Brant Cooper

Integrating the IT and value revolutions

"Man, being biological, follows biological patterns. So do man-made things." Including entrepreneurial business ventures, according to the authors. Due to a convergence of factors, from lower barriers to entry to greater access to capital, we are now seeing the beginning of an unprecedented rate of technological evolution. If they're going to keep up, business practices will have to evolve, too.

That's where The Lean Entrepreneur comes in. Cooper and Vlaskovits integrate principles from a variety of complementary sources, from traditional lean thinking, to customer development, to design thinking, all of which come down to applying the scientific method to designing your business. Using these principles, they lay out a clear path showing how to establish values and culture, identify market segments, define a value proposition and refine the value stream, interact with customers and run experiments to de-risk your business model, navigate data without drowning in it, and more.

It all adds up to the deep insight that the information technology revolution we are undergoing has been made possible by, and is helping to accelerate, an underlying value creation revolution. This creates a virtuous spiral in which, despite the continuously disruptive nature of innovation, we are increasingly better off. Or as the authors put it: "The best way to navigate the near future is to hyperfocus on creating value for customers and moving at the speed of the Internet. We'll show you how." That's what The Lean Entrepreneur is all about, and they largely live up to that promise.

Readers might also want to check out Lean Thinking and The Startup Owner's Manual for more background, and and The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves and The Lagoon: How Aristotle Invented Science for broader perspective.

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