Fuel your entrepreneurial fire #5

Oli Mihalache, Professor of International Entrepreneurship, recommends the book Both/And Thinking by Wendy Smith and Marianne Lewis.

Oli says: “Entrepreneurs face many dualities – innovation vs. operational efficiency, short-term gains vs. long-term sustainability, competition vs. collaboration, and so on. This book encourages them to adopt a mindset that embraces these dualities. And it challenges entrepreneurs to think of ways to create synergies rather than choosing one or the other.

A duality mindset is particularly valuable for international entrepreneurs – as they balance local adaptation with global standardisation, manage diverse teams, navigate competing regulatory landscapes and meet global customer expectations.”

Veroniek Collewaert, Professor of Entrepreneurship, recommends the free e-book Scaling through Chaos by Index Ventures, the world’s most renowned venture capital investor.

She says: “Founders are often shocked to learn that after they’ve created a minimum viable product, the majority of their time will be spent managing people. Based on their analysis of about 200 high-profile tech startups, Index Ventures has distilled the pitfalls and best practice on building and leading teams as you scale. The book covers key decisions including hiring, managing, and retaining people – and scaling specific teams. Usefully, advice is split up into stages of the growth process – from 0 to 10 employees, from 11 to 50, from 51 to 125… all the way up to 1000. The book also features interviews with founders, executives and investors throughout the software development world.”