10 best books to run a successful startup under the version of MakeRight

A selection of legendary bestsellers that will be useful not only for budding entrepreneurs, but also for experienced business sharks.

Each week, MakeRight editors browse more than a hundred non-fiction books and select only the best for their readers. In this compilation, we have gathered legendary bestsellers for you, which you just need to read not only for start-up entrepreneurs and those who decide to launch a startup, but also for experienced sharks of the business.

1. “Business from scratch. Lean Startup Method »Eric Rees

Why the vast majority of startups fail? Eric Rees is convinced that there are two reasons:
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1. Passion for traditional management methods that are not suitable for businesses operating under extreme uncertainty,
   
2. And the “just do it” approach, that is, the complete lack of managerial tools.
   

Is there an alternative? Yes, this is the Lean Startup technique (a thrifty startup) that helps to use a scientific approach to build a growing business and avoid unnecessary costs.

Despite sound calculations, serious business plans, thoughtful business models, large investments, most startups fail. Why it happens? Eric Rees, the author of the Lean Startup methodology, is confident that the traditional approach to business development is not applicable to startups. A startup operates in conditions of extreme uncertainty, and this must be considered when it is launched. At the initial stage of development, a startup needs to remain flexible in order to learn from mistakes and quickly test the founders' hypotheses, which means it is necessary to avoid large injections and costs. This approach underlies the Lean method, which aims to help entrepreneurs increase the chances of a startup to succeed.

→ Amazon

2. “Scrum. Revolutionary Project Management Method »by Jeff Sutherland

Every day the popularity of the Scrum technique is gaining momentum. It went beyond the scope of IT, and it was successfully used in traditional industries such as charities, schools, and even political parties. What is the result? The Scrum method invariably increases the efficiency of teamwork, reduces the time it takes to complete tasks, and unites people into cohesive teams aimed at continuous improvement of their results. What is scrum? And what is the secret of Scrum success?

Those involved in project management, and simply management, know well how difficult it is to organize a well-coordinated team work. Due to the lack of coherence, plans are constantly violated, there is a backlog from the schedule, the project budget is swelling, money and time flow through your fingers, tasks of different departments are duplicated, people argue and do not help each other, although it would seem that their efforts are aimed at achieving one goal . In addition, customers are often not satisfied with the final version of the created product.

The Scrum technique, developed by Jeff Sutherland and Ken Schwaber, is designed to solve all these problems. Scrum is the opposite of the classic phased approach applied to project implementation. The Scrum method has been adopted by many companies from both the technological industries, where it comes from, and from the traditional and even non-commercial ones. The approach that underlies the Scrum methodology can be used in various activities that require teamwork.

Important characteristics of Scrum are its flexibility and customer focus, as it assumes its (client) direct participation in the work process. And, not least, Scrum does not require expensive tools to implement it.

→ Amazon

3. “Deadline. A novel about project management "Tom DeMarko

Winner of many academic titles and awards Tom DeMarco heads the Atlantic Systems Guild consulting center with offices in the US, Germany and the UK. Software engineer and Bachelor of Electrical Engineering, laureate of the Jean-Dominique Varnier Prize for Lifetime Contribution to Information Sciences, DeMarco showed himself as a talented writer - author of nine books on management, organizational design and system development, as well as four works of fiction, among which and the famous business novel "The Deadline", which tells about the art of project management.

The ironically-detective story takes the reader after the main character to a fictional country, where a software engineering project of unprecedented scale is taking place, which should be completed in record time. At the disposal of the hero huge human and material resources, but in case of failure, he faces terrible punishment, right up to execution.

→ Ozon

4. "The Goal" by Eliyahu Goldratt

The business novel of Eliyahu Goldratt in a fascinating artistic form tells how to pull production out of crisis using simple and original methods based on logic and common sense. With their support, Goldratt created the theory of constraints - a systematic approach to production management. The essence of the theory is to find the so-called “bottleneck” in the technological process, limiting and slowing down the work as a whole, and eliminate it.

Eliyahu Goldratt - Bachelor of Science in Physics and Ph.D. In addition, he has long been engaged in software for manufacturing technologies. “The Goal” is his most popular novel, which glorified the author, reprinted in millions of copies and translated into many languages.


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5. “Blue Ocean Strategy” by V. Chan Kim and Rene Moborna

The book was published more than 10 years ago, but in our opinion, nothing has been written so far on the topic of innovation strategy.

Of course, critics can say that the ideas of the authors are not new, and the popularity of the book provided a beautiful title. However, one can definitely say that the “Blue Ocean Strategy” builds scattered ideas into a logical system and provides specific tools for finding an innovative strategy.

The main idea of ​​the book is that instead of waging a bloody struggle with competitors, companies should aim at creating a new, unoccupied market space.


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6. The “Ideal Leader” by Yitzhak Adizes

The book tells about a mythical creature, which the author compares with a fabulous unicorn - the perfect leader. It is beautiful, but it does not exist in nature. However, few people know about it or at least think about it. Many companies are confident that such a person can be trained, educated, and it is better to hire someone already prepared. However, they are waiting for one disappointment after another. And all because the ideal manager must combine the qualities that are too much for one person.







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7. “From good to great. Why do some companies make a breakthrough, while others do not ... "Jim Collins

What makes a great company from a mediocre one? Many will say that the use of the most modern technologies, the presence of a unique product, a charismatic leader or a correctly chosen strategy. However, a long-term study under the leadership of Jim Collins, which formed the basis of the book “From good to great. Why some companies make a breakthrough, while others do not ... ”, proves that such well-established ideas are erroneous, and the long-term success of companies is due to the influence of other, not so obvious factors.

Jim Collins study lasted 5 years; The results of the activities of thousands of companies were analyzed, but ultimately only 11 “great” companies were selected - those that met the following hard criteria: the return on their shares should have exceeded the average value of this indicator for the market by more than three times over fifteen years, which preceded by a long period of mediocre results or even losses.

The list of 11 companies that met this criterion was as follows: Abbott, Circuit City, Fannie Mae, Gillette, Kimberly-Clark, Kroger, Nucor, Philip Morris, Pitney Bowes, Walgreens, Wells Fargo.

The findings of the Jim Collins study cast doubt on many well-established ideas about what contributes to the achievement of outstanding business results.

→ Ozon

8. "Customers for life" by Carl Sewell

It is taken for granted that companies see it as their top priority to attract new customers. To achieve this goal, they direct the strength of their best employees and develop expensive marketing plans. As a result, already existing customers are deprived of attention, many of which go to competitors.

The book "Customers for Life" is devoted to the principles of work aimed at retaining existing customers. Its author, Carl Sewell, is the owner and head of a network of dealer auto centers, who managed to increase his company's turnover from $ 10 million to $ 250 million in 30 years, and proved that the approach aimed at establishing strong emotional ties with existing customers is fully justified.

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9. "Rework: a business without prejudice" by Jason Fried and David Heinemeyer Hensson

The book “Rework” is a collection of business creation and development tips from the founders of a small but very successful 37signals company specializing in software development, creating project management programs and CRM. Despite the small staff who also live in different countries, the company's products are used by millions of customers all over the world. Jason Fried and David Heinemeyer Hensson addresses his book to all entrepreneurs, regardless of their experience and size. According to the authors, their advice is not a theory, but a collection of what has been tried out in practice and has yielded positive results.

The approach of the founders of 37signals to business differs in many ways from what other entrepreneurs usually strive for - growth and scale up. Fried and Hensson urge to get rid of these stereotypes and understand that small companies can also be successful and competitive, always remaining small.

→ Ozon

10. “From zero to one” by Peter Thiel

The book in a concentrated form tells about the ideas that Peter Thiel announced to Stanford students in 2012 on the Startup course. However, this is not just a book about creating a business. It does not give a step-by-step plan or formula for success. As Peter Thiel notes, they simply do not exist. This book is about how important it is to strive to create something new, and not to copy what already exists. And if we consider the value of this idea, then the book will be useful not only for entrepreneurs and investors, but also for all people who are interested in history and philosophy and who care about the future of humanity.

Peter Thiel is an American entrepreneur and investor of German origin, a billionaire, the first external investor of Facebook. As a teenager, he won the title of national chess master, he studied at Stanford, where he first studied philosophy and then law. Till did not immediately find himself in business, for several years he worked as an assistant judge and then as a trader. In 1998, he became one of the founders of the popular PayPal payment system. Later, through its venture fund, the Founders Fund invested in many successful projects - LinkedIn, Quora, Yelp, Palantir, and others.

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We talk about the key ideas from the best books of the genre of non-fiction. There are more than a hundred bestsellers in our library , including those that have not yet been published in Russian.

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