Why I'm not writing a business book

It took me a while, about three to six months, but I decided not to write a business book. So let me back up a little bit. The idea of writing a book has been a few years in the making, and I didn't really pursue it actively, but I had a precise idea about what the book would be about. Spoiler: it would be about innovating in chaotic, nonlinear times.

And this summer, I had the real opportunity to discuss with a very lovely and kind editor who has a range of books that I deem quite readable, although they talk about business, innovation, and creativity. And that's a big thing, because I think that most of these books now are pretty much useless. See this link if you wonder why.

So everything was well, and I was pretty much on track to prepare myself during August and maybe September to sink some time into writing that piece and see where it would go. I went through the motions of finding a proper target for the book, building the different chapters, and again, having a pretty solid idea of what I would do with it. But it didn’t really click for me.

I ended up believing that, in 2025, writing such a book would be pretty much useless.

Why do I say that?

Well, first, there's such an abundance of literature on every specific topic — and business strategy and innovation being among the worst offenders — that it feels that if you're not Jensen Huang, the CEO of NVIDIA, or Sam Altman, no one is really going to read your book. And to be clear, I think that reading one of their books about innovation as a template for what you should do with your own business would be a pure waste of your time anyway.

So there is that.

But let's say that, okay, you have my book, and you read it. What are you going to do with it? One of two things, pretty much.

One, as a typical editor would say, you're going to be inspired. Well, that's fine. But who cares? What are you going to do after that? I mean, I'm not a motivational speaker. I'm not pushing you to change your life or to lose weight or to do more sports or whatever. My business is very practical and all about the value that you can drive with what you do with me.

The other thing would be the opposite, and be able to get practical about your business and drive some level of strategic and operational transformation. Sure. Now you need to ask yourself: Is a book a proper format to do that? A book is a fixed thing. It's not going to change, it's not going to adapt, it's not going to answer your questions, it's not going to move anything. It will, of course, possibly lay out a proper template to work on your strategy, and I guess that's fine. That could be interesting.

But it would also be very generic.

Remember, I'm a firm believer in the mantra “there is no method” and I do (aggressively) stand by it. So I would really feel like a proper fraud selling you a five-step book on 'effective innovation.' Of course, I could still help you cruise through the different tools and approaches and see what you need to do about it in a broader context, which was admittedly my initial plan. But then again, hey, I have a blog already with 1,373 articles I've been writing for nearly 20 years. And I even tried to sort them as conveniently as possible.

• Need to innovate in chaotic times? I got you covered.
• Want to deep dive into portfolio strategies? Here you go.
• Have to wrap your mind around how new technology flows into a new business? Sure thing.
• Looking for strategic insights last year? One step ahead of you.

Shall I go on?

Since we're there, I should also mention that, beyond the blog and all the articles and keynotes I've been doing for quite some time now, I've developed this web school format, which is much more interesting for me, much more operational, and way more actionable. There, you have finely crafted and curated content, tailored to specific teams and businesses. The impact? By the end of the year, we'll have crossed the 1,000-trainee mark across all programs, with a solid 86% NPS.

In the end, I don't commit to never writing a book. I expect to be working for the next ten years, so there's still a bit of runway to do that. But, in my field, I really fail to see the use.

So I guess we'll be talking about this again sometime in the future, and I absolutely reserve the right to change my mind about this topic. And also, I'm not fishing for some of you — you know who you are, you already did, and I love you — to tell me how much you would still like to have a book and so on. That's not my point.

We'll see what the future will bring. And again, maybe I will change my mind.

So, this is where I am with this story.