Reality Check: The Irreverent Guide to Outsmarting, Outmanaging, and Outmarketing Your Competition

Citation

Lillis, M.P. (2010), "Reality Check: The Irreverent Guide to Outsmarting, Outmanaging, and Outmarketing Your Competition", Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol. 27 No. 4, pp. 392-393. https://doi.org/10.1108/07363761011052422

How can would‐be entrepreneurs avoid failure and escape the traps that have ensnared so many? Even then, after the creation stage of the organization ends, how does the business manager guide and nurture the business through the desired level of growth? In this volume, Apple Computer's evangelist for the Macintosh, Guy Kawasaki, identifies a set of essential ingredients that will show individuals how to outsmart, outmanage and outmarket the competition. Using a candid and highly engaging style, Kawasaki draws attention to a variety of inhibiting factors that greatly impact the competitive posture of a business venture.

Why is the information in this book important? Increased competition is changing the way organizations are doing business. Globalization has dramatically increased the need for more responsive organizations, as competition can come from anywhere at any time. In response, organizations need to have a talented and responsive workforce, capable of effectively neutralizing any threats to their business model. Kawasaki offers key insights on how to build a workforce that is capable of utilizing its full human potential, by giving practical advice on a large range of essential business skills. As a business professional, whether you are interested in how to “master the art of making it rain” (p. 182) or just how to provide “fantastic customer service” (p. 255), this book will arm you with tools that will set you apart from the competition.

Kawasaki arranges his book into 12 sections. The first section, “The reality of starting”, is a realistic look at what happens during the early stages of a start‐up process. In order to identify the best investment opportunities, the author advises venture capitalists not to look for previously successful (i.e. “serial”) entrepreneurs, but rather to look for individuals that possess “hero‐like” qualities – in other words, individuals who are: “…watching for opportunities, willing to compete with the status quo, imagining that there is a better way, refusing to settle for the status quo, and building a product or service based on the hope that people will love it.” (p. 10). Kawasaki further describes how starting an organization can be a scary undertaking, requiring fearless, hard‐working leaders willing to face the daily struggles that come with new venture creation. He identifies a set of challenges that are unique to “intrapreneurship” (as attempts to cannibalize current cash cows are likely met with considerable resistance) and to “commercializing technology” (as a licensor frequently maintains unrealistic expectations about the value of their research efforts). Lastly, this section underscores the importance of developing a three‐to‐four word “mantra” to help employees stay focused on the purpose and direction of a business venture.

In the next section, “The reality of raising money”, Kawasaki provides sage advice on how to capture positive attention from potential investors. Factors affecting successful fundraising efforts include whether an idea is perceived to have a big impact, if the start‐up is already generating revenue, and if you are referred by a credible source (e.g. partner‐level lawyer, engineer, key executive). To further enhance your chances of success, this section identifies the essential components of an effective executive summary and describes the 10/20/30 rule of pitching: “A pitch should contain ten slides, last no more than twenty minutes, and use no font smaller than 30 points” (p. 36). To help the reader better understand communication exchanges among the players, this section also illuminates some of the lies that are frequently told by venture capitalist, entrepreneurs and attorneys. Finally, this section highlights some of the legal issues surrounding fund raising.

Once the money has been raised, “The reality of planning and dxecuting” provides a detailed description of both the planning and execution phases of a successful launch. Using Apple and Sony as examples, Kawasaki describes the difficulties inherent in trying to predict the future and therefore suggests that to build a great company one needs to “take your best shot at analysis, place your bet on the table, work your ass off, and don't look back” (p. 77). Building on projections and actual results from an existing start‐up, this section provides useful tips for both developing a business plan and building a financial model. This section concludes with recommendations as to how to best execute a start‐up, offering guidance on setting goals, establishing responsibilities, addressing major problems that are likely to be encountered, outlasting the competition (bootstrapping), and on using business advisory boards effectively.

Drawing from his extensive entrepreneurial background, “The reality of innovating” reveals Kawasaki's key ideas on innovation. This section includes some important do's and don'ts of innovation, factors that ultimately make an innovation “stick,” frequent lies of engineers, and the truth about what it would take to re‐create another Silicon Valley. Kawasaki's perspective on innovation can be summarized as follows: “The best bet is to be an experimenter, a tinkerer – to learn to try out ideas cheaply and quickly and to get out there with people instead of fantasizing in ivory tows. … .innovation is a practice, a set of habits, and it involves making lots of mistakes and being willing to learn from them” (p. 127).

Whereas the first four sections directly relate to the start‐up phase of an enterprise (ranging from innovation to implementation), the remaining sections of this book address a spectrum of issues that are important for running a business over a longer period of time, i.e. small business management.

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  “Thereality of marketing” identifies a number of obstacles relative to market adoption and branding, and reveals current trends in the global youth market.

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  “The reality of selling and evangelizing” includes recommendations for how to get people to buy your product, how to secure a good distribution deal, how to build an evangelistic approach, and how to do your own public relations.

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  “The reality of communicating” describes the five modes of communication that entrepreneurs need to master, namely: e‐mails, presentations, speeches, panels, and blogs.

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  “The reality of beguiling” provides insights on how to reach integrative, win‐win agreements and draws attention to Ciadldini's principles of influence, the relevance of community building, how to achieve excellent customer service, the effective use of power, networking, sucking up and sucking down, and how to create an effective partnership.

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  “The reality of competing” identifies both good and bad arguments used in the defensibility of a new enterprise, offers assistance on intellectual property issues, and gives suggestions as to how to become obsessed with excellence.

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  “The reality of hiring and firing” offers advice on how to attract and identify a quality job candidate, provides insightful career guidance, reveals how to increase your chances for getting a job (particularly at Silicon Valley and Craigslist) and how to minimize the negative consequences associated with laying off and firing employees.

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  “The reality of working” sheds light on preventing the abuse of power, positive and negative stereotyping, mavericks in the workplace, business skills that you don't learn in school, dumb things that both smart people and smart companies do, guarding against a downward slide (i.e. Bozo explosion), managing egos and assholes, and frequent lies of CEOs. This section concludes with an EQ (Entrepreneurial Quotient) test, which is intended to assess an individual's working knowledge of entrepreneurship.

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  “The reality of doing good” discusses what we can learn from organizations that have an altruistic motivation for building their organization. Examples of benefits derived from social entrepreneurship include such things as: increased evangelization (which comes with a great product or service), free marketing, intrinsic motivation, and a sustainable business model.

Do you have what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur? What does it take to grow a business to a point where it reaches a level of sustainability? What are the resources and competencies that underlie a clear and convincing competitive advantage? Driven by the insights of Guy Kawasaki, an experienced entrepreneur and highly successful venture capitalist, Reality Check offers a useful “how to” guide for both the would‐be entrepreneur and business revolutionary on how to start and maintain a successful business enterprise.