Top Strategy books curated by experts

At MentorCruise, we are all about making the most out of the experience of others. As part of that, we have connected and asked dozens of experts and professionals about their favourite Strategy books – and here are the answers.

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Top Strategy books recommended by experts
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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.

Playing to Win: How Strategy Really Works

Playing to Win: How Strategy Really Works

Playing to Win, a noted Wall Street Journal and Washington Post bestseller, outlines the strategic approach Lafley, in close partnership with strategic adviser Roger Martin, used to double P&G’s sales, quadruple its profits, and increase its market value by more than $100 billion when Lafley was…

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise.

Blue Ocean Strategy, Expanded Edition: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant

Blue Ocean Strategy, Expanded Edition: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant

OVER 4 MILLION COPIES SOLD WALL STREET JOURNAL AND BUSINESSWEEK BESTSELLER RECOGNIZED AS ONE OF THE MOST ICONIC AND IMPACTFUL STRATEGY BOOKS EVER WRITTEN The global phenomenon that has sold over 4 million copies, is published in a record-breaking 49 languages and is a bestseller across five cont…

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise.

The Prince

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 su…

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise.

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

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…

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise.

Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business

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 Sy…

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise.

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

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.…

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise.

Additional Strategy Reading

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

Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors

Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors

Now nearing its sixtieth printing in English and translated into nineteen languages, Michael E. Porter's Competitive Strategy has transformed the theory, practice, and teaching of business strategy throughout the world. Electrifying in its simplicity—like all great breakthroughs—Porter’s analysi…

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise.

Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind

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.…

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise.

Your Strategy Needs a Strategy: How to Choose and Execute the Right Approach

Your Strategy Needs a Strategy: How to Choose and Execute the Right Approach

You think you have a winning strategy. But do you? Executives are bombarded with bestselling ideas and best practices for achieving competitive advantage, but many of these ideas and practices contradict each other. Should you aim to be big or fast? Should you create a blue ocean, be adaptive, p…

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise.

Thinking Strategically

Thinking Strategically

A major bestseller in Japan, Financial Times Top Ten book of the year, Book-of-the-Month Club bestseller, and required reading at the best business schools, Thinking Strategically is a crash course in outmaneuvering any rival. This entertaining guide builds on scores of case studies taken from b…

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise.

Traction: Get A Grip On Your Business

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…

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise.

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.

Your Next Five Moves: Master the Art of Business Strategy

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 y…

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise.

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

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 g…

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise.

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