Clayten Christensen seminal book is based on the Jobs to be done framework, and insight that when we buy a product, we essentially “hire” it to make progress and get a job done. And if the product hired to do the job does it well, we hire it again. And if not, we “fire” it and look for an alternative. Christensen argues that when companies truly understand the job their customer is hiring their product or service to do, is when companies can drive innovative solutions forward.
Bill Price and David Jaffe assert through their book that customer service is only needed when a company does something wrong, and therefore eliminating the need for customer service is the best way to have satisfied customers. Read their book to learn how to use their principles that teach you to use service as a data point for improving customer safisfaction.
Using data the right way can help you steer your business away from mistakes and towards the promised land of customers and profits. This book steers you in the right direction with case studies and insights that show you how to validate your initial idea, find the right customers, decide what to build, how to monetize your business, and how to spread the word and get customers.
Learn the framework that successful companies have implemented to gain traction for their product and scale successfully. Identify the marketing channels that make sense for your company, given its unique properties, in this book by Gabriel Weinberg (Founder, DuckDuckGo) and Justin Mares (Founder, Kettle & Fire).
Ed Catmull, co-founder of Pixar Animation Studios, describes the challenges he had to overcome to keeping creativity alive as Pixar grew and integrated within Disney. Read this book to learn about the approach and processes to maintain and foster creativity in corporate cultures.
Another fantastic book by Ryan Holiday where he uncovers that there is a defined formula for success that is timeless, and you can follow it too. To quote Marcus Aurelius, "The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way."