The top 10 books of 2022 for entrepreneurs

Launched in 2012, YourStory’s Book Review section features over 350 titles on innovation, entrepreneurship, creativity, and digital media. See our earlier lists of ‘Top 10 Books for Entrepreneurs’ from the past 10 years as well: 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013 and 2012.

The selection of our Top Ten Books this year provides advice on scaling startups, leadership qualities, innovative culture, data strategy, and even geopolitics. Country-specific titles focus on India and Poland as well.

Check out these titles below and click through to see our full book reviews; also browse our author interview section for more in-depth insights into entrepreneurship.

Happy reading, happy leading!

Startup Compass: How Iconic Entrepreneurs Got it Right, by Ujwal Kalra and Shobhit Shubhankar

This must-read book provides a useful roadmap for entrepreneurs, along with examples and hard-earned lessons from exemplary startups. Insights from 20 founders and investors are profiled, along with stories and tips. The material in the 275-page book is inspired by a lecture series at CIIE.CO, the startup incubator established by IIM Ahmedabad. See our book review here.

True North: Leading Authentically in Today's Workplace (Emerging Leader Edition), by Bill George and Zach Clayton

How should aspiring leaders discover who they really are? How can they develop themselves, and also empower others while leading in times of uncertainty and crisis? Answers to these questions are well explained in this compelling 300-page book, a wake-up call to current leaders and a valuable resource for aspiring leaders. See our book review here.

The DREAM Founder: Creating a Successful Startup, by Dhruv Nath

This engaging 240-page book provides a range of profiles and lessons from startup successes and setbacks. There are also expert tips from leading entrepreneurs in India. The case studies include large startups and smaller players, and are peppered with the author’s signature humour. Lessons from successes as well as failed startups are shared. See our book review here.

The Culture Advantage: Empowering your People to Drive Innovation, by Daniel Strode

This compelling book by an innovation expert offers eight principles, structures and stories for creating the right culture of innovation. The frameworks in the book are backed with a number of interviews, questions for reflection, and examples on innovation, beyond the usual suspects. See our book review here.

The Rebuilders: Going from Setback to Comeback in Business and Beyond, by Sara Tate and Anna Vogt

While much attention understandably focuses on business success stories, there is much to learn as well from failures, mistakes, and misfortune. This must-read book is packed with insights, tools and stories on how to be resilient despite failures and mistakes. Each chapter is divided into four sections: myth, truth, tool, and story. See our book review here.

The Great Tech Game: Shaping Geopolitics and the Destinies of Nations, by Anirudh Suri

Written by the founding partner and managing director of the India Internet Fund, this wide-ranging book provides frameworks and historical anecdotes for what it takes for a nation to succeed in this technology-dominant era. Waves of technology are creating a new set of winners and losers on the global stage. State and non-state actors will increasingly jostle for a stronger role.

Be Data Driven: How Organizations Can Harness the Power of Data, by Jordan Morrow

This book outlines a step-by-step roadmap to building a data-driven organisation or team. It places the role of data strategy at the centre of the framework, which includes leadership, data literacy, skilling, tools, and culture. The author shows how data strategy has become even more crucial to business success in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Winning Middle India: The Story of India’s New-Age Entrepreneurs by Bala Srinivasa and TN Hari

Aspiring entrepreneurs targeting the vast markets beyond well-off urban consumers will find inspiring stories and insightful frameworks for their journey in this 185-page book. The authors profile a new generation of founders who are leveraging platform business models, smartphones, and digital behaviour shifts of Indian consumers. See our book review here.

Anchoring Change: Seventy-Five Years of Grassroots Intervention That Made a Difference, edited by Vikram Singh Mehta, Neelima Khetan and Jayapadma R V.

Social enterprises and non-profit organisations play a key role in a country’s socio-economic development. Over a period of 75 years since India’s independence, the editors profile 24 civil society organisations across India that have done outstanding grassroots work. Key learnings and success principles are provided in each chapter by many of the founders. See our book review here.

Startup Guide Warsaw

The Startup Guide series of books, published by Sissel Hansen in Copenhagen, covers the startup ecosystem in over 40 cities around the world. Startup Guide Warsaw shows how Poland’s capital is on a fast track to becoming the most startup-friendly city in Eastern Europe.

The publisher and editorial team deserve an award for the entire book series, each of which features inspiring interviews with founders, investors, accelerators and educators. We pick this title on Warsaw because it shines the spotlight beyond the usual startup hubs of the world, and is one of the most picturesque startup books around! See our book review here.

We look forward to your comments as well as your suggestions for books to review in 2023. All of us at YourStory wish our readers and partners a happy holiday season and a terrific year ahead – may a million successful startups bloom!

YourStory has also published the pocketbook ‘Proverbs and Quotes for Entrepreneurs: A World of Inspiration for Startups’ as a creative and motivational guide for innovators (downloadable as apps here: Apple, Android).