7 beach books for business leaders: Beyond’s summer reading list
Summer is the perfect time to sit back and read the books your co-workers have been talking about. Can’t remember the titles? Don’t worry — we’ve got you covered!
1. The Lean Product Playbook: How to Innovate with Minimum Viable Products and Rapid Customer Feedback by Dan Olsen
What is this book about? In this book, recommended by Kim Turley, our Director of Technology, you’ll learn lean methods to get products out to market faster, and achieve product-market fit.
2. Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies by Jim Collins and Jerry I. Porras
What’s the book about? Recommended by recruiter Michelle Pliner, the authors of this text examined eighteen companies that have stood the test of time, compared them to their top competitors, and asked the following questions: “What makes the truly exceptional companies different from the comparison companies, and what were the common practices these enduringly great companies followed throughout their history?”
3. The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers by Ben Horowitz
What’s the book about? In this book, recommended to us by our NY GM, Matt Basford, you’ll find the tips and tools essential for running a startup that you didn’t learn in business school.
4. Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessmanby Yvon Chouinard
What’s the book about? In the words of our Director of Product Design, Mitchell Hart, this book “may sound like the ultimate slacker’s handbook, but it’s actually the story of what I think is one of the greatest companies operating today. It’s written by Patagonia CEO, Yvon Chouinard, who openly tells customers not to buy Patagonia. Instead, they’ll fix your old gear. In this book, you’ll discover how environmentalism can coincide with consumerism, a work-life balance unheard of in tech, and great stories about outdoor people trying to make lasting products, not sell more.”
5. Business Model Generation: A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers, and Challengers by Alexander Osterwalder
What is this book about? Also recommended by Kim Turley, Business Model Generation details how to “design products which have a working business model from the start, and that can evolve as the product evolves.”
6. Who: Solving Your #1 Problem by Geoff Smart
What’s this book about? Nick Manluccia, our Insights Strategy Lead, recommends this insightful book that “totally changed the way [he] thinks about and approaches hiring.”
7. Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days by Jake Knapp
What’s this book about? Kim Turley says this book is a “smart and easy-to-read guide on how to research and test ideas quickly.”
Tweet us and let us know what book(s) you read and what you thought!
Originally published at bynd.com.
