Top Reading list for Social Entrepreneurs
It’s always admirable to see a successful business of any kind, but some entrepreneurs do more than just making a profit. Some go the extra mile and help others, bring resources, opportunities, training, and other assets to those who need them most. The result? A new breed of socially-conscious business models is born and now, there’s a rising demand for organizational leaders who can steer innovation along such lines. Adopting a social entrepreneur mindset will soon be a must for all leaders. The books suggested are not just to educate you about the know-hows of social entrepreneurship but to inspire today’s budding entrepreneurs to innovate models that benefit both society and its business activities:
- How to Save the World: How to Make Saving The World The Greatest Game We’ve Ever Played by Katie Patrick
Based on her extensive experience with quantitative models, Patrick makes a very convincing argument for the behavioral approach to change. She concludes that measurable changes cannot be enacted by simply telling people what they should do. Rather, she suggests that behavioral motivations address core causes of systemic problems, and more efficiently make changes to address those causes. Katie Patrick uses a cybernetic model to understand drivers of negative and positive change that can not only assist organizations but apply to the individual. Jam-packed full of fascinating insights, this workbook will help unleash your greatest creativity and will help you take giant leaps in your capacity to create real and measurable change on the causes you most care about.
Paperback: INR 4684
Kindle: INR 449
2. Feel Good and Do Well by Doing Good: A Proposition That Social Entrepreneurship and Corporate Social Responsibility Can Be the Model for Business Success and Personal Happiness by Peter Milewski
This book looks at successful small and medium-sized companies contributing to communities, and the far-sighted corporate executives we never hear about who, while successful, are also happy. These are the true-life examples of corporate social responsibility that this book relies on to make its point. It explodes the myth that you have to choose between either having a financially successful career, business, life, or trying to make a difference in people’s lives. That same myth says that you cannot do both. But you can and this book shows, with real examples, how to do it!
Paperback: INR 1500
Kindle: INR 208
3. The Business of Good: Social Entrepreneurship and the New Bottom Line by Jason Haber
In this book, Haber examines Capitalism 2.0, philanthropy, and the role and power of media alongside the world’s response as social entrepreneurship changes how we give, how we invest, and who we are. The author takes the reader on a thought-provoking journey using engaging examples with historical context to identify and uncover the roots of this phenomenon. Haber shows us where the heart of innovation lies and persuasively explains that making a difference is good for business.
Paperback: INR 2145
Kindle: INR 1066
4. Cascades: How to Create a Movement that Drives Transformational Change by Greg Satell
This book will make you believe that ‘To truly change the world or even just your little corner of it, you don’t need a charismatic leader or a catchy slogan. What you need is a cascade: small groups that are loosely connected but united by a common purpose.’ As individual entities, these groups may seem inconsequential, but when they synchronize their collective behavior as networks, they become immensely powerful. Information spreads not through best friends but casual acquaintances. It’s not connecting with the ‘influentials’ because change is a matter of networks and not nodes.
Paperback: INR 2382
Kindle: INR 2382
5. Building a Successful Social Venture: A Guide for Social Entrepreneurs by Eric Carlson and James Koch
Social ventures hold enormous promise to solve some of the world’s most intractable problems. This book offers a tested framework for students, social entrepreneurs, and field researchers who wish to learn more about the application of business principles and theories of change for advancing social progress and creating a more just world. Not only does it offer how-to advice, but it challenges our thoughts about the way organizations are supposed to be set up. Anybody who loves a good mental shake-up that gets the creative juices flowing, Building a Successful Social Venture will certainly deliver you that. This book will make you believe that social ventures hold enormous promise to solve some of the world’s most intractable problems.
Paperback: INR 388
Kindle: INR 306
6. The Art of Stillness by Pico Iyer
This book has argued the case of the unexpected pleasures of sitting still as a way of falling in love with the world and everything in it, stating ‘The best way to change our lives is to change the way we look at it.’ Pico Iyer describes the way this idea has affected him, giving an account of his struggles while holding the ‘center of stillness’. This is a book that you will not only love but also keep coming back to.
Paperback: INR 315
Kindle: N/A
7. Letters to a Young Entrepreneur: Succeeding in Business Without Losing at Life by Ricardo Levy
The book speaks to everyone with an entrepreneurial spirit, capturing the personal challenges encountered in actualizing a vision. In fifteen letters, each distilling the essence of significant insights, Ricardo Levy reflects upon experiences that have enabled and inspired his journey. a keen interest in spirituality and personal growth and his conviction that a person’s inner beliefs and purpose are deeply linked to business success. He also describes what technological overload has done to our sense of well-being, wonder, and wholeness and how to come out of it.
Paperback: INR 1557
Kindle: INR 780
8. Getting Beyond Better by Arianna Huffington, Roger L. Martin, and Sally Osberg
The authors of the book have set out a framework for understanding how successful social entrepreneurs actually go about producing transformative change. They’ve explained it in four key stages: understanding the world; envisioning a new future; building a model for change; and scaling the solution. They focus their attention not only on the symptoms of a social problem but also on finding ways to address the root causes and bring about positive change on a grand scale in ways others can replicate
Paperback: INR 1198
Kindle: INR 648
9. Deep Work By Cal Newport
Deep work is a valuable and rare book that makes you believe that it is possible to cultivate ‘meaningful’ work following four rules: work deeply, embrace boredom, quit social media, and drain the shallows. It emphasizes that this might be difficult or uneasy for anyone to establish these at first but as with all kinds of routines and rituals, it will become easier and it will strengthen over time and the rewards will come back to you tenfold. This is an essentially insightful book which talks about the importance of focus and concentration in both our work and personal lives.
Paperback: INR 240
Kindle: INR 118
10. Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard by Chip Heath and Dan Heath
This book by Chip and Dan Heath show that if the change is needed to succeed, logic, emotion, and the environment need to be properly balanced in order to get stakeholders to exhibit the right behavior. This, as the authors point out in countless stories, is true regardless of whether the change occurs in the public, private, or educational sector. Heaths bring together decades of counterintuitive research in psychology, sociology, and other fields to shed new light on how we can bring about transformative change.
Paperback: INR 400
Kindle: INR 240
Contributed By- Sakshi Singh, Content Writer @ Mitti Ke Rang
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