{"id":7464,"date":"2025-09-25T15:17:05","date_gmt":"2025-09-25T15:17:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aomtodayprod.wpenginepowered.com\/?p=7464"},"modified":"2025-09-29T06:49:13","modified_gmt":"2025-09-29T06:49:13","slug":"why-experimentation-not-planning-makes-for-a-successful-startup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/why-experimentation-not-planning-makes-for-a-successful-startup\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Experimentation, Not Planning, Makes for a Successful Startup"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Nick Keppler<\/a><\/p>\n

If you think careful mid-to-long-term planning makes for a successful startup, then your thinking might be antiquated. If founders always stuck to their original intent, Netflix would still be mailing out DVDs, Amazon would sell only books, Twitter would be a podcasting platform<\/a>, Slack would be an online game<\/a> involving fairytale giants, and YouTube would be a matchmaking site<\/a> featuring only videos of self-made introductions from singles.<\/p>\n

Due to startups\u2019 very nature, entrepreneurs need to be open to radical experimentation, said Academy of Management Scholar Marc Gruber<\/a> of the \u00c9cole Polytechnique F\u00e9d\u00e9rale de Lausanne.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the ancient times, we thought about a startup as a smaller version of a large company and required of founders to apply a normal business planning approach that you see in a large company,\u201d Gruber said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut over the years, entrepreneurship scholars came to realize that one needs to think in a different way about what a startup is, and that a startup needs to have more exploration, more experimentation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt deals with a lot of uncertainty, so a planning approach does not work well.\u201d<\/p>\n

That is not to say that startups should shapeshift seemingly aimlessly until something sticks. Founders nowadays can rely on a set of tools that have replaced traditional business planning and are in better alignment with the true challenges faced in startup creation.<\/p>\n

For instance, the Market Opportunity Navigator that Gruber co-developed helps entrepreneurs to figure out a promising target market and, thus, to understand \u201cwhere to play,\u201d while the Business Model Canvas helps founders to figure out \u201chow to win\u201d in a particular market\u2014ultimately striving to find, as Silicon Valley entrepreneur Steve Blank likes to say, \u201ca repeatable, scalable business model.\u201d<\/p>\n

Experimentation is a recipe for success for many startups. Keep in mind, though, that there should be a process of testing assumptions and adjusting if experiments do not pan out, Gruber said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Nick Keppler If you think careful mid-to-long-term planning makes for a successful startup, then your thinking might be antiquated. If founders always stuck to their original intent, Netflix would still be mailing out DVDs, Amazon would sell only books, Twitter would be a podcasting platform, Slack would be an online game involving fairytale giants, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":7465,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,22,21,76],"tags":[],"sp_smart_badges":[],"ppma_author":[840],"class_list":["post-7464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-careers","category-entrepreneurship","category-innovation","category-performance"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhy Experimentation, Not Planning, Makes for a Successful Startup - Academy of Management Today<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/why-experimentation-not-planning-makes-for-a-successful-startup\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Nick Keppler\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/why-experimentation-not-planning-makes-for-a-successful-startup\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/why-experimentation-not-planning-makes-for-a-successful-startup\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Nick Keppler\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/1b8aff6a6e3f22d0d813c97e6aab7149\"},\"headline\":\"Why Experimentation, Not Planning, Makes for a Successful Startup\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-09-25T15:17:05+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-09-29T06:49:13+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/why-experimentation-not-planning-makes-for-a-successful-startup\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":330,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/why-experimentation-not-planning-makes-for-a-successful-startup\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/08\\\/167ca5b7-30b1-49df-8e28-1b4d9b9523b8.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"CAREERS\",\"ENTREPRENEURSHIP\",\"INNOVATION\",\"PERFORMANCE\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/why-experimentation-not-planning-makes-for-a-successful-startup\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/why-experimentation-not-planning-makes-for-a-successful-startup\\\/\",\"name\":\"Why Experimentation, Not Planning, Makes for a Successful Startup - 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