Top November Books: Changing Business Edition

Every month, I'll be sharing five book recommendations for readers of this blog. Not all of them will be focused on social entrepreneurship, per se. Sometimes the list will have a theme - as it does this month - other times it won't. Not all of the books will be new. All that's guaranteed is that they will be good reads.

This month, I'd like to share a number of books that have the potential to shift our notions about business, and help us think about enterprise from a variety of new lenses.

Free: The Future of a Radical Price. By Chris Anderson. Following up his hugely influential 'The Long Tail,' Wired Magazine editor Chris Anderson writes about the history and future of the price of free. Demonstrating how the cost of production - particularly, but not only, on the internet - is driving prices ever lower, Anderson puts forth some important provocations. This book matters for social entrepreneurs because it challenges some of the mantras of capitalism, including notably the idea that people value things they pay for more highly. In the internet era, that may no longer be true.

Wired To Care: How Companies Prosper When They Create Widespread Empathy. By Dev Patnaik with Pete Mortenson. A book that has significant implications for the internal composition and style of doing business, the authors of Wired to Care argue that the ability to create internal empathy makes teams able to see and harness opportunities earlier and more effectively than their competitors.

Change By Design: How Design Thinking Transforms Organizations and Inspires Innovation. By Tim Brown. Written by the CEO of design and innovation firm IDEO, Change By Design provides a practical blueprint for businesses to employ 'design thinking' to take inspiration from the world around to create more robust and innovative learning organizations.

A Fine Line: How Design Strategies Are Shaping the Future of Business. By Hartmut Esslinger. Founder of frog design Hartmut Esslinger is behind some of the most iconic designs of the twentieth century, including, among others, the original Apple II, Microsoft Windows logo, and more. In this book, he writes about the power of alliances between designers and traditional business people to shift the way products and services are developed.

Getting Real. By the staff at 37 Signals. Think that the key to business success is extensive planning, testing, and research? Get real, says the staff at 37 Signals, the company behind productivity and collaboration tools including Basecamp. While this hard-driving, opinionated tract is aimed specifically at web companies, the style of work it suggests - which basically boils down to "focus on what matters and learn from your customers where to go from there" - is valuable for anyone dealing with consumers or stakeholders in an era of rapid feedback.

To buy any of these books, visit our friends at Better World Books. While you're at it, sign the pledge to switch to BWB and contribute to funding global literacy programs.

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