The Founder's Mentality

By Chris Zook, James Allen,

Book cover of The Founder's Mentality: How to Overcome the Predictable Crises of Growth

Book description

A Washington Post Bestseller Three Principles for Managing--and Avoiding--the Problems of Growth Why is profitable growth so hard to achieve and sustain? Most executives manage their companies as if the solution to that problem lies in the external environment: find an attractive market, formulate the right strategy, win new customers.…

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Why read it?

1 author picked The Founder's Mentality as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

I generally don’t like reading books by management consultants, being a former one myself, but this book stands out. The authors take a life-cycle view of companies, showing how the early stages, dominated by the mavericks who started the company, eventually give way to bureaucracy, creating a significant distance between the boardroom and its users.

They start the book with a central thesis, which I think is invaluable for any leader: growth creates complexity, and complexity is the silent killer of growth. This is another book I wish I had written.

From Martin's list on solve people problems in your startup.

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