Reading is one common habit among business and innovation professionals. At Corporate Lab, we believe a good book can be a tool that helps you reach your goals in terms of innovation. Knowing what types of innovation there are, how to start applying it, how to measure it, plus illustrating all of the mentioned with real-life examples is key to becoming a great innovator. That is why today, we share with you our favorite books on innovation. Enjoy!

1. The Invincible Company (Alex Osterwalder, Yves Pigenur, Fred Etiemble, Alan Smith)

About the book

This book offers great content on innovation, but also an approachable way of consuming it. Its illustrations and toolkits are one the most-loved features according to its readers, and we couldn’t agree more. Either if you are an innovation leader, an entrepreneur, or simply if you think your company is struggling with innovation, The Invincible Company can be a great read for you.

Why we loved it

Apart from including great content, this book shines for its pragmatic and enjoyable shape. We particularly loved the tools it includes: the business portfolio map, innovation metrics, and a culture map. With this toolkit, you can be sure you will know how to put theory into practice.

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2. Lean Enterprise (Jez Humble, Joanne Molesky, Barry O’Reilly)

About the book and the authors

On the corporate innovation side, we have chosen this book on high performance for big corporations. Lean Enterprise states large companies are losing the innovation race, and therefore are at risk of leading the industry. On the winning side, startups have become a more agile and competitive type of company. Then, how can large corporations tackle the innovation issue and keep up with startups and entrepreneurs? 

Why we loved it

At Corporate Lab, we do believe that innovation is for everyone, including of course large corporations. Why not? Large companies and startups are different types of companies, each of them presenting different pros and cons. Actually, large corporations have some serious advantages towards startups when it comes to venturing and taking risks. We appreciate a piece of reading that focuses on innovation from the large corporation perspective. If you manage one, this book is for you.

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3. The Lean Product Playbook (Dan Olsen)

About the book

The Lean Product Playbook is a whole guide on how to create minimum viable products (MVPs) and quickly finding its product-market fit. Its author (Dan Olsen) defines both the loop and the process anyone should follow in order to create a product, validate it, and pivot it when necessary.

Why we loved it

Finding a good product-market fit is the prologue of any success story, and it is common to different kinds of companies and profiles. Either if you work at a startup, if you are an entrepreneur, if you manage a large corporation, if you’re looking to disrupt your current business model or if you lead an innovation department, you can find this book useful. 

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4. Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems & Test New Ideas in Just Five Days (Jake Knapp)

About the book and the authors

As its title suggests, Sprint focuses on how to organize work and the team’s agenda in order to develop a successful idea. Validation is a crucial phase when building minimum viable products, and testing is not always rapid. Is it possible to do this in 5 days? Knapp and his co-authors prove so and share tips and real-life examples on how to develop and validate new ideas very quickly. 

Why we loved it

At Corporate Lab, we are aware of the importance of delivering an MVP in the lowest time possible while keeping a maximum quality standard. Actually, our methodology relies on the sprint philosophy as well, even though our sprints are longer than 5 days. There are many takeouts that were useful for us, and will be for you too.

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5. Game Storming (Dave Grey, Sunni Brown, James Macanufo)

About the book

Game Storming features a series of games to unleash people’s creativity and innovation. After all, isn’t creativity intelligence having fun? 

Why we loved it

What’s not to love? We are sure you can find different game ideas to incorporate innovation in any aspect of your life. Something we love about this book is that it is perfect for companies that are trying to introduce innovation and don’t know where to start. Simply by organizing one of these games per month, you will see how employees learn new things, acquire different different perspectives, and embrace innovation the fun way. 

6. Ten Types of Innovation (Larry Keely, Helen Walters, Ryan Pikkel, Brian Quinn)

About the book

As we stated in one of our blog posts, there are tons of different types of innovation. And this topic is also brought up by Larry Keeley and his co-authors. Oftentimes, innovation and disruption are used indistinctly, but the truth is disruptive innovation is just one of the many types of innovation there are. Ten Types of Innovation lists and elaborates on ten different categorizations that any type of company (regardless of its size, culture and sector) can apply.

Why we loved it

If you think disruptive innovation is not for you, we recommend you to take a look at this piece of reading and find out other innovative alternatives. Identifying different innovation types and real-life examples can help you identify new opportunities for your business and master innovation.‍

7. The Art of Innovation (Tom Kelley)

About the book

IDEO is an award-winning, leading company in design and development. Maybe this doesn’t tell much, but what if we told you this is the firm responsible for creating the Apple mouse? Tom Kelley is IDEO’s General Manager and he reveals many anecdotes and behind-the-scenes strategies that can be useful for any kind of business. 

Why we loved it

The Art of Innovation is entertaining and inspiring. Getting to know how such a leading company works behind the scenes is a privilege. You will have fun when reading Kelley’s anecdotes and also learn how to apply innovation in your own company, for instance by applying its 5-steps process.

8. El Libro de la Innovación (Alexander Phimister, Albert Torruella)

About the book

El Libro de la Innovación is a complete guide on innovation, including everything there is to know in this field: types of innovation, analysys, methodology, open and close innovation, and real examples. Although its main authors are Alexander Phimister and Albert Torruella, this book is co-written by innovation experts leading relevant Spanish companies.

Why we loved it

This is a great option to get started in innovation, but not only. Tons of experts have come together to write one of the most complete guides on the topic. The great thing is this book never feels like a heavy reading: you can read its chapters independently, and look for precise information you might need. Another great thing about this book is that its target includes all levels of expertise. If you’re interested in different aspects of corporate innovation, whether you are an expert or a junior, this book will come in handy for you.

9. Zero to One (Peter Thiel)

About the book

Zero to One states the need of thinking differently from scratch. In order to innovate and create successful startups, and come up with new products, you need to go back to the very first stages and think differently.

Why we loved it

Thinking differently is always challenging, but going as back as can be and start thinking differently from there is arduous. As you can imagine, this is easier said than done, but Peter Thiel gives some useful insights to achieve it. 

10. Moonshot Thinking: Transforma la Innovación disruptiva en una oportunidad (Ivan Bofarull)

About the book

Moonshot Thinking approaches disruptive innovation and places it as an essential step in order to transform your company. In order to do so, the author (Ivan Bofarull) defines three necessary learnings: adopt a disruptive mentality, being an expert on disruption, and design a system to apply what he calls “moonshot innovation”. 

Why we loved it

Disruptive innovation is probably the most challenging type of innovation, especially when it comes to well-established companies. Knowing what it is exactly, how to identify it in time, and how to approach it with a reasonable plan is crucial in order to develop a successful transformation. If you’re interested in disruptive innovation, this manual will hand in many advantageous learnings.

11. Cómo innovar sin ser Google (Alfons Cornellà)

About the book

Innovation can look dramatically different depending on the type of company where it’s being developed. Factors like its sector and especially its size are key to decide what type of innovation is more convenient. In Cómo Innovar sin Ser Google, Alfons Cornellà explores different methodologies for not-so-large companies. The author shares many of his own examples, that cover different projects in different contexts.

Why we loved it

Introducing innovation for small to medium enterprises is crucial. Small companies tend to be in need of innovation, and they certainly have less resources than famously-innovative companies, such as Google. At Corporate Lab, we are sure you can incorporate innovation regardless of your budget, human resources and size of company. In Cómo Innovar sin Ser Google, you will find many of these tips and solutions.

At Corporate Lab, we're experts in innovation. Corporate Lab is a venture studio specialized in creating new startups for large corporations. If you run a company and want to include corporate innovation in your roadmap, send us a message. We can detect new business opportunities and build new businesses to complement your existing ones.