The Right It : Why So Many Ideas Fail and How To Make Sure Yours Succeed

Millions of people around the world are working to introduce new ideas, products, or businesses. Some will turn out to be stunning successes and have a major impact on our world and our culture: The next Google, the next polio vaccine, the next Harry Potter, the next red cross, the next Ford Mustang. Others successes will be smaller and more personal, but no less meaningful: A restaurant that becomes a neighborhood favorite, a biography that tells an important story, a local non-profit that cares for abandoned pets. Simultaneously, other groups are working equally hard to develop new ideas that, when launched, will fail. Some will fail spectacularly and publicly: new Coke, the movie John Carter, the Ford edsel. Others failures will be smaller and more private: a home-based business that never takes off, a children’s book that neither Publishers nor children have any interest in, a charity for a cause too few people care about. Most people believe that their venture will be successful. But the law of market failure tells us that up to 90 percent of most new products, services, businesses and initiatives will fail soon after launch—regardless of how promising they sound, how much we commit to them, or how well we execute them. This is a hard fact to accept. Combining detailed case studies with personal insight drawn from his time at Google, his experience as an entrepreneur and consultant and his lectures at Stanford University and Google, Alberto savoia offers an unparalleled approach to beating the Beast that is market failure: “make sure you are building the right it before you build it right,” he advises. In the right it, he provides lessons on creating your own hard data, a strategy for market engagement and an introduction to the concept of a Pre to type (not a prototype). Accessible and prescriptive, this essential guide delivers a proven formula for ensuring ideas, products, services and businesses succeed.