The Best Books On Business Innovation
This article showcases our top picks for Books On Business Innovation. We reached out to industry leaders and experts who have contributed the suggestions within this article (they have been credited for their contributions below).
We are keen to hear your feedback on all of our content and our comment section is a moderated space to express your thoughts and feelings related (or not) to this article This list is in no particular order.
High Growth Handbook by Elad Gil
This product was recommended by Amit Raj from The Links Guy
In his book High Growth Handbook, entrepreneur and investor Elad Gil lays out the framework for high-growth companies’ operations. He describes how these companies focus on creating new products and services, rather than simply improving existing ones. Additionally, he explains how high growth companies attract and retain top talent, and how they manage their finances in order to fuel their continued expansion.
The Innovator’s Dilemma by Clayton Christensen
This product was recommended by Ben Richardson from Acuity Training
The Innovator’s Dilemma by Clayton Christensen. Christensen is a renowned expert on innovation, and in this book, he offers a framework for understanding when and how companies should innovate. He also provides detailed case studies of companies successfully navigating innovation challenges.
The Lean Startup by Eric Ries
This product was recommended by Sam Lawrence from E-Bike Review UK
As a 27-year old and running a successful bike shop in west England, I can say that this book must be read by all young people who want to be successful entrepreneurs. The book demonstrates the fact that if you want to succeed, you need to continually adapt your vision and goals. The book is both inspirational and validating, and offers valuable advice and wisdom that can be applied to nearly any business venture.
Making Ideas Happen by Scott Belsky
This product was recommended by Jenna Moran from Whimsy and Spice
This book is perfect for new entrepreneurs who are filled with hundreds of ideas, daydreaming about all of the things they want to achieve – but can’t quite work out which ventures and possibilities are going to thrive. Belsky has a knack for inspiring leaders to innovate and explore all of their business desires, while also being realistic about which innovations will actually make it. He also discusses how every leader has the capability to be a great innovator, but that you need to learn how to lead a team before you can thrive as a creator, which is something that truly helped me to become both a better entrepreneur and experimental chef!
Business Model Generation by Alexander Osterwalder
This product was recommended by Alexandru Negurici from YTranslations
I would call Business Model Generation an essential book for anyone who wants to differentiate their business from the competition. There are a lot of practical tips and tools for entrepreneurs on how to create and implement new business models. As well as ideas on how to analyze and improve already existing business models. This book also stands out for its design and looks visually stunning, which makes it stand out from other business innovation books. Business Model Generation provided me with a useful framework on how to create a strategy for my own business.
Mapping Innovation by Greg Satell
This product was recommended by Christopher Andrew from 420 Expert Advisers
This may not appear to be an innovation book at first glance, but there are plenty of lessons and comments for people trying to be more creative and innovative in business. The book’s focus on telling the stories of the best and most important innovations of the last century serves to ground the advice, allowing the reader to understand the innovation process in practical and easy terms. This book is founded on four innovation models: fundamental research, breakthrough innovation, sustaining innovation, and disruptive innovation, and it provides a flexible and complete overview of the many sorts of creative entrepreneurship.
Crossing the Chasm by Geoffery A. Moore
This product was recommended by Christopher Andrew from 420 Expert Advisers
This book will teach you how to implement various innovations in high-tech companies. This book can teach startup founders, marketing managers, and marketing teams how to efficiently obtain acceptance across the segments of the Innovation Adoption Lifecycle. Moore discusses critical solutions for closing the Early Adopter-Early Majority divide.
Gamestorming by Dave Gray
This product was recommended by Akshay Vikhe from OnlineCourseing
Incorporating games into the workplace will foster innovative thinking, according to the writers of this book, who provide a novel and entertaining suggestion. Teams can enjoy many advantages, including greater communication and higher participation using the approach in the book. Entrepreneurs and business professionals who run meetings and seminars and want to get their staff involved in fresh, fun activities that will foster teamwork and innovation can refer to the book. This book provides a list of 80 games you can play at team meetings to elevate them.
Organisation Mindfulness by Andrew McNeill
This product was recommended by Andrew McNeill from Organisational Mindfulness
Using mindfulness in the workplace will reduce absenteeism, stress and improve people’s performance. In this useful guide Andrew McNeill sets out what mindfulness is, why you might apply it to your organisation and how you can apply it. The book is written from personal experience. Having worked in senior leadership for 20 years Andrew understands the pitfalls of trying something new at work. But he has also seen the transformation that can happen when mindfulness is brought into teams and processes. Whilst being down to earth about the potential mindfulness can bring to your organisation, Andrew brings humour to the subject, making this an entertaining as well as informative read.
Business Model Innovation Strategy by Raphael Amit
This product was recommended by Charles Cridland from YourParkingSpace
COVID-19 was challenging for a lot of businesses. But it has also created new opportunities by shifting economic structure. Customers’ preferences and needs constantly change, leading to reinventing and rethinking how we do business. The book helps with this matter. The authors are among the world’s top researchers in business model innovation. So when it comes to reimagining the structure and operations of the business, they provide excellent, authoritative, step-by-step guidance using universal examples and the latest developments in the field of business model innovations. It isn’t an easy read, but it is still quite engaging to the reader. It is very profound, and I would even describe it as transformative. I found myself going back to certain chapters for insightful information.
Create the Future + the Innovation Handbook by Jeremy Gutsche
This product was recommended by Ivo Iv from Decor Home Ideas
In the disruptive innovation era, there are many great opportunities. You just need to know where to look for them. This book switches your mind to innovation mode. It consists of 2 parts—Create the Future (Part 1) and The Innovation Handbook (Part 2). The author’s contagious high energy fills every page of it. Jeremy Gutsche provides in-depth, step-by-step instructions on creating real innovation and change based on the experience of leading innovators like Google, NASA, and Disney. He provided excellent case studies and presented them in a fun and fresh way. I enjoyed the modern visual layout of this book, packed with valuable data points on current trends and predicting future ones. I also loved the list of reference resources which are very helpful if you want to do some more research on the topic.
The Innovation Ultimatum by Steve Brown
This product was recommended by Nathan Brunner from Salarship
There are six key digital technologies: artificial intelligence, distributed ledgers and blockchain, the Internet of Things, autonomous machines, virtual and augmented reality, and 5G communication. And those who embrace these transformative technologies first are the ones to get the greatest reward on the market. Today technology plays an ever-growing role, and understanding it allows you to leverage them to grow your connections more effectively than before. The Innovation Ultimatum helps entrepreneurs understand these technologies, reshape their businesses, and prepare for technology-enabled change. This book is an exciting guide to strategic thinking in modern days. The author’s tone of voice is very informative, well-researched, and well-structured, but it remains interesting and engaging. He gives a glimpse into what the possibilities of the future are. This book is definitely worth reading.
The Innovation Stack by Jim McKelvey
This product was recommended by Nate Martin from Puzzle Break
The author of this book, Jim McKelvey, was the co-founder of Square in 2009—a startup that would enable small merchants to accept credit card payments on their mobile phones. He didn’t have any previous experience or knowledge in the world of payments, but approaching the problem of high costs and difficulty of accepting credit card payments with a new perspective and innovation, they quickly became successful. And even when Amazon launched a similar product and marketed it aggressively, Square did not lose its position. McKelvey pointed out the key things they did differently from all the other companies that went out of business because of Amazon. He called this unique strategy The Innovation Stack. It reveals a pattern for ground-breaking entrepreneurial decisions unlocking a whole new model for innovation.
How To Do The Work by Dr Nicole LePera
This product was recommended by Maxine Clancy from Maxine Clancy Coaching
This book is powerful in helping people to recognize how their limiting inner stories and patterns are affecting their self-worth. The book is an essential guide to self-healing our inner child, which is the part of us that holds false perceptions about our value and worthiness to be loved. This book is both educational and practical, with written exercises and easy-to-implement daily practices to support growth and healing. I love how the book includes a mind, body & spirit perspective.
Calling In The One by Katherine Woodward Thomas
This product was recommended by Maxine Clancy from Maxine Clancy Coaching
The subtitle for this book is 7 Weeks to Attract The Love Of Your Life – this is a powerful seven-week program to recover your self-worth and worthiness to be loved and to have love in your life. The book is designed to take the reader on a journey back to loving themselves. Yes, it will support you in attracting a partner but ultimately it is about uncovering all the inner blocks to self-worth and love. When you do this, you experience yourself and life differently. As a certified coach in this method, I know the power of it’s work in helping people to transform painful relationship patterns.
Loyalty To Your Soul by H Ronald Hulnick PH D
This product was recommended by Maxine Clancy from Maxine Clancy Coaching
This book is grounded in the principles of spiritual psychology to rediscover your worth and wholeness. The book provides practical tools to understand how everyday ‘upsets’ and disturbances to your peace take you away your true value and worth. The book is easy to read and has simple principles to help you shift your perspective from one of lack to wholeness.. If you have never read a spiritual book, then let this book bring you back home to your truth and to the highest most beautiful version of yourself.
They Ask You Answer by Marcus Sheridan
This product was recommended by Eulises Quintero from The lifestyle I want
This book was a game changer for me; I’ve been working in digital marketing for B2B companies for the past 5 years, and after reading it, I realized that a B2B client is not so different from B2C. At the end of the day, is a person just like you and me the one looking for a product or service, no matter whether you work for a B2B company. After reading this book, I realized I needed to answer people’s questions on our site; make information readily available. Now our organic traffic is booming, and generating leads is easier than ever.
The Innovation Mindset by Lorraine Marchand
This product was recommended by Jenna Mallimo from ThePRFreelancer, Inc.
The Innovation Mindset can be valuable to anyone who has a good idea for a new product or service, from students to early stage entrepreneurs to seasoned executives. The book serves as a guide to the often-intimidating landscape of bringing about change. By sharing her experiences, successes and mistakes, Marchand is confident she can accelerate the path to successful innovation.
Fearless Innovation by Alex Goryachev
This product was recommended by Jenna Mallimo from ThePRFreelancer, Inc.
Innovation is one of the most overused business terms. Companies tout their ‘culture of innovation’ but instead of producing a real impact, talk of innovation generates more slogans than clear, actionable results. In FEARLESS INNOVATION: Going Beyond The Buzzword To Continuously Drive Growth, Improve The Bottom Line, And Enact Change, Alex Goryachev, former managing director of Cisco’s global Co-Innovation Centers argues that innovation needs to be woven into the fabric of an organization’s culture so that it becomes intuitive.
Creativity, Inc. by Ed Catmull
This product was recommended by James “Jimmy” Watts from Own The Grill
Ed Catmull was, and is the co-founder of Pixar and is the former Head of Walt Disney Animation, and in his no holds barred, all-access exploration of life behind the curtain at both studios, he explores the true nature of creativity and why it is essential to disruption and innovation in all facets of industry and business. It’s essential reading for anyone who wants their business to change the world…
Loonshoots by Safi Bahcall
This product was recommended by Ian Wright from BusinessFinancing
Loonshoots by Safi Bahcall is an excellent book on business innovation. A 2019 Financial Times ‘Best Business Books’ shortlister, it addresses the challenges that companies face when trying to innovate and grow, as well as their ability to avoid losing market share in today’s highly competitive world of business. Loonshoots is packed with practical advice on how businesses can improve their competitiveness by introducing bold new ideas and products into the market. Moreover, it contains numerous real-life examples and case studies to illustrate the key concepts of business innovation, making them easier to understand and apply in practice.
Simple Numbers, Straight Talk, Big Profits! by Greg Crabtree
This product was recommended by Cody Crawford from Low Offset
As a small business owner myself, I could understand and relate to the importance of the seemingly insignificant details that are frequently overlooked in business. Luckily enough, this book sheds light on all these concepts in a simple and straightforward way. This no-frills guide serves to help you understand the numbers that will guide your business out of any financial quagmire. Simply put, it takes the mystery out of small business finance. Greg Crabtree, a successful accountant, small business advisor, and popular presenter, shows you how to use your firm’s key financial indicators to make smart business decisions as you grow your firm from startup to $5 million (and beyond!) in annual revenue.
6Ps of Essential Innovation by Michael McCathren
This product was recommended by Philip Hudson from Rhythm Communications
A masterclass in innovation, Six Ps of Essential Innovation is research-backed and actionable information and insight from one of today’s most accomplished leaders in the space. Michael McCathren leads the innovation center for a $17 billion privately-held company known globally for its forward-thinking products and services. The book uncovers the innovation shortcomings endemic in many corporate cultures and lays out every step in the path to becoming a resilient, innovative organization. McCathren begins in Section One of the book by profiles each of the six essential “Ps” through research, case studies, and applications: Perception, People, Philosophy, Process, Place, and Permanence. In Section Two, he goes deeper into two ‘super-skills’ of truly impactful innovation leaders: the ability to question authority and to spot future growth opportunities. The book also includes an entire section of practical exercises to help readers craft a full blueprint for their role and organization.
Competing Against Luck by Clayton M. Christensen
This product was recommended by Gary Parker from GaryBuysHouses
Competing Against Luck is a book that provides readers with inspiration and recommendations on how to improve self-worth. The book is written by Clayton M. Christensen, who is a renowned expert on the topic of self-improvement. The book is designed to help readers understand the importance of self-worth and how to improve their own lives.
Running Lean by Ash Maurya
This product was recommended by Harrison Acha from Primegatedigital
In this book, Ash provides readers with practical advice on how to identify and achieve their goals. He also shares his own personal journey of overcoming obstacles and reaching success. Whether you’re just starting out on your own entrepreneurial journey or you’re already established in your career, Running Lean is a great read that will provide you with valuable insights.