Three must-read books for tech executives: the timeless principles that predict every disruption

| In Tech
| 5 minute read |by Constantin Gonzalez
A fantastical steampunk garden scene featuring ornate bronze clockwork mechanisms, gears, and a decorative tower with Gothic spires. A winding cobblestone path leads through manicured hedges and colorful flower beds under a golden sunset sky with dramatic clouds.

“How can we become a digital company?”

The manufacturing executive looked genuinely worried. “We make physical products, but everyone says software is eating the world.”

I’ve heard variations of this question hundreds of times over the past decade. Sometimes it’s about cloud computing, sometimes mobile transformation, lately it’s about AI. The technology changes, but the underlying anxiety remains the same: the world is transforming faster than we can adapt.

What these executives might not realize is how predictable these seemingly insurmountable challenges really are.

Over the years of giving presentations and workshops about digital transformation and innovation, I’ve discovered something important. The most successful leaders aren’t the ones who chase every new technology. They’re the ones who understand the timeless patterns underneath all these disruptions.

Think of it as upgrading your mental operating system. While everyone else is frantically installing the latest apps, you’re strengthening the core system that makes everything else work better.

I’ve found that these three books, together, provide this complete mental OS upgrade for tech executives. They’re not new—in fact, their age is part of their power. They’ve helped leaders navigate multiple technology waves, and they’ll help you navigate whatever comes next.

The Innovator’s Dilemma, by Clayton Christensen

Awarded “best business book of the year 1997”, this book literally defined the term “disruptive innovation”. Christensen studied tech companies across decades, finding the repeating patterns by which established companies struggle with new technologies.

I lived through one of these patterns myself. In 2008, I was at Sun Microsystems watching the early days of cloud computing. I even organized CloudCamp Munich in 2009, convinced this was the future. Then Oracle acquired Sun in 2010 and immediately shut down all cloud efforts. Larry Ellison famously dismissed cloud computing as “complete gibberish.”

When I left Oracle for AWS in 2012, my former colleagues thought I was taking a crazy risk. “Why leave a stable company for this cloud thing?” One year later, Oracle announced another round of layoffs—something all too common in traditional IT back then. The pattern Christensen described played out perfectly: a successful company neglecting the new technology to protect its existing business, but missing out on the disruption.

The book reveals a counterintuitive truth: Great companies fail not despite doing everything right, but because they do everything right. They listen to their best customers, maximize profitability, and perfect their existing products—all while missing the disruptive wave that will eventually overwhelm them.

A few years ago, I asked a room of 80 CTOs: “Who here has read ‘The Innovator’s Dilemma’?” Only a handful raised their hands. Here were technology leaders whose primary job was to navigate disruption, yet they hadn’t studied how disruption actually works.

This book gives you the external view—how disruption works in the marketplace. It’s your radar system for seeing changes before they hit.

The Goal, by Eliyahu M. Goldratt

Published in 1984, this business novel follows Alex Rogo, a plant manager struggling with productivity and financial pressure. Through his journey, we learn the Theory of Constraints and other fundamental principles of operational excellence.

What makes this book brilliant is how it teaches you to see inside your organization with new eyes. You learn to identify true bottlenecks, choose metrics that actually matter, and build a culture of continuous improvement.

I once worked with a company that spent years debating their cloud migration. The head of infrastructure kept insisting their existing data center was “free” compared to cloud costs. They optimized for the wrong constraint—perceived cost savings—while their competitors raced ahead with the flexibility and innovation that cloud enabled. That infrastructure head eventually lost their job, but the real tragedy was the years of missed opportunities.

Just last year, I used The Goal’s principles to help define a generative AI strategy. The technology was cutting-edge, but the challenge was classic: what’s the real constraint preventing us from delivering value? Once we identified it, the path forward became clear.

Decades later, “The Phoenix Project” brilliantly adapted these principles to DevOps, proving their timeless relevance. But the original teaches you the fundamental thinking that applies everywhere.

This book transforms how you see operations. It’s your internal diagnostic system.

Speaking of systems…

Thinking in Systems, by Donella H. Meadows

Here’s the insight that changed my career: companies are systems, just like software architectures. They have components that interact in complex ways. Only when you understand these dynamics can you create lasting change.

This book provides the meta-skill that makes the other two even more powerful. It teaches you to see the whole, not just the parts. You learn to identify leverage points where small changes create big impacts, spot feedback loops that either stabilize or destabilize your organization, and avoid solutions that create unintended consequences.

During my time as a Solutions Architect at AWS, this systems perspective was invaluable. It’s the difference between implementing a quick fix that creates three new problems and designing a solution that strengthens the entire organization.

“How can we transform successfully?” sounds simple, but the underlying complexity can be overwhelming. This book gives you the tools to navigate that complexity with confidence.

Your Mental OS Upgrade

These three books work together as a complete system:

  • The Innovator’s Dilemma teaches you to read the external environment—to see disruption coming and understand its dynamics
  • The Goal shows you how to optimize internal operations—to execute effectively despite constraints
  • Thinking in Systems gives you the meta-skill to integrate both views—to see your organization as part of a larger ecosystem

Think of these books as a tree of knowledge: Systems thinking is the trunk, understanding how everything connects. Market dynamics and internal operations are the main branches. From there grow all the specific applications—DevOps transformations, lean startups, agile methodologies. But without understanding the trunk and main branches, you’re just collecting leaves.

That manufacturing executive who asked about becoming a digital company? I recommended these three books. Not because they contain specific digital strategies, but because they teach something more valuable: how to think strategically about any transformation.

In times of rapid change, the right answers are often hidden in what doesn’t change. Market disruption follows patterns. Operational constraints follow patterns. Systems follow patterns. Master these patterns, and you’re equipped for whatever technology throws at you next.

The executives who thrive aren’t the ones with the latest certifications or the biggest AI budgets. They’re the ones who’ve upgraded their mental operating system to handle complexity, change, and opportunity with equal skill.

Start with whichever book matches your most pressing challenge. Then tell me how it applies to your specific situation—I’d love to hear your story.