Updated 20-Sep-2023
Peter Drucker claimed that there were only two areas of interest in terms of Entrepreneurship: Innovation and Marketing. Innovation is the creation of a new level of performance (mostly through deploying inventions, not actually inventing things). Marketing is the creation and maintenance of a customer. Of course there is more to Entrepreneurship than that, but those are the two pillars. I've taught university courses in marketing, entrepreneurship and innovation, as well as organizational communication, public relations, and information technology (and a few other areas). This is the distilled list of the greats, and everything else can be mostly ignored out there. This page will be updated over time.
Great Thinkers
- Eliyahu Goldrat
- Clotaire Rapaille - on marketing and persuasion
- Geert Hofstede - for his contributions to understanding national cultures as well as organizational culture
- Geoffrey Moore (who copied from Everett Rogers)
- Peter Drucker - especially Innovation and Entrepreneurship and The Effective Executive
- Steve Blank - on the early-stage entrepreneurship
Great Entrepreneurs
- Jeff Bezos
- Steve Jobs - One of the greatest turn-arounds in history
- Bill Gross (see Idealab below) - His incubator has created over 100 companies, and he actually builds them, not just accelerates or funds or mentors them...
Good Books
- Blue Ocean Strategy -
- Business Model Innovation -
- Why People Buy - Paco Underhill
- The Lean Startup - Eric Reis
Organizations to Consider
- 37 Signals - Privately held (with investment by Amazon)
- Idealab, Bill Gross' incubator - private but great business model