Top 8 biographies every entrepreneur must read!

In this list, we focus on a different kind of book: inspiring biographies of innovators, business champions and thought leaders. These books go beyond chronologies of activities and achievements, and yield insights into personal and professional ethics, qualities and worldviews.

1. ‘Steve Jobs’ by Walter Isaacson

Walter Isaacson has been chairman of CNN and managing editor of ‘Time’ magazine. The book on legendary innovator and Apple CEO Steve Jobs is based on more than 40 interviews with Jobs conducted over two years—as well as interviews with more than 100 family members, friends, adversaries, competitors and colleagues.

New related read: ‘Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future,’ by Ashlee Vance. Also check out ‘Just for Fun: The Story of an Accidental Revolutionary’ by Linus Torvalds, and ‘Tim Berners-Lee: Inventor of the World Wide Web’ by Stephanie Sammartino McPherson.

2. ‘The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon’ by Brad Stone

Brad Stone has written for ‘Newsweek’, ‘New York Times’ and ‘Bloomberg’. The book captures the tenacious spirit and disruptive innovations of Jeff Bezos and Amazon, who have transformed and accelerated entire industries via e-commerce and cloud computing.

Related reads: ‘In the Plex: How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives,’ by Steven Levy and ‘Sam Walton: Made In America’ by Sam Walton. See also ‘Made in Japan: Akio Morita and Sony,’ by Akio Morita, and ‘Driving Honda: Inside the World’s Most Innovative Car Company’ by Jeffrey Rothfeder.

3. ‘The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life’ by Alice Schroeder

Alice Schroeder was an analyst, writer and managing director at Morgan Stanley. Entrepreneurship is as much about creativity as wealth management, and Warren Buffet is a legend in the world of investment. The book provides insights into the genius behind Berkshire Hathaway.

4. ‘The Facebook Effect: The Real Inside Story of Mark Zuckerberg and the World’s Fastest Growing Company’ by David Kirkpatrick

Journalist David Kirkpatrick was formerly at ‘Fortune’ magazine, and runs Techonomy Media, a tech-focused conference company. The book profiles Mark Zuckerberg and the meteoric rise of Facebook from a Harvard dorm room to today’s social media giant.

Related read: ‘Hatching Twitter: A True Story of Money, Power, Friendship, and Betrayal’ by Nick Bilton.

5. ‘C.K. Prahalad: The Mind of the Futurist’ by Benedict Paramanand

Benedict Paramanand is Bengaluru-based editor of ‘Management Next’ magazine. The book provides insights into the life and leadership of the late great C.K. Prahalad, widely recognised as one of the world’s 10 most influential management gurus (see my book review). India-born Prahalad is known for his thought leadership and practice on core competency, co-creation and entrepreneurship at the bottom of the pyramid (BoP).

Related read: ‘Banker to the Poor,’ by Muhamad Yunus. Also see biographies of Indian business leaders Ratan Tata (by Prateeksha Tiwari) and N.R. Narayana Murthy (by Ritu Singh).

6. ‘Oprah: A Biography’ by Kitty Kelley

Kitty Kelley is winner of the Outstanding Author Award from the American Society of Journalists and Authors. Her book on Oprah Winfrey profiles the woman and activist behind one of the most successful TV shows which took storytelling to new frontiers.

See also YourStory’s pick of 10 inspirational books by women, for women.

7. ‘The Wizard of Menlo Park: How Thomas Alva Edison Invented the Modern World’ by Randall Stross

Randall Stross is a technology historian and author of books such as ‘The Microsoft Way’ and ‘Planet Google,’ as well as a recent title on Y Combinator. The book captures insights into the technology prowess and marketing skills of legendary inventor Thomas Edison.

Related reads: ‘Ben Franklin’ by Benjamin Enrique and Blaine Mccormick, and ‘The Wright Brothers’ by David McCullough. 

8. ‘Founders at Work: Stories of Startups’ Early Days’ by Jessica Livingston

For those who prefer shorter reads about entrepreneurs, ‘Founders at Work’ is a collection of innovator profiles of Steve Wozniak (Apple), Caterina Fake (Flickr), Mitch Kapor (Lotus), Max Levchin (PayPal) and Sabeer Bhatia (Hotmail). Author Jessica Livingston is a founding partner at Y Combinator.

Related reads: ‘How They Started Digital’ by David Lester (see my book review), and the series of books by Rashmi Bansal: ‘I Have a Dream,’ ‘Take Me Home’ and ‘Follow Every Rainbow.’ Also check out ‘How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas,’ by David Bornstein and ‘The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind’ by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer.

Print advertising: innovations deliver when there is a deeper message to be conveyed

Have you ever countedthe number of ads in your newspaper? I did.

On one of the recent weekends, a leading English daily greeted readers with a full front page ad followed by number of large and small display ads. When counted, that day’s newspaper had 42 large display ads – quarter page or more. That’s hundreds of large display ads, almost every weekend, through 35 plus editions of this newspaper.

Print media, which attracted 41% of total ad spends in 2014 (television advertising stood second with 38% share) is at the heart of marketing strategy and media mix. The challenge for brand marketers is to create ads that make an impact and meaningfully engage customers – both at an emotional and a rational level.

Easier said than done.

In recent years, we have seen some amazing creative executions that unleash print’s ability to deliver a multisensory experience. Here are some examples of print ads that add an extra level of cognitive processing for deeper customer engagement – by experimenting with shapes, sizes, placements, technology etc.

Highlighting Product Features through Ad Placement

This center spread Ford ad is a wonderful example of effective ad placement and playing with shape creatively.

The shape of the ad gives readers a sense of sharp blind turns and illustrates how the LED headlights of the car can see around the corners.

The copy says – “Sees around the corners…before you do”.

How Instantis Instant?

Nescafe took their ‘instant coffee’ad to a whole new level through print.

The brand included two foldable paper mugs in branded newspapers with coffee powder in those cups.  Reader could just add some hot water and enjoy their morning coffee, with someone they are sharing that particular moment with.

High Tech Product’s High Tech Ad

This Moto X ad showcases its vibrant range of colors in a magazine ad. The phone in the magazine ad changes colors when users press on the small color buttons at the bottom of the ad.

This print innovation was made using polycarbonate paper that covers LED light pipes, which are illuminated via circuitry running to the color swatches.

Innovation is Way of Life

Inspired by musical greeting cards, Volkswagen created a talking print ad. The idea was to drive the brand message that innovation is our way of life and it reflects even in the way we communicate.

As readers opened the last page of newspaper, a light-sensitive chip attached to the page announced the arrival of “a perfectly engineered car” – the Vento.

Result: Dealer inquiries went up by 200%. Vento achieved 12 per cent of its annual sales target in a single day.

Coffee That Stands for Best Aroma

When Bru Gold wanted to engage customers with the richness and aroma of their fine coffee, they sprayed a special perfume on newspapers, the smell of which was that of actual Bru Gold.

The readers while reading the newspaper could smell the coffee.

An Unmissable Call to Action

Tata Motors print ad for their Zest sedan had a very clear objective – driving customers to dealership.

The 4 page advertorial supplement came with a transparent packet stuck on the newspaper that had a uniquely bar-coded car key. Readers could visit a nearest dealer and match the bar code and stand a chance to win a Tata Zest.

The car key in newspaper ad communicated ease of owning the car / gave a sense of ownership resulting in increased footfall at the dealerships.

Jo DekheWohDiwana

When Kajaria Ceramics launched their 3D range of tiles that offers depth in designs, they wanted newspaper readers to get a sense of those innovative tiles.

The print ad was a 3D rendered image. The ad came with specially made 3D glasses stuck on the ad for viewing the ad. When viewed through 3D glasses, the ad gave a near real life 3D experience in the print ad itself.

Layered Smartphonewith a Layered Print Ad

When Lenovo launched Vibe X2 as ‘World’s First Layered Smartphone’, they wanted to highlight the innovative layered design through print ad.

Lenovo partnered with Voconow to overlay an interactive digital layer on top of their print ad.

When customers viewed the ad through Voconow app, they could see the smartphone from different dimensions, range of colors, product specs and could even buy the smartphone while watching the ad (instant call to action).

Does every print ad need to be as innovative as in above examples? Shashi Sinha of IPG MediaBrandssums it up nicely, “While regular print advertising definitely has its place, innovations deliver when there’s a deeper message to be conveyed.”

Innovative, solution-led print advertisementsengage customerswith the brand and drive last mile conversions.