The Prosperity Paradox by
Clayton M. Christensen, the author of such business classics as The Innovator's Dilemma and the New York Times bestseller How Will You Measure Your Life, and co-authors Efosa Ojomo and Karen Dillon reveal why so many investments in economic development fail to generate sustainable prosperity, and offers a groundbreaking solution for true and lasting change. Global poverty is one of the world's most vexing problems. For decades, we've assumed smart, well-intentioned people will eventually be able to change the economic trajectory of poor countries. From education to healthcare, infrastructure to eradicating corruption, too many solutions rely on trial and error. Essentially, the plan is often to identify areas that need help, flood them with resources, and hope to see change over time. But hope is not an effective strategy. Clayton M. Christensen and his co-authors reveal a paradox at the heart of our approach to solving poverty. While noble, our current solutions are not producing consistent results, and in some cases, have exacerbated the problem. At least twenty countries that have received billions of dollars' worth of aid are poorer now. Applying the rigorous and theory-driven analysis he is known for, Christensen suggests a better way. The right kind of innovation not only builds companies--but also builds countries. The Prosperity Paradox identifies the limits of common economic development models, which tend to be top-down efforts, and offers a new framework for economic growth based on entrepreneurship and market-creating innovation. Christensen, Ojomo, and Dillon use successful examples from America's own economic development, including Ford, Eastman Kodak, and Singer Sewing Machines, and shows how similar models have worked in other regions such as Japan, South Korea, Nigeria, Rwanda, India, Argentina, and Mexico. The ideas in this book will help companies desperate for real, long-term growth see actual, sustainable progress where they've failed before. But The Prosperity Paradox is more than a business book; it is a call to action for anyone who wants a fresh take for making the world a better and more prosperous place.
Testing Business Ideas by
A practical guide to effective business model testing 7 out of 10 new products fail to deliver on expectations. Testing Business Ideas aims to reverse that statistic. In the tradition of Alex Osterwalder's global bestseller Business Model Generation, this practical guide contains a library of hands-on techniques for rapidly testing new business ideas. Testing Business Ideas explains how systematically testing business ideas dramatically reduces the risk and increases the likelihood of success for any new venture or business project. It builds on the internationally popular Business Model Canvas and Value Proposition Canvas by integrating Assumptions Mapping and other powerful lean startup-style experiments. Testing Business Ideas uses an engaging 4-color format to: Increase the success of any venture and decrease the risk of wasting time, money, and resources on bad ideas Close the knowledge gap between strategy and experimentation/validation Identify and test your key business assumptions with the Business Model Canvas and Value Proposition Canvas A definitive field guide to business model testing, this book features practical tips for making major decisions that are not based on intuition and guesses. Testing Business Ideas shows leaders how to encourage an experimentation mindset within their organization and make experimentation a continuous, repeatable process.
Creative Economy Entrepreneurs by 
Gear Up by
Transform your business idea into a high potential venture Big, bright and brilliant, Gear Up is an engaging and practical workbook for anyone looking to pursue a fresh business opportunity or grow an existing one. Developed at Harvard Business School and Stanford University, it's a bootcamp with clear, easy-to-follow steps to test your business idea, assess its potential and make it work! Based on a revolutionary 9-component framework, Gear Up offers entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs, innovative executives and business students a toolkit to bring their ideas to life and transform them into high potential ventures. Gear Up offers a useable business tool for assessing the needs of a business idea and helps you create a plan of action to promote business success. By working through the chapters of the book, you get to create a winning strategy based on recommendations tried and tested by executives around the world. Gear Up offers: - A step by step guide to help you build a foundation for your business opportunity - Solid business framework formulated from entrepreneurs, academics and real life experience - A highly practical workbook with visual, full-colour design and compelling layout Gear Up also comes with educators' support materials available at gearupventures.com PowerPoint presentations with teaching notes Online course materials Course Schedule Evaluation Forms Certificate for students who complete the course Coming soon! - An innovative, interactive digital toolkit Gear Up Virtual Toolkit (powered by You Noodle): A digital platform where participants can present their enterprise idea, work through the framework, answering questions and get real-time feedback from their facilitator/educator. The tool will even generate a ready-made PowerPoint presentation at the end of the process! Gear Up Mobile App (powered by We Chat): This app allows students to answer questions from their lecturers or vote in real-time from their phones within the classroom. The app promotes student engagement and class participation.
Let My People Go Surfing by
As a child, Yvon Chouinard moved to Southern California with little English and less money. Today his company, Patagonia, earns more than $600 million a year and is a beacon and benchmark for sustainable capitalism. This is the amazing story of a young man who found escape by scaling the world's highest peaks, of an innovator who used his father's blacksmith tools to fashion equipment that changed climbing forever, and of the entrepreneur who brought doing good and having a blast into the heart of a business.
The Art of the Start 2. 0 by
Fully revised and expanded for the first time in a decade, this is Guy Kawasaki's classic, bestselling guide to launching and making your new product, service, or idea a success. Whether you're an aspiring entrepreneur, small-business owner, intrapreneur, or not-for-profit leader, there's no shortage of advice on topics such as innovating, recruiting, fund raising, and branding. In fact, there are so many books, articles, websites, blogs, webinars, and conferences that many startups get paralyzed, or they focus on the wrong priorities and go broke before they succeed. The Art of the Start 2.0 solves that problem by distilling Guy Kawasaki's decades of experience as one of the most hardworking and irreverent strategists in the business world. Guy has totally overhauled this iconic, essential guide for anyone starting anything. It's 64 percent longer than version 1.0 and features his latest insights and practical advice about social media, crowdfunding, cloud computing, and many other topics. Guy understands the seismic changes in business over the last decade: Once-invulnerable market leaders are struggling. Many of the basics of getting established have become easier, cheaper, and more democratic. Business plans are no longer necessary. Social media has replaced PR and advertising as the key method of promotion. Crowdfunding is now a viable alternative to investors. The cloud makes basic infrastructure affordable for almost any new venture. The Art of the Start 2.0 will show you how to effectively deploy all these new tools. And it will help you master the fundamental challenges that have not changed: building a strong team, creating an awesome product or service, and facing down your competition. As Guy likes to say, "Entrepreneur is a state of mind, not a job title." His book will help you make your crazy ideas stick, through an adventure that's more art than science - the art of the start.