Fail Fast or Win Big

Starred review from February 1, 2015

This book centers on Schroeder's (director, Lavin Entrepreneurship Ctr., San Diego State Univ.) LeanModel Framework, created for today's entrepreneurs who need to adapt to a constantly changing marketplace. The framework is based on four factors: a reliance on the resources at hand; an understanding of the market, trends, and consumer; a willingness to use prototypes to learn from failure; and an openness to listening to customer feedback. Schroeder dedicates a chapter to outlining each of these components. The concluding chapters of the book argue that a mentality of "failing fast" emerges from rapid prototyping and that audience engagement is a response to the new world of entrepreneurship in which funding can just as easily come from the crowd rather than an angel investor. With its numerous case studies of companies that launched with considerable risk and were able to adapt to changes in the market, this work will appeal to readers of John C. Maxwell's Failing Forward. VERDICT Failure is an emerging area in the study of entrepreneurship and Schroeder's highly recommended text collects informative case studies and provides a concrete method for launching products successfully.--John Rodzvilla, Emerson Coll., Boston

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