one is interested in Silicon Valley trends and positioning attitudes.

Sramana Mitra has written a series of books on Entrepreneur Journeys that are so highly informative for anyone considering marketing a product or trying to develop your own business. This Volume 3 is focused on Positioning: How To Test, Validate, And Bring Your Idea To Market.

Sramana Mitra has compiled the book into Chapters that are basically interview question and answer sessions with many different types of companies. This is such a unique way to educate someone who is thinking of starting his/her own business. How valuable it is, to be able to ask other successful business owners everything you want to know about how they made decisions on their product's manufacturing, distributions, marketing strategies, finding investors and so many other informative steps one must take to have a successful product in today's marketplace. Sramana Mitra has done all these interviews for us, and the interviews are not only invaluable in their information content, but they are actually very inspiring.

At the end of the book there is a question section where you can answer the many questions Sramana puts to you, to help you clarify and validate your own ideas about starting your own business. The answers you give will help you to build your own go to market strategies and future success. Reading all these interviews from so many successful business entrepreneurs is just like sitting down and asking all the questions you would like answered yourself! The education you get from this book is priceless!