What Makes Some Startups Succeed?: "venture investing is a long, hard road" - isn't that the truth.
"In 93 percent of the cases, the strategy that a company emerges with (at exit) is completely different from the strategy it set out to implement" - now if THAT isn't a valid argument for Mintzbergs [lots of pdf, do google] "emergent strategy" concept, I don't know what is... you can plan, but then you have to adapt/evolve or you are just so many pages dusting down in a binder!