Brilliant books that are shaping the thinking and action of digital procurement company CEOs and Founders.
From creativity to exploration, and 2052 forecasts to trillion dollar coaches, the ProcureTechSTARS all know a good book when they see one!
Our conversations with the CEOs and Founders of digital procurement solutions have unveiled some personal and inspiring ways of how they have got to where they are, along with the help of their teams, and what they have learned along the way.
Brilliant books inspire them! Here’s a selection of those books that they were inspired by! Any that inspire you too?
How bad are bananas? by Mike Berners-Lee
Lubomila Jordanova, CEO and co-founder, Plan A
“I’ve gifted it to many people. It’s an interesting book that tells a story of every single action that a human takes on daily basis resulting in CO2 emissions, which explains how we should contextualise our individual footprint in line with the global climate agenda.”
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Fred Laluyaux, President and CEO, Aera Technology
“Going back to when I was a teenager in Paris… which was the start of my appetite for the US. I’ve not read it for 20 years, but it still sticks with me!”
Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration by Edwin E. Catmull and Amy Wallace
Sammeli Sammalkorpi, CEO and co-founder, Sievo
“They wonderfully explain how creating effective and operational processes is one thing, but creating good creative organizations is a different challenge.
How do you combine this need for independence and creativity? How do you foster that? It’s about questioning how to impose control at the same time whilst not letting people working on something for 20 years without results. That has been a great source of inspiration.”
South! by Ernest Shackleton
Giacomo Franchini, CEO, SupplHi
“It’s a book by the British explorer on his real-life experience of trekking to the South Pole which didn’t go too well, yet he and his team pulled through the harsh conditions thanks to his leadership approach, a lot of planning and resilience.”
Trillion Dollar Coach: The leadership handbook of Silicon Valley’s Bill Campbell by Eric Schmidt, Jonathan Rosenberg and Alan Eagle
Tom Howsam, CEO, Paid
Stephany Lapierre, CEO and Founder, TealBook
Play Bigger: How pirates, dreamers and innovators create and dominate markets by Al Ramadan
Alan Holland, CEO and Founder, Keelvar
“It’s all about defining new categories, and I think that was quite inspirational and because it pointed to lessons learned in other domains from Dyson and through to others like McDonald’s and others outside of the tech space. How they set themselves apart and identify what is a new category and became category leaders… that was a very good read.”
The Quest of the Absolute by Honore de Balzac
Pierre Laprée, CEO and Founder, Per Angusta
“There’s a rich chemist, who wants to find the smallest chemical principle at the basis of all things, until he invests all his money in stock which doesn’t end well. I resonate with this story because things you do can sound like a pipe dream, where you pursue something that might not exist. You need to have a big vision but also remain grounded. The book serves as a good warning and a constant reminder that you should not get lost in your dreams. It’s a constant reminder not to lose sight of reality.”
The Hard Thing about Hard Things: Building a Business when there are no easy answers by Ben Horowitz
Heiko Schwarz, CEO and Founder, riskmethods
“It’s about situations for CEOs, entrepreneurs or leaders that are typically not in the management Bibles, as there isn’t a silver bullet, or a recipe to solve them. He addresses the really tough situations when things go wrong, how other leaders behaved, why they behave the way they did and what turned out to be good or bad decision.”
Costas Xyloyiannis, CEO and co-founder, HICX
“He is a well-known VC funder, and it’s great to get a real insight into a CEO’s life and the start-up world, what it’s like and some of those real tough decisions.”
(0) comments