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Businesses Books Media The Almighty Buck Book Reviews

The Map of Innovation 69

Posted by timothy from the all-over-it dept.
wcbrown writes "The heady days of venture capitalists funding any idea with a Web presence and IPOs without business plans are long gone, but entrepreneurship existed prior to the Internet and will continue long past when the net becomes a ubiquitous utility like the telephone. Business has changed fundamentally since the dot-com boom even if investing hasn't. To be successful in the business world today, you absolutely have to incorporate some sort of technology. If you don't, your competitors will and they will have a lower cost of doing business because of it." Read on for the rest of wcbrown's review.
The Map of Innovation: Creating Something Out of Nothing
author Kevin O'Connor
pages 226
publisher Crown Business
rating 8/10
reviewer Bill Brown
ISBN 1400048311
summary This recent book by Kevin O'Connor describes how to generate business ideas, develop them into business plans, get funding, and hire the best employees.

This is the general idea that suffuses Kevin O'Connor's new book The Map of Innovation: Creating Something Out of Nothing. O'Connor might not be a household name, but he's started several businesses that have achieved recent notoriety: Flexplay, which makes DVDs that become unusable after a certain period of time, and DoubleClick, which needs no further introduction. This book synthesizes his experiences in conceiving a business idea, soliciting funding, and getting it off the ground. While we may dispute the utility of his business ideas, they have been largely successful. That means that he might have something valuable to say.

I've read a lot of books on entrepreneurship in my quest for self-employment. They're usually divided into two groups: those written prior to the Internet or only cursorily treat its affects and those created during the dot-com frenzy. The former are marginally useful since they offer some guidance on entrepreneurship even though their lack of technical considerations mitigates this usefulness. The latter are completely useless since they typically engage in strident hyperbole and grandiose pronouncements.

The Map of Innovation is different since it was written well after the dot-com hype had subsided. Even though the author built his major business, DoubleClick, during the IPO land grab, the book is remarkably free of the thinking that permeated that period. O'Connor's focus is to get a business started on fundamental principles like profitability, great employees, and broad vision. And that's exactly what a business book should target. If it seems obvious, O'Connor recognizes this: "I find that the best business books are obvious. But that isn't surprising. The fundamentals of what you have to do are so obvious that they almost always get overlooked."

The book is divided into four parts with an appendix containing DoubleClick's business plan: 1) coming up with ideas, 2) developing the best idea, 3) getting funding, and 4) hiring great staff. These, unsurprisingly, are the steps that he believes are vital to founding a successful company. Of these, I think that his idea generation chapter is the weakest one of the bunch. This isn't terribly important, though, since most people reading his book will probably have a few business ideas of their own or can come up with them readily.

My favorite part is dedicated to developing the best idea. It covers how determine the viability of your idea (how to vet it thoroughly) and how to present that idea in a business plan that will attract attention. O'Connor helpfully includes a basic outline for a business plan and then covers each item in considerable detail. I've read many books on constructing a business plan, yet I found his explanation to be the clearest and most straightforward one I've encountered.

The chapter on obtaining funding for your idea presents a series of solicitations starting with family and friends and ending with venture capital. O'Connor brushes off the problems with venture capitalists like dilution of ownership and the common occurrence of founder expulsion. He does offer some sage advice about how much money to seek and how that money should be spent. In light of his entrepreneurial history, it is unsurprising that he suggests such funding sources. His relations with venture capitalists were positive and he willingly withdrew from the corporate limelight.

Overall, the book is an excellent primer for anyone interested in creating a technology-oriented startup. It won't provide all of the information necessary for the would-be entrepreneur, but it's a good start. O'Connor tries to suggest that it would also be useful for new projects in an existing corporation but I don't buy it. The advice just doesn't apply as well. The only weak spot of the book is his Brainstorming Prioritization Technique, which is obviously a pet theory of his that he couldn't bear to pare down. It amounts to brainstorming and then picking only three to six items from the brainstorm. It is painfully obvious and an altogether common idea generation method and luckily is quickly read. The advice about venture capitalism is easily tempered by also checking out Arnold Kling's Under the Radar: Starting Your Net Business Without Venture Capital or Philip Greenspun's experience with venture capitalists.

You can purchase The Map of Innovation: Creating Something Out of Nothing from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
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The Map of Innovation More

The Map of Innovation

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  • The days when business was stupid will return. I disagree though that all companies need tech, they need cheap forieng labor but that's about it. That is how business changed: all our jobs went to india.

  • It's the process, stupid! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by TopShelf ( 92521 ) * on Thursday October 02, 2003 @11:20AM (#7114438) Homepage Journal
    "To be successful in the business world today, you absolutely have to incorporate some sort of technology."

    Well, not necessarily to the level most would have you believe. While the exception may prove the rule, this savings and loan [computerworld.com] gets by on the bare minimum and succeeds in a highly competitive business. In short, it's the business process that matters most, not the technology behind it.
    • Sure, and the point of technology is that it's supposed to enable new methods of executing common business procedures - most of the important processes like communication, book-keeping, data storage/access, etc., are the same as before, only they're done easier, &&|| quicker, &&|| more efficiently than they are without technology.

      To summarize, I think you're getting caught up in semantics, because the technology is there TO enhance the business process, which is exactly the leap the author
      • My point is that all too often, people get overly focused on technology. Sure, it may be interesting and challenging to implement a new web service for a particular function, but does it actually deliver tangible benefits compared to the existing solution? The challenge from an entreprenurial point of view is to envision a novel and viable business model and process, which may or may not rely on new technology to implement.
    • O'Connor agrees with you to a point. He says that there are businesses where technology isn't imperative (retail being the most notable). But those businesses are exposed to risk because a competitor could come along that uses technology in an innovative way and could have lower costs, quicker delivery, and better service. Those spell doom in a competitive setting.
  • "The Map of Innovation: Creating Something Out of Nothing."

    God School : Lesson One
    I sure hope you've all read the textbook for the year, as your first homework assignment is to create something from nothing, and then watch in histeria as the inhabitants of your 'something' try to explain your actions as "The Big Bang".
    • "Creating Something Out of Nothing"
      I knew the day would come when business lost its grip on reality. The law of conversation of matter says you matter can neither be destroyed nor created. In other words the laws of physics say you cannot create something out of nothing. What's next? Refutting the law that the only constants int eh universe are death, taxes, and stupidity?

      • You need to attend God School where you learn how to create something from nothing.

        Note that there are subtile details, to understand first. Things like writting all the laws of physics. This is discussed in earlier years. You know, details like what forces should in involved, what the constants nessicary to make them work should be. (and the implications of the constants changing either overtime or randomly) For that matter time itself is discussed in a different class. Conservation of matter is d

  • and DoubleClick, which needs no further introduction.

    Is that so... I'm guessing online marketing and a quick google search suggests I'm right, but I've never heard of the company before. Has the company been guilty of some pretty dodgy acts in the past, or have they simply being annoying and intrusive to that point that most people know who they are?

    ---
    • DoubleClick has tried some serious privacy-infringing ideas in the past and I assumed that the average Slashdot reader would be familiar with its infamous attempts.

      My browser, OmniWeb, comes with a default RegEx to block its ads: "/.*\.doubleclick\.net/" This is enabled automatically.

  • How lucky we are that technology was invented! (Score:3, Interesting)

    by dpbsmith ( 263124 ) on Thursday October 02, 2003 @11:27AM (#7114512) Homepage
    Yes, indeed, everything is different today. Technology is revolutionary stuff! Gee whiz! Just imagine what Watt, Edison, and the Wright Brothers could have done--if only they had known about technology.

    It never even occurred to those pioneers that they needed to 1) come up with ideas, 2) develop the best ideas, 3) get funding, and 4) hire great staff.

    And the Massachusetts Institute of Technology--don't forget the Massachusetts Institute of Technology! Now, I ask you, what would it be without technology?

    Technology suffereth long, and is kind; technology envieth not; technology vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up. Technology never faileth. Now there abideth invention, innovation, and technology, these three; but the greatest of these is technology.

  • Can't read yourself to self-employment (Score:3, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 02, 2003 @11:33AM (#7114569)
    I've read a lot of books on entrepreneurship in my quest for self-employment.

    What I've found with entrepreneurial types is that they aren't readers. They are somewhat fast and loose with the organizational skills, combined with a pathological dislike of working for a boss. This dislike either leads to a total train wreck or a functioning business. All this venture vulture stuff sounds too pie in the sky. Everyone is not going to be blazing in new market spaces with totally innovative products. Good old sole proprietorship in service/support/consulting can work without Venture capitalists. A book with a much smaller scope that I've found useful is Guerrilla Marketing. Has nothing to do with the computer biz. I think a dream of selling your ideas/product to a VC is great, but is not a starting point.
    • All about things like cheap ways to get your business noticed: matchbook advertising, etc. always made think about your message.
    • I agree with you to a point. I've fallen into the trap of overthinking something to the point of paralysis instead of just going out and doing it. In this instance, I have a good idea and this book looked like it might offer some practical advice for me to develop it. I've read other books in the past (when I was without a good, solid business idea) and they always seemed "too pie in the sky" as you said.

      This book is different from those and I thought that other Slashdotters might be interested in it.

  • From the title alone... (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    ...it sounds like another internet shyster, who experiences oxygen debt from all the hot air, and starts believing their own hype.

  • You need more than the "hey tiger" mentality. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 02, 2003 @11:40AM (#7114629)
    You need creative people with ideas. There are two basic ways to sell a product.

    1) Create a need and a product that satisfies it.
    2) Solve an existing problem in a new/better way than before.

    Buying computers solves neither.

  • Uh... (Score:1, Offtopic)

    by alwsn ( 593349 )
    I know I always trust statements that end with 'Seriously'

    I found out who shot Kennedy, Seriously.

    I'll take this with many grains of salt, especially given that the submitter is also the person who's article the link points to. And that an "An anonymous GWJ reader has verified this is real." ... How did he manage that? I'll wait for something more meaty to believe.
  • O'Connor... started several businesses that have achieved recent notoriety: Flexplay, which makes DVDs that become unusable after a certain period of time...

    Strange, this seems more like creating nothing out of something.
  • and will continue long past when the net becomes a ubiquitous utility like the telephone
    To many people like myself it already is. I would have no problems living without a telephone, but take my broadband net access away and it would change my life significantly. Mainly since I wouldn't be able to keep in touch with the people I know.
  • The technology of the internet has already surpassed the technology of the telephone. On the later all i ever received were messages from alleged attractive alleged females who wanted to meet me. I'm not going to trust some faker on the phone.

    However, with the services provided by the likes of O'Conner I now receive email with pictures from real women who are naked so i can see they are real women down the their spread privates. And these women not only want to meet me, but also want to perform act of

  • ...waiting for the rainbow's end to cast its gold (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Knights who say 'INT ( 708612 ) on Thursday October 02, 2003 @12:42PM (#7115328) Journal
    well you can't have something for nothing
    you can't have freedom for free
    you won't get wise while the sleep is still in your eyes
    no matter what your dream might be

    Even though I'm in the finance business (and not in the computer technology industry), I feel the whole case for pumping up technology-related economic growth with better management techniques is overstated.

    I don't think you can go wrong, business-wise, with a new technological concept that people or business can actually use. "Creating something out of nothing" means adding value, and value comes from utility.

    I do feel that the current "can't patent concepts" ideology hampers conceptual innovation, since it's just easier and more profitable to replicate existing technologies' functionalities.

    Last time I checked out Linux, X had a Start button. A large thread can be woven on how the Windows GUI concepts come from the Mac, or how that one comes from Xerox Something, but the very thought that they bothered enough to copy minor details of Windows' interface concepts is depressing. Of course, MS has done that quite a few times. In this whole conceptual innovation game, people who have actually changed the world (like the guy who came up with VisiCalc) are more often than not deprived from the immense wealth growth their idea created.

    Of course, we don't want to have semi-old concepts remain half-baked while an incessant quest for the new continues. How do we solve this research incentive problem?

    Man, I don't have the slightest idea. *sigh*

  • O'Connor might not be a household name, but he's started several businesses that have achieved recent notoriety: Flexplay, which makes DVDs that become unusable after a certain period of time, and DoubleClick.

    So, Mr. O'Conner's claim to fame is "innovating" things that treat consumers like idiots and annoy the hell out of the rest of us. What, have the guys who invented Muzak, the CueCat and penis enlarger pills not written any books yet?

    All other things being equal, I think I would prefer to read a busi

    • And I agree with you about the merit of O'Connor's business ventures. However, they've been profitable and generally successful.

      I see his book as a helpful aid to thinking. Read about hiring good people or developing a business plan and then think about what I could do differently or better.

      The people who are truly successful and innovative probably aren't interested right now in writing books about how they achieved their success. They're too busy to give advice in print. I bet that we'll see a raft of b
  • ... books for nerds. Reviews that matter.

    Is money that tight over there?

    -Chris
  • "Business has changed fundamentally since the dot-com boom even if investing hasn't. To be successful in the business world today, you absolutely have to incorporate some sort of technology."

    One of the most common of human fallacies is to overemphasize the events of today (losing the forest for the trees, in some sense). The success of business has always depended upon technology. The current computer/network-based IT is only just the most recent iteration of critical technologies for business.

    Ask th
  • The heady days of venture capitalists funding any idea with a Web presence and IPOs without business plans are long gone, but entrepreneurship existed prior to the Internet and will continue long past when the net becomes a ubiquitous utility like the telephone.

    I hope he's right about entrepreneurship, because the lack of interest by other readers here is depressing to me.

    This topic is on the front page, yet has 65 total comments while the story below has 572 and the story above, 491.

    Oh, and don't forg
    • I agree completely. I reviewed this for Slashdot because I thought for sure that people here would be interested in entrepreneurship. I figured that there were probably hundreds of people itching to start up their own companies and that we could have an interesting discussion along those lines about the practical matters, funding problems, what sort of ideas have the most merit, etc.

      I was wrong.

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