The Power of Unfair Advantage: How to Create It, Build it, and Use It to Maximum Effect (Hardcover)

by John L. Nesheim (Author) "Arnold Schwarzenegger understands unfair advantage..." (more)
Key Phrases: strong unfair advantage, spreadsheet hill, new market category, Silicon Valley, Nesheim Group, United States (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"There is no shortage of books covering the basics of the entrepreneurial experience: having an idea, writing a business plan, recruiting a management team, etc., but I cannot find another book that is exclusively about the elusive 'secret sauce' of start-ups -- the so-called unfair advantage -- as it seems to defy a hard-and-fast definition. So many people use the term, but no one seems to be able to define it. This book is the first comprehensive treatment of this subject -- and long overdue."

-- David Rex, Jackson Walker L.L.P.

"Essential tips, tools, and techniques for achieving world-class greatness. Every entrepreneur needs to read this book."

-- Guy Kawasaki, managing director of Garage Technology Ventures and author of The Art of the Start

"A clear guide to creating a successful new enterprise. Unfair advantage is the difference between fighting the good fight and winning."

-- Ken Tidwell, Chief Architect, ArcSight, Inc.

"If you want to be CEO of a great new enterprise -- or join one -- read The Power of Unfair Advantage and put its principles and practical tips to work, immediately."

-- Anthony Gioeli, CEO, Atrua Technologies, Inc.

"Most business books take one idea and beat it to death. Nesheim's new book is a rarity. It starts with a good idea and then takes you through all the steps along the way to turn that idea into a powerful business."

-- Al Ries, coauthor of The Origin of Brands

"Nesheim provides the road map for gaining unfair advantage, an imperative for entrepreneurs seeking to differentiate themselves in the increasingly competitive global tech industry."

-- Peter Buhl, General Partner, BlueRun Ventures

Product Description
A Silicon Valley veteran and author of the bestseller High Tech Start Up reveals the nature of unfair advantage -- that holy grail for every company, the mysterious quality that separates successful businesses from the nine out of ten that fail -- and then shows how to create an unfair advantage, build it into a business plan, and use it to maximum effect.

Nesheim's first book, originally self-published during Silicon Valley's wild west days in the 1990s, quickly moved from underground hit to business bestseller. He witnessed the incredible highs and lows of the Internet bubble, and he got an intimate look at why some companies weathered the storm while others went under. Now, in The Power of Unfair Advantage, Nesheim shows you how to bring the pioneer spirit to your new enterprise -- whether you are starting a new company or trying to breathe new life into an old dog. Unfair advantage is an enduring but often overlooked dynamic and a crucial aspect of any successful business endeavor.

To show you how to attain unfair advantage over your competitors, he begins with a clear model: Outsource everything you are not good at, concentrate on those things that can be differentiated, and strive for a unique, consistent difference that cannot be copied. Integrating these maxims with other essential elements, he demonstrates, with dozens of case studies, how to orchestrate unfair advantage through marketing, sales, engineering, and operations.

Unfair advantage can take many forms. Pager maker RIM rocketed to the top of the mobile wireless email market with Blackberry by employing an unfair advantage that it alone possessed -- pager technology and pager infrastructure. Alternately, an unfair advantage can come from a unique relationship with a strategic alliance partner, as when Flextronics pulled Handspring out of a life-threatening crisis.

The Power of Unfair Advantage is an essential handbook for every manager who is responsible for introducing a new product or service and every entrepreneur and would-be who plans to start a company. Unfair advantage is here to stay -- learn how to lasso its power, rise above the competition, and build a flourishing, long-lasting business.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Free Press (May 31, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743256050
• ISBN-13: 978-0743256056
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.2 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #517,668 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book is NOT "exclusively" for CEOs and the "power lunch" crowd, April 21, 2006

By	Mike (San Jose, CA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

Yes, there is an element of CEO / Venture Capitalist / etc. in this book, and while that crowd may constitute a large SEGMENT of the audience, there is valuable information here for sole proprietors, small business owners, and others. PERFECT example: Page 122, "Flanking." Nesheim discusses the need to roll out your product or service in an "uncontested area," stating "If there is an entrenched leader of the market you are planning on dominating, you are too late and have nothing to flank into...The only thing left is to try a better, faster, cheaper product for the existing market. But that has virtually no chance of winning." Anyone who passes this book by on the premise that it is for CEOs and their ilk is making a big, big mistake if they want to succeed in their own business. There are additional chapters on business development, marketing, sales...all written by a guy who witnessed "Silicon Valley" from the ground up. If more small business owners read well-written business books like this one, fewer small businesses would have "going out of business" sales.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If you want to learn from the BEST read this book!, November 22, 2005

By	Tae Hoon Kim (Seoul, Korea) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

After reading this book it is very apparent that the concept of 'Unfair Advantage' is the single most important concept for anyone starting anything; whether it be a start up or a new product/project within an existing organization.
If John's first book successfully maps out what needs to be accomplished to successfully take an idea to an IPO, this book reorganizes all this info and more around the important concept of Unfair Advantage. His book is also a must read for anyone attempting to write a world class business plan. Implementing what I learned from Nesheim, I was able to get comments such as "one of the best business plans I've ever seen" from a top silicon valley VC partner.

I would like to personally thank John Nesheim for instilling in me the spirit of entrepreuneurship, and what I have learned from his teachings and books have been an invaluable help in taking me as far as I have in the world of high tech start up.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Neshiem does it right, again, August 5, 2005

By	Brad Treat "www.bradtreat.blogspot.com" (Ithaca, NY) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I am a long time fan of John Nesheim, and I highly recommend this book. I was a student of his at Cornell, and this book does a great job detailing his lectures.

In the early days of founding SightSpeed, I sought out John's advise with some cool new technology developed at in Cornell's engineering department. He listened to what we were looking at, and said (paraphrasing) "A technology is not a business, use the great technology as a way to build a business". That advice is was extremely important to getting our company off the ground and developing our business model. John expands greatly on that concept (page 163) and others in this book.

Reading his book has been a wonderful reminder of the fundamental elements of developing our business. Now that I have finished reading it, I am making it mandatory reading for the rest of my management team.