Top Strategy 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 Strategy books – and here are the answers.

Table of Contents

Fundamentals of Strategy

Understanding the concepts of Strategy 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.

Scaling Up: How a Few Companies Make It...and Why the Rest Don't (Rockefeller Habits 2.0 Revised Edition)

It’s been over a decade since Verne Harnish’s best-selling book Mastering the Rockefeller Habits was first released. Scaling Up (Rockefeller Habits 2.0) is the first major revision of this business classic which details practical tools and techniques for building an industry-dominating business. This book is written so everyone ― from frontline employees to senior executives ― can get aligned …

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The Lean Startup

Eric Ries defines a startup as an organization dedicated to creating something new under conditions of extreme uncertainty. This is just as true for one person in a garage or a group of seasoned professionals in a Fortune 500 boardroom. What they have in common is a mission to penetrate that fog of uncertainty to discover a successful path to a sustainable business. The Lean Startup approach f…

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The innovator's dilemma

The bestselling classic on disruptive innovation, by renowned author Clayton M. Christensen. His work is cited by the world’s best-known thought leaders, from Steve Jobs to Malcolm Gladwell. In this classic bestseller

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Good Strategy Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why It Matters

Good strategy identifies the key challenge to overcome. Bad strategy fails to identify the nature of the challenge. If you don't know what the problem is, you can't evaluate alternative guiding policies or actions to take, and you can't adjust your strategy as you learn more over time.

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On War

Carl von Clausewitz’s On War is the most significant attempt in Western history to understand war, both in its internal dynamics and as an instrument of policy. Since the work's first appearance in 1832, it has been read throughout the world, and has stimulated generations of soldiers, political leaders, and intellectuals. First published in 1976 and revised in 1984, Michael Howard and Peter P…

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Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind

The first book to deal with the problems of communicating to a skeptical, media-blitzed public, Positioning describes a revolutionary approach to creating a "position" in a prospective customer's mind-one that reflects a company's own strengths and weaknesses as well as those of its competitors. Writing in their trademark witty, fast-paced style, advertising gurus Ries and Trout explain how to…

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Additional Strategy Reading

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

Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business

All entrepreneurs and business leaders face similar frustrations—personnel conflict, profit woes, and inadequate growth. Decisions never seem to get made, or, once made, fail to be properly implemented. But there is a solution. It's not complicated or theoretical.The Entrepreneurial Operating System® is a practical method for achieving the business success you have always envisioned. More than…

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Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap...and Others Don't

he Challenge: Built to Last, the defining management study of the nineties, showed how great companies triumph over time and how long-term sustained performance can be engineered into the DNA of an enterprise from the verybeginning. But what about the company that is not born with great DNA? How can good companies, mediocre companies, even bad companies achieve enduring greatness? The Study: F…

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Dare to Disrupt: A Playbook for Transformational Business Growth

Fearless Disruption is not just for the Apples, Amazons, and Teslas of the world, and Keegan is here to prove it. True business transformation—the revolutionary changes that enable a company to outpace its competitors and innovate rapidly to attain exponential growth—is achievable by every business if they have the right formula for successful scalability and sustainability and the fortitude, …

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Blue Ocean Strategy

In this perennial bestseller, embraced by organizations and industries worldwide, globally preeminent management thinkers W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne challenge everything you thought you knew about the requirements for strategic success. Recognized as one of the most iconic and impactful strategy books ever written, BLUE OCEAN STRATEGY, now updated with fresh content from the authors, argu…

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Traction: Get A Grip On Your Business

Do you have a grip on your business, or does your business have a grip on you. All entrepreneurs and business leaders face similar frustrations—personnel conflict, profit woes, and inadequate growth. Decisions never seem to get made, or, once made, fail to be properly implemented. But there is a solution. It's not complicated or theoretical.The Entrepreneurial Operating System® is a practical …

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The Prince

"Il Principe" (titolo originale in lingua latina: "De Principatibus", lett. "Sui Principati") è un trattato di dottrina politica scritto da Niccolò Machiavelli nel 1513, nel quale espone le caratteristiche dei principati e dei metodi per mantenerli e conquistarli. Si tratta senza dubbio della sua opera più nota e celebrata, quella dalle cui massime (spesso superficialmente interpretate) sono n…

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Specializations and Deeper Strategy Knowledge

You've got your basics in order – time to move on to some advanced and specialized concepts. Strategy is evolving every day, these books can help you master it.

THE ART OF WAR: Ancient Wisdom & Modern Applications - A Practical Guide to Strategic Mastery (2025 Great Classics)

For over two millennia, Sun Tzu’s legendary work The Art of War has inspired leaders, entrepreneurs, and strategists to achieve unparalleled success. This timeless masterpiece goes beyond the battlefield, offering profound lessons in strategic thinking, overcoming obstacles, and achieving your goals in every area of life—from business to personal growth.

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Your Next Five Moves: Master the Art of Business Strategy

Both successful entrepreneurs and chess grandmasters have the vision to look at the pieces in front of them and anticipate their next five moves. In this book, Patrick Bet-David translates this skill into a valuable methodology that applies to high performers at all levels of business. Whether you feel like you’ve hit a wall, lost your fire, or are looking for innovative strategies to take you…

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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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