Books that inspired my work on innovation and business transformation in 2017
I have always had a passion for ideas and stories, especially those that can inspire people to innovate and solve complex issues. So in my work I scan and read a lot of articles and books on business transformation and innovation, which helps me bring new thinking and tools to the clients I help with their current business challenges.
“How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book.” Henry David Thoreau
As the year nears its end I reflected on the four most useful books on innovation and business transformation I read in 2017, the ones with ideas, tools I used most with clients and the ones I ended up referring the most.
So I might not be FastCompany, Inc., the Financial Times or Bill Gates but here’s my top 4 for this year, in no particular order:
Dual Transformation, by Scott D. Anthony, Clark G. Gilbert and Mark W. Johnson
With so many companies still calling their latest ERP upgrade a business transformation, I resonated a lot with the perspective this book brings that business transformation for long-term sustainable growth should be dual transformation to “reposition today’s business while creating the future” (as the tagline says). I offered the book to a few clients and quite rapidly, they started to talk about their transformation A and transformation B, testimony of the success of the book to create a simple language to clarify business transformation concepts that were often blurry in organisations.
Let my people go surfing, by Yvon Chouinard
In today’s business landscape, patagonia is definitely a company that stands out. A symbol of a responsible business, adult in its relationship with growth, aware of its environmental impact, using its business success as a platform to realise their true purpose.
And with all the hype around purpose in the business world, it is eye-opening to realise that Yvon Chouinard and Patagonia’s purpose emerged from a 20+ year journey, not a one day workshop. Definitely a must-read for Executives yearning to lead 21st century businesses.
The Corporate Startup, by Tendayi Viki, Dan Toma and Esther Gons
With so many large companies struggling to get anything out of their innovation efforts, kudos to the authors for their commitment to provide a holistic, systemic approach to corporate innovation, as well as the fantastic synthesis work done on all key ideas, tools, frameworks required for innovation in a corporate context. With innovation such a critical business imperative for sustainable growth the Corporate Startup is a must-read for all Executives in currently successful large organisations.
Homo Deus, by Yuval Noah Harari
While one might argue that this is not exactly a business book — and it’s true that you might have to wander to a different section of your local library to borrow this one — a lot of the patterns that Yuval Noah Harari builds on to propose his “history of tomorrow” are guaranteed to trigger some new thinking, and after all isn’t this the critical trigger for innovation and business transformation.
Other books I have read this year with also many nuggets of business wisdom:
- The Startup Way, by Eric Ries
- Creative Confidence, by Tom and David Kelley
- Selling to the VP of NO, by Dave Gray
- Pre-suasion, by Team Robert Cialdini
- The little black book of innovation, by Scott D. Anthony
- BOLD, by Peter Diamandis and Steven Kotler
- The Business Model Navigator, by Oliver Gassmann, Karolin Frankenberger, Michaela Csik
- Collaboration by Design, by Philippe Coullomb, Charles Collingwood-Boots (full disclosure I was the project manager on this “book project”)
- Les clés du futur, by Jean Staune (in French)
That’s it! Hopefully those books are available at your local library, or easily downloadable on your smartphone/tablet.
“Most of what makes a book ‘good’ is that we are reading it at the right moment for us.” Alain de Botton
I’m also curious to hear about your good books, the ones that most inspired your work to lead and transform the organisations you work with and help you/them boldly innovate.
