Incorruptible Book Review

Thanks to Gildre and Brian Lee, I was able to attend an online fireside chat with Eric Ries. I had been vaguely aware of Eric’s book, The Lean Startup, but now I deeply understand that Eric is much more than an author. He is the driver of an established global movement that aims to use capitalism as a way to improve society.

Although he uses phrases like “ “powered by love” and “ The Spiritual Holding Company”, Eric is not naive. He has survived the sanity-threatening challenges of startup life and Incorruptible is peppered with examples of vicious short term “business’ practices. With numerous personal experiences, data, and historic/contemporary examples, he demonstrates how companies that develop a long term, caring relation ship for their customers are rewarded with profits. The bottom line to this book, and all of Eric’s work: there is hope.

One of Eric’s many skills is that he is a wonderful writer. Incorruptible is not a dry manifesto of bullet points and lists of you-should-follow-these-rules-if you-want-business-success. Eric writes beautiful sentences. One of my favorites: The problem is this: No individual person can ever — ever — make promises on behalf of a superorganism.

Another favorite: the term status quo sounds so passive, so plain. But the status quo can throw quite a punch. Hemingway would be proud.

Another phrase: It’s too early… until it’s too late. Imagine you have committed your life towards creating a very profitable company that you and your customers are thrilled with. Then, one day your board of directors, kicks you out, tells you to clear out your office by 5. “Fiduciary duty” and “best practices’ strike again.

Situations like the above are, and have been, a recurring story in capitalism: a cotton mill in Scotland, a retail chain in Texas. Polaroid. Snapple. Toys Are Us. And, not just giant established companies. Eric cites a Harvard study that found, among VC backed startups that lacked appropriate protections, only 20% of founders survived even three years after going public. Appropriate protections: lawyers will likely tell you that it’s “too early” to protect yourself, your company, and your ideals. It’s too early… until it’s too late.

Incorruptible aims to create a better future, but it is also fully aware of the past.

When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men in a society, over the course of time they create for themselves a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it.

— Frédéric Bastiat, Economic Sophisms, 1848

Managers not only may but should violate the rules when it is profitable to do so.

— Frank H. Easterbrook and Daniel R. Fischel, Michigan Law Review, 1982

These two quotes preface the chapter called The New Governance.

Incorruptible is filled with knowledge, information and care. Wisdom. I felt as though I were being given advice from a mentor who understood my situation and mindset. This same mentor is is unforgiving in the best way.Harder is easier is the chapter that most resonated with me.

Charts, side notes, a fantastic appendix, an index and QR codes: the book is packed with practical info.

I cannot recommend Incorrupted enough. As Tim O’Reilly put it: If you want the world to be a better place than it is, this book is a good place to start.”

sb

Incorruptible by Eric Ries - Why Good Companies Go Bad

Eric Ries's new book - Incorruptible - on why successful companies turn on their founding values, and how to build ones…

www.incorruptible.co

Oh... I am not making any money from this, in any way. I was lucky to be invited to hear Eric speak, and the book is important. Very important.