Scaling books we recommend

Here are our favourite books related to scaling. Have also a look at our own contributions on our blog.

Systems Thinking for Social Change | Book

This book by David Peter Stroh provides practical guidance to solving complex problems. It is one of the books that we have learned a lot from and it is worth reading. Read more

The Tipping Point |Book

Malcolm Gladwell writes about how this moment, when an idea, trend or social behavior crosses a threshold, tips and spreads.Related to movement creation it makes for an interesting read, although it is more descriptive than predictive. Read more

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Innovation and Scaling for Impact | Book

This book by Johanna Mair and Christian Seelos argues that innovations are activities that lie outside the established knowledge base of organizations. Three dimensions of knowledge—what-knowledge, how-knowledge, and why-knowledge—form the basis of a central framework that they call the “impact-creation logic” (ICL) of an organization. Read more

Behavioural Economics in Action |MOOC

One of the transformational barriers mentioned most frequently when it comes to environmental sustainability is that of behavioural change. Understanding the basics of behavioural economics can thus provide a basis to ideate on how to potentially overcome such barriers and achieve impact at scale.

6 week free online course offered by the University of Toronto on edX

Disclosing new worlds |Book

This books describes a social practice approach which is a wonderful approach to bring about deep and lasting change. Truly worth reading. Order it here

Platform Scale | Book

Platform scale explains the various manifestations of the platform approach and the major success or failure factors. It is a builder’s manual for anyone building a platform business today. It lays out a structured approach to designing and growing a platform business model and addresses the key factors that lead to success and failure of these businesses.

Scaling up Business Solutions to Social Problems | Book

This practical guide for social and corporate entrepreneurs looking at both barriers to scaling (e.g. regulatory issues, lack of cash, lack of technical capabilities, lack of cost-efficient last-mile distributors, lack of property rights) as well as strategies to scale up faster (e.g. involving the entire ecosystem, scaling through collaborations with large corporations, hybrid value chains between corporations and citizen sector organisations.

MSI management framework | Handbook

MSI’s approach to scaling up is intended as practical guidance on the selection, design and implementation of pilot programs and on the scaling up of effective prototypes. It is summarised in two documents: a management framework for scaling up and a toolkit linked directly to that framework

Scaling Up. The convergence of social economy and sustainability | Book

The contributors to this book investigated innovative social economies in British Columbia and Alberta and discovered that achieving a social good through collective, grassroots enterprise resulted in a sustainable way of satisfying human needs that was also, by extension, environmentally responsible.

Scaling Social Entrepreneurship | Book

Scaling Social Entrepreneurship – Lessons Learned from One Laptop per Child provides a summary on less than 100 pages regarding the personal experience of Robert H. Hacker, former CFO of One Laptop per Child on scaling a social entrepreneurship venture. Starting with why social entrepreneurship emerged as new “business model”, the relaxation of the government as being the sole provider of public good and the non-profit-movement, he provides insights as to what social entrepreneurship should address (large, worldwide problems) and how to scale it.

Skid Row School for Large Scale Change | Training

At Skid Row School the believe that the key to leading large-scale change is a paradox they call unleashing — orchestrating the loss of control of thousands of people moving in the desired direction. Unleashing is counter-intuitive, vastly different from the systems of control that are widely taught in management programs and practiced in most organizations. Systems of control backfire when it comes to making large-scale change, which requires engaging those outside of our direct sphere of influence.

Impact Hub Scaling | Program

Impact Hub Scaling is a program that supports 100 social entrepreneurs to scale-up locally or internationally through 8 Impact Hubs across Europe.

Within one year, a team of top mentors supports entrepreneurs to acquire the skills they require to successfully scale their Enterprise, drive social innovation forward and create positive impact.

Meeting of the Minds | Book

The Social Entrepreneur’s Roadmap For Collaborations That Work is a book that has been created to inspire, encourage and guide Social Entrepreneurs to collaborate more effectively. Written by impact entrepreneurs for fellow changemakers, it gathers resourcsee, best practices, case studies, and the roadmap for driving your impact forward. 118 pages

Scaling-up | Book

A follow-up publication to Rockefeller Habits 2.0 on how to grow a company successfully. It looks at preliminaries for traditional company scaling and provides useful insights. It is however not looking at how to scale an idea or a transformation beyond one player.

Harnish, Verne (2014): Scaling Up: How a Few Companies Make It…and Why the Rest Don’t (Rockefeller Habits 2.0)

Stanford Social Innovation Review - Scaling | Web Resource

This site publishes latest original research related to innovative ways nonprofits can increase their reach and social impact. It is one of the best online sources for regular updates on latest academic research results related to social innovation.

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Access it here

L'âge de la multitude | Book

La révolution numérique bouleverse la manière d’entreprendre et de gouverner. C’est particulièrement au travers de “plateformes” sur lesquelles interagissent une multitude d’acteurs que cette révolution se produit. Tous les secteurs de l’économie, jusqu’à l’Etat, bénéficient de cette nouvelle forme de développement d’une intelligence collective

Scaling Lean |Book

By Ash Maurya

This book is a must read for those applying the Lean Start-up approach. It complements the approach by focussing specifically on the scaling phase of the start-up growth and on the metrics to be applied for this phase

Exponential organisations |Book

The book presents ten key characteristics and attributes of Exponential organisations – five external elements and five internal organizational strategies. It contains also a guide to build a startup with these principles and to retrofit these ideas into large organizations.

Scaling Up Climate Action Through Value Chain Mobilization|Article

This report published by WEF describes the approach and benefits related to value chain mobilization to deliver climate action, provides cross-sectoral guidance for implementing these initiatives, and identifies specific opportunities for collaboration in the value chains of bio-based solutions.

The Entrepreneurial State |Book

By Mariana Mazzucato In this bestseller, Mariana Mazzucato is debunking the myth of a public sector lagging behind the private one in terms of economic dynamism and trigger. She on the contrary explains how important the role of the public sector is to initiate and de-risk innovative approaches and how the two sectors need to develop synergies. Buy the book | Read more