Why Is It so Difficult to Turn an Idea Into a Business? Your Questions Answered. A look at those pivotal early days of launch.

Ask Scott D. Anthony, author of The First Mile: A Launch Manual for Getting Great Ideas Into the Market, and he'll tell you that the heady early days--when an innovation moves from idea to market--are the toughest time for any startup. As a managing partner in the Singapore office of Innosight, a strategy and innovation consulting firm, Anthony knows of what he speaks. His book delves into hard-won lessons from startups and global giants alike. He shared with us some of the hidden traps that snare entrepreneurs.

Why is the first mile the hardest?

The phrase "the first mile" is based on my observation that there are a lot of possibilities for failure the moment you go from a business plan to a reality. I wrote this book because there has been a lot written about the overall process of producing a deliverable, scalable model but not as much about zeroing in on that first step to launching.