Must-Read Books for Entrepreneurs and Innovators

Introduction

I truly love it when the author cares to write in length about his/her own book inspirations. This holds particularly true with regard "The Four Steps to the Epiphany" by Steve Blank.

You can easily call Steve Blank one of Silicon Valley's most prominent intellectuals. He's gained that prominence by studying and writing extensively on the process of startup development with the iconic "Customer Development" process and "The Four Steps to The Epiphany".

What was novel in his approach was that he didn't considered startup as a smaller version of a larger company.

Instead, he wrote about startups as an exercise in innovation and discovery which made it relevant for any new business endeavor - no matter the size of the company.

S.Blank's definition of a startup:

A temporary organization in search of a scallable, repeatable, profitable business model.

Formulates ideas and bets in form ideas guesses and hypotheses.

Have no customers and minimal customer knowledge.

The Books

In his "The Four Steps to the Epiphany" Blank gives a comprehensive account of the readings worth attention. You will get recommendations of strategy books, innovation and entrepreneurship books, "War as Strategy" books, marketing communication books, sales books, startup law and finance books, business history books, and others..

Here's Blank's collection of "Must Read Books" - probably a good starting point.

1. The Other Side of Innovation: Solving the Execution Challenge - Vijay Govindarajan & Chris Trimble

Recommended as "the closest recipe for getting entrepreneurship right in the large companies".

2. The Innovator's Dilemma & The Innovator's Solution - Clayton M. Christiansen

Recommended "as the handbook for startups trying to disrupt an established company".

3. The Innovator's DNA: Mastering and Selling High-Tech Products Innovators - Jeff Dyer, Hal Gregersen, Clayton M. Christiansen

The skills a founders need to have.

4. Crossing the Chasm: Marketing and Selling High-Tech Products to Mainstream Customers - Goeffrey Moore

It outlines the recurring patterns in early stage companies. Other books by G.Moore include "Inside the Tornado: Marketing and Selling High-Tech Products to Mainstream Customers" and "Dealing with Darwin: how Great Companies Innovate at Every Phase of Their Evolution".

5. The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference - Malcolm Gladwell

The tipping point is like throwing a match on the stack of hey - once the process exceed certain "tipping point" - it becomes spreading like fire. Apply it to your marketing, customer, product, etc. strategies.

6. Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market space and Make Competition Irrelevant - R. Mauborgne and W.C. Kim

The book about competition, competitive strategy and finding ways for profitable growth.

Conclusions

It happens to me all to often these days that as soon as I seemingly approach the point in which my library and my reading list seems almost complete I tend to enter a new vault.

That was true with regard to Steve Blank's "The Four Steps to The Epiphany" and his bibliography section. I was taken aback and once again took the lesson in humility and patience.

Hope you enjoy the list, and keep exploring!