Great ebook for creating web-based businesses

The folks at 37signals.com have released a book that encompasses their business philosophy that is very innovative and agile. The book is called Getting Real and is available at http://gettingreal.37signals.com It is a fairly quick read and is easy-to-read even for the non-technical readers.

This current month's issue of BusinessWeek also has a feature on 37signals and their approach to go from concept to released product in 3 and a half-months or less. I am a big advocate of their philosophy because it can be a great mantra for Indian IT start-ups. The book professes a low-cost and lean approach to starting up that enables you to move quickly and engage customers early. Other key points in the book include the technique of being customer-centric in your product design and starting at the market-end, not at the engineering-end. They also list pitfalls that web-application-developing entrepreneurs commonly run into, and suggest how those can be avoided.

Design systems that are subscribed to by successful companies like 37signals and other key U.S. innovation players have a deep sense of commitment to customers. Our 7-day training program for Innovation in the U.S., Innovation Trip, http://www.innovationtrip.com was designed with the same principles behind it. Hopefully, CEOs of up and coming companies will realize this and grab onto the opportunity to learn to put this success strategy into action.

- Anand.