About The"Is This a Star Business" Blog

Sometime ago I read an amazing book by Richard Koch called the Star Principle. It's probably the best business book that I've ever read filled with some really sensible business ideas. In fact the stuff mentioned in this book is so important that it must be made into mandatory reading in all business schools. Unfortunately, the curriculum in business schools is packed with plenty of complex stuff that we hardly use in day-to-day life. And because there's so much of information thrown at us, we tend to lose track of the most basic and important lessons.

Hence, I've decided to maintain a blog in an effort to keep me focused on the basics that are covered in this book. I might digress from the Star Principle occasionally but will attempt to maintain the theme of the Star Principle. I hope to look at businesses and start-ups and classify them according to the principles of the book. This blog is being maintained more for myself than for others. If you want to understand the Star Principle it is best if you read the book. This blog is not endorsed or supported in any way by the author - Richard Koch. Any erroneous interpretations of the book that you may find on this book are my own :)

The basics of the Star Principle :
- The main idea in the book is derived from the BCG Matrix.
- The three most important words for a business are: positioning, positioning, positioning.
- Super-successful businesses are almost always positioned as leaders of a niche in a high-growth market (with sustainable growth.)
- The way to niche-leadership is by creating and defining the niche.
- It's important to identify a gap in the market before launching a business.
- It's also important to ensure that there is a market in the gap.
- Followers in a niche usually never ever catch up with the leader (think Pepsi and Coca Cola)
- Because of the power of compounding, leaders in fast-growing niches (growing at a minimum of 10% p.a.) tend to become enormously profitable over time.

Over time, I hope to categorize businesses based on the principle of this book.