This book, which has recently been translated into Italian, outlines a step-by-step process for creating a business with a solid future

How a business gets off the ground is crucial for its future. This statement is clear and backed up by lots of concrete examples of good business ideas that ended badly and some others, in contrast, that were transformed into solid businesses. It is important to understand this subject of startups better and in more detail. From an operating view point, of course. Amid the vast array of manuals on managing startups, however, there is still a need for guides that successfully combine theory and practice into one workable handbook. This is the aim of the book Disciplined Entrepreneurship by Bill Aulet, which was recently translated into Italian under the title La disciplina dell’imprenditore. The book is based on lectures given by the author at MIT in Boston and provides a sound framework for starting up a company (or for reorganising an existing company) the right way.
The method proposed by Aulet suggests determining if a customer will benefit from the product offered by the company. It all boils down to six key questions: Who is your customer? What can you do for your customer? How does your customer buy your product? How do you make a profit with your product? How do you design and make your product? How can you expand your business? Together, these questions define a 24-step process to build an “action plan” to help entrepreneurs successfully meet their objective, or to fail more quickly if failure is the inevitable outcome of the process.
Aulet’s book is not only designed as a general guide to entrepreneurship, but also as an introduction on how to successfully create innovative businesses that effectively combine invention and marketing.
Written in a direct and practical style, Aulet’s book closes with a short afterword: ‘Building a business is much more than a 24-step process’. The conclusion to be drawn from this, as the author himself explains, is that once a startup has been successfully launched, the key is to expand it straight away, starting with the creation of a “business culture”. The message is clear – building a successful business is not only about doing the maths!

La disciplina dell’imprenditore
Bill Aulet
Franco Angeli, 2019