Books that most influenced my work in 2020
During the pandemic I threw myself into work, and like many other people I found it hard to read. But as things got better in Australia towards the end of the year I started picking up the books I had put on pause for a few months. In the end, I read 30 books in 2020, same total as the previous year, including 10 books that you could classify as business books. Below are the 4 books I ended up recommending the most to friends, clients and practitioners of innovation and business transformation.
No false modesty here: The Invincible Company, the book I co-authored and that was released in April, is the one I recommended the most in 2020. It’s only natural as it contains our most recent convictions and recommendations at Strategyzer on how to build resilience in large organisations, with world-class innovation management. A topic more relevant than ever this year…
“Reading is going toward something that is about to be, and no one yet knows what it will be.” Italo Calvino
Pirates in the Navy, by Tendayi Viki. (link)
In his new book, Tendayi Viki shares his approach to support innovators who want to transform their companies. The book clearly lays out the key obstacles that innovators will have to overcome, the key questions from the leadership team they’ll need to answer, and the key elements (tools, processes, etc.) they’ll need to put in place. It’s written in clear and simple language that cuts through the complexity of the task at hand.
After the Corporate Startup in 2017, Pirates in the Navy is another massive contribution by Tendayi Viki to the field of corporate innovation! And it’s been an obvious recommendation to clients and innovation practitioners throughout the year, as it shows the type of advisory work Tendayi and the rest of the advisory team at Strategyzer do every day with our clients to help them transform their organisation.
Pirates in the Navy, by Tendayi Viki, illustrated by Holger Nils Pohl
“Our job as pirates in the navy is to uncouple the lifecycle of our company from the lifecycle of its business models.” Tendayi Viki.
Everyday Creative: A Dangerous Guide for Making Magic at Work, by Mykel Dixon. (link)
Creativity is one of the needed ingredients for successful innovation. And unfortunately it’s a skill we all tend to lose as we get older and disenchanted by the daily grind of modern corporate life. But it doesn’t have to be like that. Mykel Dixon is on a mission to help business people reconnect with their lost creativity. And he distilled the wisdom learned in his creative endeavors and his coaching practice into his new book Everyday Creative. Reading this book is like having a creativity genius in your pocket who continuously inspires you and challenges you.
In the introduction Mykel invites each reader to draw a metaphorical “line in the sand” and cross it to commit to the process of rebuilding their creativity, which I did (on a beach in Lorne, Victoria, in early July, in between the two lockdown periods)
Eglantine and I committing to Mykel Dixon’s creativity process
Different people will for sure find the biggest inspiration in different parts of the book. For me it was in the chapter on courage.
"And here's the brutal, beautiful truth. You were never invited to play. You don't belong on that stage. And you are nowhere near ready. You never will be. No-one is." Mykel Dixon.
It resonated so much that I had it engraved on the tablet I use for my keynotes…
How will you measure your life?, by Clayton M. Christensen, James Allworth, Karen Dillon. (link)
When Clayton M. Christensen passed away in January 2020, I felt the huge vacuum he left. Who would now lead the charge in pushing strategy and innovation thinking forward? I found solace in the fact that his thinking is forever available in a series of brilliant books, and I read with immense pleasure the classic “How will you measure your life?”
In this book inspired by his teaching at Harvard, Clayton M. Christensen and co-authors James Allworth and Karen Dillon illustrate how to use business theories to help navigate the tricky questions we all have to face in life, such as:
How can I be sure that I will be successful and happy in my career?
How can I be sure that my relationships with my spouse, my children, and my extended family and close friends become an enduring source of happiness?
How can I be sure that I live a life of integrity?
In this book, I caught a glimpse of what his teaching at Harvard must have been, something that no one will experience again. I enjoyed the curation of the most important business theories the book presents. And how applicable they are, and highly relevant to navigate those important life questions. An important read that I will come back to often.
Attribution: World Economic Forum from Cologny, Switzerland, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
“Theories are statements of what causes things to happen - and why. When the students understand these theories, we put them “on” - like a set of lenses - to examine a case about a company. (…) We then use the theories to predict what problems and opportunities are likely to occur in the future for that company, and we use the theories to predict what actions the managers will need to take to address them.” Clayton M. Christensen
The Invincible Company, by Alex Osterwalder, Yves Pigneur, Fred Etiemble and Alan Smith (link)
In June 2018 I joined forces with Alexander Osterwalder, Yves Pigneur and Alan Smith to work on the fourth book in the Strategyzer series, The Invincible Company that was released in April 2020.
Given the struggles experienced by so many large corporations to innovate and re-invent themselves, we wanted to create the guide senior leaders, innovators, and entrepreneurs need to build more resilient companies. Organisations that can withstand disruption of one of their existing businesses because they are constantly working on a portfolio of new business ideas. Organisations that have created a culture and an ecosystem where the exploration of new business ideas can thrive.
In the book we introduce three new tools that enable leaders to manage innovation at a more strategic level.
As you can imagine, I recommended this book a lot this year, both as a way to introduce friends, clients and innovation practitioners to our latest ideas and tools, and also to complement and accelerate the work we are doing with leaders to build more resilient organisations.
Source: Strategyzer
“Mastering the now extended innovation toolkit can help companies find breakthrough growth opportunities. While improving existing businesses at the same time.” Fred Etiemble
That’s it for now! Hopefully those books are available at your local library, or easily downloadable on your smartphone/tablet.
What is next on your reading list?
Happy reading everyone in 2021!
