The Lean StartUp - 13 (Epilogue: Waste Not) & 14 (Join the Movement) - End of Book Summary

Chapter 13 - Epilogue: Waste Not

This Chapter primarily emphasises on stressing the fact that a company should know on which things to be working on. (This can be done through innovation accounting and testing their assumptions, as per previous Chapters) Eric Ries uses the words of Peter Drucker to deliver his point: "There is surely nothing quite so useless as doing with great efficiency what should not be done at all." However, this fear of wasting should not drive innovators away from their primary goal, i.e 'to learn that which is currently unknown.' This is in line with the principle pointed out in a previous Chapter of analysis paralysis. There is a fine line between carelessly innovating and overemphasizing planning. 

Additionally, as stated plenty of times, a startup should experiment and should optimally have the data produced by the experiment backed up by science. However, a startup should be careful of their findings so that it does not lead to pseudoscience, Ries claims. 

Furthermore, society always changes. Therefore, an organisation MUST always be ready to face uncertainty and ambiguity. Hence, Ries suggests that organisations ought to always test their products and services in order to gather further consumer data and use cross functional teams to solve problems that have 'clear right answers.'

The author of this blog has also been fascinated by an idea raised by Ries. Stock markets have existed for so long that it seemed that no one was even questioning a better way. Yet Ries proposes a Long-Term Stock Exchange (LTSE) which would require companies to function with a long-term sustainable approach and not with short-term profitability strategies to incentivize more investors to invest in their shares. This, according to Ries, hurts innovation. Moreover, companies in the LTSE should only report revenue on products that were created and did not exist a few years earlier. This, then, drives innovation. 

Chapter 14 - Join the Movement

In this Chapter, Ries indicated some further reading for people who would like to learn more on the discussed issues of this book. Notably, a lot of the sources provided are either blogs or articles and therefore, as Ries rightly identifies 'The most important resources are local.' 

This is true as we can have more information and knowledge from just a click of a button using our smartphones and laptops than we can ever consume. The information provided by the internet can be priceless. Make sure you tap into it. 

In addition, there are seminars conducted in various cities that discuss the Lean StartUp methodology.