Top Business books recommended by experts

At MentorCruise, we are all about making the most out of the experience of others. As part of that, we've connected and asked dozens of experts and professionals about their favourite Business books – and here are the answers.

Table of Contents

Fundamentals of Business

Understanding the concepts of Business starts with understanding the fundamentals. On your way to mastery, it's crucial for you to understand how certain concepts were derived, and why things work like they do. Starting with these resources is the best way to do so.

Blue Ocean Strategy

BLUE OCEAN STRATEGY is the simultaneous pursuit of differentiation and low cost to open up a new market space and create new demand. It is about creating and capturing uncontested market space, thereby making the competition irrelevant.

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Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Greater Things

Hidden Potential offers a new framework for raising aspirations and exceeding expectations. Adam Grant weaves together groundbreaking evidence, surprising insights, and vivid storytelling that takes us from the classroom to the boardroom, the playground to the Olympics, and underground to outer space.

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The $100 Startup

The $100 Startup by Chris Guillebeau is a guide for aspiring entrepreneurs. It offers practical insights and case studies on starting and growing a business on a shoestring budget. The book emphasizes creativity, simplicity, and resourcefulness as key ingredients for success.

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The Hard Thing About Hard Things

"The Hard Thing About Hard Things" by Ben Horowitz is a guide for entrepreneurs and leaders that offers practical advice on managing difficult situations in business, including laying off employees, handling investor relationships, and making tough decisions.

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HBR's 10 Must Reads on Mental Toughness (with Bonus Interview "Post-Traumatic Growth and Building Resilience" with Martin Seligman) (HBR's 10 Must Reads)

If you read nothing else on mental toughness, read these ten articles by experts in the field. We've combed through hundreds of articles in the Harvard Business Review archive and selected the most important ones to help you build your emotional strength and resilience--and to achieve high performance.

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The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It

An instant classic, this revised and updated edition of the phenomenal bestseller dispels the myths about starting your own business. Small business consultant and author Michael E. Gerber, with sharp insight gained from years of experience, points out how common assumptions, expectations, and even technical expertise can get in the way of running a successful business. Gerber walks you throug…

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Additional Business Reading

These books are not required for you to learn Business, but they are highly recommended for you to deepen your knowledge.

Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

Book Summary – Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know. The way we think affects not just our ability to succeed in a dynamic, fast-changing world; it also affects how we make sense of things around us. This book by Adam Grant is about improving your mental agility and the ability to rethink.

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The 4-Hour Workweek

The 4-Hour Work Week is all about how to change the way readers look at how they live and work and why they should challenge old assumptions. The author writes from a unique vantage point. He created a life and a career he chose out of consistently questioning the traditional assumptions about life and work.

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Unscripted: The Epic Battle for a Media Empire and the Redstone Family Legacy

In 2016, the fate of Paramount Global—the multibillion-dollar entertainment empire that includes Paramount, CBS, MTV, Nickelodeon, Showtime, and Simon & Schuster—hung precariously in the balance. Its founder and head, ninety-three-year-old Sumner M. Redstone, was facing a very public lawsuit brought by a former romantic companion, Manuela Herzer—a lawsuit that placed Sumner’s deteriorating hea…

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Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup

Bad Blood by John Carreyrou is a non-fiction book that tells the fascinating yet terrifying story of Elizabeth Holmes and her company, Theranos. The book takes a deep dive into the massive fraud that was perpetrated by the company and the incredible deceit that kept it going for so long.

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Hbr's 10 Must Reads on Emotional Intelligence (with Featured Article What Makes a Leader? by Daniel Goleman)

This collection of articles includes: “What Makes a Leader” by Daniel Goleman, “Primal Leadership: The Hidden Driver of Great Performance” by Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis, and Annie McKee, “Why It’s So Hard to Be Fair” by Joel Brockner, “Why Good Leaders Make Bad Decisions” by Andrew Campbell, Jo Whitehead, and Sydney Finkelstein, “Building the Emotional Intelligence of Groups” by Vanessa …

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Rework

Most business books give you the same old advice: Write a business plan, study the competition, seek investors, yadda yadda. If you're looking for a book like that, put this one back on the shelf. Read it and you'll know why plans are actually harmful, why you don't need outside investors, and why you're better off ignoring the competition. The truth is, you need less than you think. You don't…

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This list is curated by MentorCruise and can include Amazon affiliate links. Have any other suggestions? Add here.

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Who am I? I have 12 years hands-on expertise in building and managing innovative fintech and AI solutions. Currently, at Mastercard I'm a Technical co-founder of a portfolio of six fintech products, driving their end-to-end lifecycle from ideation to global market launch. Currently leading six teams totalling 110 team members. …

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