Evan's Book Reviews: Modern Business Agility

I read a lot - not all of it related to agile or business management, but enough. Below are some of the important books that have shaped my thinking (and writing). Not all of them a great (as you can see from my ranking), but they all contain some interesting ideas. This group of reviews will focus on those books that relate to modern business agility. 

This post contains Amazon affilliate links.

Implementing Beyond Budgeting – Unlocking the Performance Potential

Author: Bjarte Bogsnes

This is the only book of it’s kind and I strongly recommend every business agilist reads it. Management, finance and accounting – critically important topics in any organisation.

Evan's rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Buy the book: Amazon link 

Reinventing Scale-Ups: Radical Ideas for Growing Companies

Authors: Travis Marsh, Susan Basterfield, Brent Lowe

From the back cover: "In Reinventing Scale-Ups, Brent, Susan and Travis invite you to explore radical ideas that will challenge your own thinking about what it means to be a leader. The authors profile outlier and progressive organizations around the world whose leaders have chosen to break from tradition and find new and unique ways of scaling-up. Reinventing Scale-Ups is a collection of ideas, experiences and practical tips to stimulate thinking and help you shape your organization."

Evan's rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Buy the book: Amazon link 

Sense and Respond – The Journey to Customer Purpose

Author: Sue Barlow, Stephen Parry, and Mike Faulkner

From the back cover: "The authors argue that lean production should be driven by the desire to achieve optimal customer service by sensing and responding to the customer. The customer is at the centre of the process and the organisation needs to respond in a holistic way so that the customer can impact on the design and delivery of products and processes. The book is based upon substantial research and practice by leading practitioners and heralds a paradigm shift in thinking on these issues."

Evan's rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Buy the book: Amazon link 

Lean Enterprise: How High Performance Organizations Innovate at Scale

Author: Jez Humble, Joanne Molesky, and Barry O’Reilly

From the back cover: "Through case studies, you’ll learn how successful enterprises have rethought everything from governance and financial management to systems architecture and organizational culture in the pursuit of radically improved performance. Adopting Lean will take time and commitment, but it’s vital for harnessing the cultural and technical forces that are accelerating the rate of innovation."

Evan's rating: ⭐⭐⭐

Buy the book: Amazon link 

Company-wide Agility with Beyond Budgeting, Open Space & Sociocracy

Author: Jutta Eckstein & John Buck

From the back cover: "Today companies are expected to be flexible and both rapidly responsive and resilient to change, which basically asks them to be Agile. Lack of an overarching theory about how to expand the Agile Manifesto has led to many fragmented attempts to apply Agile company-wide. Yet, doing Agile (the mechanics) is different from being Agile (the mindset). The mindset lets you apply flexible Agile patterns not only for software development teams but for the whole company."

Evan's rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Buy the book: Amazon link