Reader and media praise
forearlier editions
It is a great framework to distinguish between nutcase ideas and solid possibilities, and in
some cases to turn the mad ideas into something that could work.
Max Aitken, serial entrepreneur
Teaches entrepreneurs and business owners how to avoid mistakes that many make.
Start Your Business
magazine, June 2010
The New Business Road Test
has been the most valuable piece of advisory material I have
come across. Whatever else I recommend to my clients, owning and reading your excel-
lent book is highest on the list.
Ian J R Wilson, Principal, Ian Wilson Associates, Edinburgh
We combine creativity/idea generation workshops with a feasibility analysis course –
based on John Mullins’
The New Business Road Test
- and it’s just wonderful for critical
thinking, embracing ambiguity, encouraging fast failures, and mixing imagination with
formal technique. Indeed, this is a capstone class for our Professional MBA. It’s also a joy
to teach, if rather chaotic at times, and the students adore it, too.
Professor Sarah Dodd, Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship, University of Strathclyde
Some entrepreneurs might wonder why such a codified framework is needed to replace
instinct and they won’t find this book has a great deal to offer. But for most of those con-
sidering a new venture, thinking such as this offers a smart way to quickly assess what
might and might not work.
Director
magazine, July/August 2010
Provide[s] a reality check for anyone poised to jump into a new venture without think-
ing. Readers will enjoy discovering the nuggets of wisdom embedded in the case studies.
Financial Times,
July 2003
We’ve never met but I love your book
The New Business Road Test
– I can honestly say it
has done more for my businesses than 10 years of hard graft did.
Matthew Slight, Founder, Love Tea
I want to take this opportunity to express my appreciation and admiration for your ap-
proach to analysing new business opportunities using the seven domains you so elo-
quently describe in your book. While there have been a number of books written on this
subject, it is rare when this subject is treated in such a practical manner.
Gerry Lemberg, Chairman, Silver Fox TeroVentures
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Extremely valuable for entrepreneurs and small business owners alike.
David Kelnar, Greatvine
I have made a real breakthrough in my first year and started to win a number of con-
tracts. John’s book really helped me to understand my business model and evaluate the
risk of setting up on my own, in a style that was easy to read and understand.
Martin Costelloe, Rowan Landscapes
John Mullins is a distinguished figure in the global entrepreneurial community.
David Giampolo, Chief Executive, Pi Capital, London
I have found the framework useful in both analysing plans that we receive and structur-
ing info memos that we write.
Richard Allen, Principal, 101Capital Limited
John Mullins’s
New Business Road Test
provides the entrepreneurial equivalent to the
proverbial ‘sleeping policeman’ on the Sunday drive: the necessary jolt of reality for
those hanging on to the belief that value is created on a computer spreadsheet or a fancy
PowerPoint presentation.
Professor Benoit Leleux, IMD, Lausanne, Switzerland
A mandatory step required before turning business ideas into business plans.
Federico Sarti, I3P incubator, Torino, Italy
I have read a lot of business books, however yours is the only manual that seems to offer a
plan of action. … I was alarmed to realise how much I didn’t know about target markets.
Patrick Stewart, Managing Director, Central AV
My students are telling me how much they like your book for inspiration, but also for its
pragmatic and practical perspective.
Professor Larry Plummer, University of Colorado
I have realised the common errors that after seemed so obvious yet no other books have
really highlighted them. I think we are on the right track with our past experience and
some expert advice from talented people as yourself.
Heather Bonte, Managing Director, Cultivating Minds
This is the book you should read before you even think about starting a new business.
Richard Stutely, Author,
The Definitive Business Plan
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As a successful entrepreneur in the satellite communication industry for the past 18
years, we were developing a new business idea for commercial launch and happened to
talk with John Mullins. His book provided an overall check for our business plan and we
were able to patch many holes. An excellent book providing an all-round framework for
new and established entrepreneurs.
Sanjay Singhal, President/CEO, Sintel Satellite Services, Inc., New York
Whilst reading your book I found myself jotting ideas down and organising my thoughts.
You have provided me with half a dozen sheets of paper full of scribbles and diagrams
which between them feel like a very ‘rounded’ view of my business. We have been run-
ning for 18 months now, and it seems time to write a tentative business plan. Your book
has provided a very welcome helping hand towards that plan.
Tim Craine, Managing Director, London Development Research
I am a Canadian entrepreneur who is having the profitable experience of reading your
New Business Road Test
book. Thanks for writing a terrific (and very sobering) book.
Christian Thwaites, President (Corporate Development),
FORPAC BioSciences, Vancouver, BC
I have added your book to my own entrepreneurship curriculum and I regularly give it to
entrepreneurs we advise and in which we invest. I would like to thank you for penning
such an important tome.
Vic Sarjoo, Chairman and CEO, Radical Funds, New York
I use your book regularly to assess the opportunities that come across my desk and it has
been very useful in qualifying out of things that I might have wasted time on previously.
Jeremy Renwick, Kubernetes Ltd, Oxfordshire, UK
I picked up the current
HBR
and read the case about ‘Good Money after Bad’. But most
of all I picked up the trail to your book,
The New Business Road Test.
What a ‘eureka’ mo-
ment I had. Your comments and seven domains just sharpened up our thinking several
very large notches.
Dave Sutherland, Retrievall Inc., Ontario, Canada
A much needed and invaluable resource for both entrepreneurs and line execs. I have spent
part of my career working with people trying to start and/or grow companies, and the hard-
est part of pushing the rock uphill is the effort to convince them to do the hard work in
that micro-market quadrant to identify the customer pain and develop the real solution to a
customer’s problem, rather than focusing on the ‘build it and they will come’ mentality. As
someone who both writes and reviews business plans, I now have an important resource to
hand to people rather than just shaking my head in frustration or repeating myself endlessly.
Mark Pfeifer, business planning expert
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