innovation Book Summaries

Zero to One is about the future of technology and a guide for startup business founders. Peter Thiel is a billionaire entrepreneur and investor that shares many unconventional ideas. He says entrepreneurs should avoid competition. Instead build a (legal) monopoly selling something completely new and incomparable.

The Everything Store is about how Jeff Bezos grew Amazon—from a simple online bookstore into the 5th largest company in the world. He did it with a mix of great timing, customer obsession, and relentless competition.

Steve Jobs is the official biography of the co-founder of Apple and Pixar. He had an intense passion to create revolutionary products like the iPhone, iPad, iPod, iTunes, and Macintosh computers. His personality was an unusual mix of Zen hippie and brash business visionary.

Blue Ocean Strategy is about how to escape competition and create breakthrough business strategies. Kim and Mauborgne say we should look outside our traditional industry boundaries so we can truly innovate for our customers. We can find entirely new market demand, rather than fighting over old market share.

The Lean Startup shows how to achieve business success by learning what customers want fast. Eric Ries explains how to launch a minimum viable product, why you should ignore vanity metrics, and how to use 'split-testing' to avoid wasting years of your life building a product nobody wants.