After the conversation that Intelectium organized about “How to revolutionize traditional sectors” with Andrés Cester and Muriel Bourgeois, we leave you a selection of the books that, together with Patricio Hunt, they recommended for all those who are thinking about starting up or want to grow their business.Competing Against Luck: The Story of Innovation and Customer Choice by Clayton M. Christensen Written by Clayton M. Christensen, professor at Harvard, known in the entrepreneurial ecosystem for his theory Jobs To Be Done, which makes it possible for companies to establish a new starting point for innovation. The book introduces and explains different points of this theory so that the reader, in a critical way, finds the answers necessary to start a business or improve innovation in companies already established in the market. The writer focuses on allowing the entrepreneur to find out what problem is being solved in order to understand, later, what are the reasons that lead consumers to buy a certain product or service and why they change their choice over time (the book forces the reader to change the perspective from which he understands his business and to enter the customer's mind). One of the lessons repeated throughout the chapters is that “failure is expensive, since it occurs at the end of the development cycle after having invested time, energy and money”. Scaling Up: How a Few Companies Make It... and Why the Rest Don't (Rockefeller Habits 2.0) by Verne HarnishScaling up is a good choice for all those entrepreneurs who are in the growth phase. The author, founder of Young Entrepreneurs' Organization (YEO), who has spent much of his time helping companies to grow, structures the book into three main sections: people, strategy and cash (which he establishes, together with execution, as the key to successfully growing any business or team). Harnish sets a series of priorities that must be established to avoid failure in the growth stages of startups, including: freeing the senior management team from operational problems or aligning the junior team to promote execution. The reader will be able to benefit from the resources included in the book to analyze their own business and make the best decisions for each of the critical points that arise. Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action by Simon SinekStart with Why revolves around the concept of Golden Circle or the Golden Circle that Simon Sinek himself has developed and from which a multitude of companies have benefited. Through the Golden Circle, Sinek proposes to change the pre-established order of designing different business strategies through the concepts of mission, vision and values and to place Why or Why at the center of all decisions made in the company. There are two main arguments that the author relies on to defend the effectiveness of his philosophy. First, customers won't buy any product, service, or idea until they understand the Why behind it. And on the other hand: the leaders who have had the greatest influence in the world think, act and communicate in the same way, and it's just the opposite of what others do. What Customers Want: Using Outcome-Driven Innovation to Create Breakthrough Products and Services by Anthony Ulwick What Customers Want by Anthony Ulwick, a pioneer in the implementation of the Jobs To Be theory and a leader in the development of Outcome-Driven Innovation, helps to deepen the benefits of implementing a customer-centric approach in organizations. In the book, Ulwick addresses everything related to innovation in companies, from its importance for efficient growth to the consumers' own vision of the concept of innovation. Throughout the chapters, the reader will understand what Outcome-Driven Innovation theory is and how it works, an innovation process driven by the ability to deliver what they want to customers, since the only way to grow a company is to create value for the consumer. What Customers Want is a good tool not only for team members involved in product design and management, but for all those who want to understand the best way to launch products and services that meet market needs. The Innovator's Solution (Creating and Sustainability Successful Growth) by Clayton Christensen and Michael E. RaynoThe book is the continuation of “The Innovator's Dilemma: The Revolutionary Book That Will Change the Way You Do Business”, one of the great classics among entrepreneurship books about how technological disruptions cause the collapse of large companies in the market (who tend to ignore innovation processes until it's too late). In this second book, the authors practically develop different approaches to efficiently manage disruptive innovation in large organizations, finding the context and the right time to launch new ideas to the market and to make them successful. Among some of the many tips that the reader can find in the book, stand out: being patient for growth and impatient for profits and designating people by their ability to learn, not by their history.
The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers by Ben HorowitzThe Hard Thing About Hard Things is the well-known book by Ben Horowitz, technology entrepreneur, venture capitalist and co-founder of Andreessen Horowitz (who has invested in technology giants such as Skype, Twitter or Airbnb). In the book, the author explains honestly and from his own experience all the difficulties to which one is exposed when trying to open and run a business and includes advice on how to deal with different situations and avoid mistakes that often pose a dilemma for the entrepreneur such as selling or not selling the business, throwing out a friend, why it is a good idea for the CEO of the company to be someone from the founding team, etc. The Hard Thing About Hard Things is also an inspiring story about the rebirth of a company thanks to willpower, because failures are where you learn the most. Measure What Matters: How Google, Bono and the Gates Foundation Change the World with OKRdeJohn DoerrThis book by John Doerr (one of the first investors in Google and Amazon, among others) illustrates, not only what they are, how they work and how to implement OKRs (Objectives and Key Results), but also their potential to grow companies and take them to the next level. The author details different case studies, of some of the more than 50 technology companies and charitable organizations in which he has established the management model by OKRs, to achieve objectives and strengthen or scale the business through strategic decision-making. The book is, without a doubt, an indispensable practical guide for any company manager who is faced with OKRs for the first time. Create and Digress. The Life and Reflections of Jeff BezosIn Crea y Divaga, Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon, tells first-hand what his personal journey has been like to make Amazon the giant it is today. The book emphasizes the importance of failure so that both individuals and companies can innovate and addresses other issues related to the business world, such as the Coronavirus crisis, politics, the environment, the vision of the coming world... all through speeches and annual letters sent by Jeff Bezos himself to the company's shareholders. More: Books for entrepreneurs
