The Reading List

The clearest, most rigorous account of what strategy actually is — and why most of what is called strategy is not. Essential reading for anyone making organisational decisions.

The defining account of why successful companies fail in the face of disruptive innovation. Still the best framework for thinking about technology and competitive threat.

Jobs-to-be-done theory applied at full depth. Changes how you think about customers, products, and what it means to solve a problem worth solving.

Military strategy applied to business leadership. The concept of "directed opportunism" — giving people intent rather than instructions — is one of the most practically useful ideas in the management literature.

Strategy as a series of integrated choices. The five questions of strategy presented here are the cleanest strategic framework I have encountered in practice.

Intel's Andy Grove on management, leverage, and operational excellence. Dense with practical insight and still remarkably relevant for anyone running a team or organisation.

The companion to The Innovator's Dilemma — how to build a disruptive business, not just how to be disrupted by one.

The definitive text on platform business models — how they work, why they win, and what their competitive dynamics look like. Essential for anyone thinking about digital business.

A sweeping history of information industries — from the telephone to the internet — and the recurring pattern of open-to-closed cycles. Important context for understanding platform concentration.

Contrarian, opinionated, and genuinely thought-provoking. The monopoly thesis is more useful as a thinking tool than a business prescription.

Cryptography and information security told as historical narrative. Develops genuine intuition for how digital systems and security actually work.

The clearest accessible account of what AI systems actually are, how they fail, and why alignment matters. Essential reading for any serious professional thinking about AI.

The definitive case for focused, distraction-free work as the core professional skill of the knowledge economy. Practical and philosophically grounded in equal measure.

A systematic approach to personal knowledge management. The PARA framework alone is worth the read for any knowledge worker managing substantial information.

A rigorous alternative to "follow your passion" — career capital, deliberate practice, and how exceptional professional lives are actually built.

Drucker's clearest and most practical book. The discipline of time management, prioritisation, and contribution still reads as urgently as it did in 1967.

The most systematic critique of the hyperactive hive mind model of modern work — and a coherent proposal for alternatives grounded in attention, autonomy, and focus.

Systems thinking as applied to organisations, economies, and complex problems. Changes the way you see feedback loops, unintended consequences, and leverage points.