The Visual Mba: Two Years of Business School Packed into One Priceless Book of Pure Awesomeness

Debt-to-equity Financial leverage: How much debt is used to finance your assets. Total Liabilities / Shareholder Equity

You may have a great idea that solves a huge problem—but if people don’t care, they won’t buy it. It could even be a lifesaving device. “Pain” is personal. Personal Pain causes People to Pay.

A: helps someone get over a hurdle, B: is distinct, C: creates a positive personal connection.

The agency theory states that the agent will want to maximize utility for one’s own benefit. Goal incongruence is when the principal and the agent’s goals don’t align.

First, think outside the box. Then associate your thoughts with things you have observed or experienced. This is the essence of creativity. Always be filling your “card catalog” with experiences and knowledge. Then take those cards and put them together in different combinations.

Marketing is about promoting products and services. First rule—you don’t try to serve everybody. You segment the available market, then target a segment, then position the product.

You are at dinner with your family and there is a dead dog on the center of the table, but no one talks about it. That is a dysfunctional family. Do you have a dysfunctional organization? What isn’t being talked about?

When in doubt ask yourself, “Would I be okay if this decision ended up on the 5:00 news?” If not, then don’t do it.

Find some people who fit your target, and test your prototype. What worked? What didn’t? What did you learn? Take those learnings and go back to Ideate -> Prototype -> Test again.

Before diving head first into your idea, make sure it is feasible. You will be spending a lot of time on it so you’d better do some validation first. Look at your internal and external forces, and then map it out with a SWOT analysis.