Anticipate Failure: The Entrepreneur's Guide to Navigating Uncertainty, Avoiding Disaster, and Building a Successful Business

Quibi was going to put short, premium-quality videos in the hands of millions of content-hungry mobile consumers around the globe. The Apple Newton combined cool with indispensable in a way that was expected to spark a new mobile device market that was much bigger than the personal computing market. The $2,500 Tata Nano automobile was touted as a major gamechanger for India and the millions of aspiring middle-class customers who would surely buy one. The Segway personal transporter was introduced with fanfare as a marvel of technology that was poised to change urban transportation.

Each one of these products was to set the world on fire—disrupting markets and changing our lives forever.

Until they didn’t.

In his groundbreaking book, Anticipate Failure, Lak Ananth—CEO of global venture capital firm Next47—describes the most common patterns of failure in innovation. He starts with the premise that building a business based on innovation is a perilous endeavor, and failures big and small are always around the corner. Ananth then dives into instances of failures, guiding the reader to understand root causes. Finally, he provides readers with insights and coaching that will enable them not just to avoid failure, but to anticipate it and then get through it on the way to success.

 

Anticipate Failure contains a riveting mix of stories of high-profile failures in innovation as well as many new stories that will be found nowhere else. In addition, Ananth has interviewed some of today’s most successful founders and executives for the book, including Filip Kaliszan, CEO of Verkada; Gokul Rajaram, on the DoorDash executive team, Dr. Roland Busch, CEO of Siemens; James Joaquin, Managing Director of Obvious Ventures, Eran Ben-Shushan, CEO of Bizzabo; Andre Hartung, President of Diagnostic Imaging at Siemens Healthineers; Li Pu, President of Segway Robotics; and many others.

 

Anticipate Failure is not a “do-these-things-and-you-will-succeed” prescriptive kind of business book. Instead, it is a coach and trusted companion that will help any business founder, executive, and manager get through some of the most difficult challenges they will face when they embark on innovation and building a new business. Read it, then put the lessons you learn to work in your own business.

LAK ANANTH is an Indian American venture capitalist who has spent much of his career focused on identifying industry changing disruptions and acting on them as an investor or acquirer. Lak is the founding CEO and Managing Partner of the global venture capital firm Next47 which is backed by Siemens AG and partners with the best entrepreneurs to help them build companies that will change how the world works. Lak has spent his career in service to the entrepreneurial pursuit. In addition to running Next47, he serves on the board of several companies that he has helped to grow beyond $1B valuations. As an investor and board member, he believes in establishing mutual trust with Founders so when critical business decisions need to be made, he can support them in making the best choices for building world-class new businesses. Lak holds an MBA from INSEAD and The Wharton School of Business. He is also a Kauffman Fellow (Class 12).