According to Seuss, an American children’s author, political cartoonist, illustrator, and poet, “The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn the more places you’ll go.”
This supports the views of Henry David Thoreau, a philosopher, who said, “Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.”
One of the avenues to look for success is through reading books, especially those written by men and women who have walked the talk.
Here is a selection of the top ten books for emerging entrepreneurs, leaders, and innovators, among others.
Beyond Disruption:
The book was written by Renee Mauborgne and W Chan Kim in 2023.
Beyond Disruption redefines and expands the existing view of innovation by introducing a new approach, non-disruptive creation that is free from the destructive displacement that happens when innovators set out to disrupt.
Kim and Mauborgne are the authors of the bestsellers Blue Ocean Strategy and Blue Ocean Shift.
In this new book, they suggest that not all innovation has to be disruptive, and offer examples ranging from Grameen Bank and Square to Halloween costumes and IPL.
The authors argue that entrepreneurs and companies can also pursue their growth and innovation strategies in a way that better balances business and society.
Innovating for Social Change:
This book authored by Leah Kraal is a compelling book that provides instructive and engaging case studies on social change from a range of non-profits such as Habitat for Humanity, World-reader, and Mayo Clinic, among others.
The book will be particularly useful for social entrepreneurs, fundraisers, donors, and other professionals in the non-profit ecosystem.
The 13 chapters cover a wide range of material: tools for sparking innovative ideas, transforming ideas into action via small experiments, building organisational innovation capacity via creative collaboration, and scaling up by winning over others to the cause.
Open Labs and Innovation Management:
David Versailles and Valerie Merindol in this scholarly book examine the role of ecosystem engagement in corporate innovation and start-up ventures.
The authors show how collaboration and co-creation are needed across dimensions like communities, physical spaces, events, and service portfolios.
The five-year study features more than 40 cases such as hacking health, communitech, TransMedTech, and provides useful insights and tips for innovators leaders across the spectrum.
Build the Fort:
Chris Heivly in this book explains that it is not just companies but ecosystems that compete with each other.
In this useful guidebook, MapQuest co-founder Chris Heivly shows how cities and regions can create effective start-up communities.
Asset frameworks described include actors, activities and attitudes. Key stakeholders are incubators, accelerators, angel networks, co-working spaces, and mentor networks.
The author identifies four levels of maturity of a start-up ecosystem: nascent, developing, emerging and leading, along with metrics and measures.
The Leader’s Guide to Lateral Thinking Skills:
Paul Sloane in this engaging book gives the tips and examples for individual and organisational creativity, which describes lateral thinking as a problem-solving approach using indirect and creative standpoints.
Hidden Potential:
The author, Adam Grant in his trademark blend of storytelling, research and insights, shows that progress depends not just on how hard you work but how well you learn.
Growth is not only about the genius you possess, according to Grant, it is about the character you develop.
The Unicorn Quest: India Learns to Start Up;
This book written by Archana Rai covers the rise of the start-up movement in India in three phases: 2006-2012 (ecommerce, gig economy), 2013-2018 (fintech, entry of big money), and 2019-2022 (digital transformation, the Bharat story).
Founder stories of prominent startups are woven along with a broader narrative of India’s economic growth. The last chapter is aptly titled ‘Big Dreams and Doubting Thomases’. The book will be valuable for founders, investors, and entrepreneurship educators.
Back to Bharat:
Nagaraja Prakasam, the author of this thrilling book tried to spread his business ideology across 400 pages, where he combined investor story, entrepreneurship advice, chronicle of India’s start-up journey, and tips for policymakers and founders to make an interesting read.
The 16 chapters are grouped into three sections covering social enterprise, environmental crises, global opportunity, national strategy, and financial models.
Profiled organisations include Association for India’s Development, NSRCEL, Sattva, IAN Impact, Uniphore, Nativeland Foundation, KisanMitr, Lumiere Organic, Saahas Zero Waste, and GoCoOp.
Startup to Proficorn:
Rajesh Jain in this book explained that not all startups need external funding from investors; he clarified that start-up businesses can grow from customer revenues alone.
Jain, a renowned entrepreneur for over three decades garnered his knowledge from hard-earned lessons from his ventures in IndiaWorld and Netcore which he shared in a storytelling format.
He defines a ‘proficorn’ as a private, bootstrapped, profitable, and valuable venture (worth $100 million).
Unboxing Bengaluru:
This intellectual works of Malini Goyal and Prashanth Prakash emerged on the global stage as a shining example of tech prowess, business model creativity, and favourable policy environment.
This book dips below the surface to unearth the dynamics of founder communities, startup couples, parallel services economy, and migrant influx.
The city is simultaneously science city, startup city, and pub city–but faces challenges in infrastructure and planned growth.
The authors call on all Bengaluru residents to take greater initiative in co-creating a better future for the city, state, nation, and broader society.
