Helmut von Moltke, a Prussian field marshal, famously said “no battle plan survives first contact with the enemy.” Steve Blank paraphrased this statement by saying that “no business plan survives first contact with customers”. What statement about the role of business plans in entrepreneurship is not reflecting this idea?

Question

Accepted Answer

Since business plans do not survive first contact with customers, the first rule of entrepreneurship is to postpone contact with customers as long as possible, so as to not jeopardise the execution of the business plan.

Answer

Business plans, like battle plans, are useful as means of anticipation and frameworks to understand the world around oneself. Yet even then, the world can still turn out to be different than what was anticipated.

Answer

Given that entrepreneurship is a search process that may require you to change direction, or pivot, you should never consider your business plan as the plan that you have to write and then execute rigorously. Rather, the business plan is continuously rewritten by the actions you undertake to understand the present and imagine the future, including from interactions with customers.

Answer

Having a business plan is no guarantee for success in entrepreneurship.

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Helmut von Moltke, a Prussian field marshal, famously said “no battle plan surv...

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