About
"Incorruptible by Eric Ries is the best and most important business book of the year." -Dan Heath, NYT Bestselling Author & Podcast Host of "What It's Like To Be..."
A Thinkers50 Best New Management Book A Next Big Idea Club Must-Read
From Eric Ries, creator of The Lean Startup, comes a bold and urgently needed rethink of how organizations are built-and why success itself so often turns companies against the people and principles that made them worth building in the first place.
For decades, we've explained corporate corruption as a problem of bad actors, moral weakness, or isolated scandals. But that story doesn't match reality. Again and again, companies founded with strong ideals drift toward short-term thinking, extractive behavior, and mission abandonment-often despite the best intentions of the people inside them.
Incorruptible argues that this failure is not primarily ethical. It is structural.
As organizations grow, the systems that govern them-ownership, incentives, charters, accountability, and decision-making-quietly reshape behavior. When those systems are poorly designed, even principled leaders are pushed toward outcomes they never wanted. Success itself becomes a form of financial gravity, bending companies away from their original purpose.
Drawing on two decades of work with founders, CEOs, investors, and institution builders, Ries shows how these failures arise predictably-and how they can be prevented. He reframes corporate governance not as bureaucracy or compliance, but as a creative and strategic act at the heart of building enduring, mission-controlled companies.
At a moment when trust in business is eroding, Incorruptible offers a clear-eyed diagnosis and a practical blueprint for change.
Success alone will not protect what matters most. Only incorruptible design can.
Get more information and bonus materials at incorruptible.co. Over the last two decades, Eric Ries's ideas about continuous innovation, long-term thinking, governance, and market reform have reshaped company building and management practices. He is the creator of the Lean Startup method and the author of the New York Times bestseller The Lean Startup, The Leader's Guide, and The Startup Way. As a founder, Eric has put his own ideas into practice with the Long-Term Stock Exchange (LTSE); Answer.AI, an AI R&D lab; Virgil, a legal services startup; and IMVU. On The Eric Ries Show, he talks with world-class technologists, thought leaders, and executives building for the long-term. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife and three children. "Every founder hopes their path is a straight line. It won't be. They hope they will have the right mentor to help them avoid problems. They won't. Eric Ries gives founders a playbook to help avoid the inevitable pitfalls and find your path to the business you set out to create." "Incorruptible is the rare business book that is both a moral compass and a practical playbook. Ries shows us, with rigor and optimism, how to build organizations that are worthy of our trust." "Incorruptible is a must-read for any founder, board member, investor, or consumer who cares about protecting entrepreneurship, innovation, and the productive power of capitalism from the dangers of short-term thinking-and for anyone who recognizes the importance of trustworthy and enduring institutions for a thriving democracy." "Better is possible, but only if we understand what we're up against. This profound book will inform and infuriate, and then it will help you see a path forward. It should be required reading for anyone who manages (or has a manager). Gravity is real." "Incorruptible demonstrates the importance of mission-driven leadership and defying the status quo to build organizations that withstand the test of time. Through Eric's decades of experience building and running businesses, he articulates how companies avoid the traps of corr
A Thinkers50 Best New Management Book A Next Big Idea Club Must-Read
From Eric Ries, creator of The Lean Startup, comes a bold and urgently needed rethink of how organizations are built-and why success itself so often turns companies against the people and principles that made them worth building in the first place.
For decades, we've explained corporate corruption as a problem of bad actors, moral weakness, or isolated scandals. But that story doesn't match reality. Again and again, companies founded with strong ideals drift toward short-term thinking, extractive behavior, and mission abandonment-often despite the best intentions of the people inside them.
Incorruptible argues that this failure is not primarily ethical. It is structural.
As organizations grow, the systems that govern them-ownership, incentives, charters, accountability, and decision-making-quietly reshape behavior. When those systems are poorly designed, even principled leaders are pushed toward outcomes they never wanted. Success itself becomes a form of financial gravity, bending companies away from their original purpose.
Drawing on two decades of work with founders, CEOs, investors, and institution builders, Ries shows how these failures arise predictably-and how they can be prevented. He reframes corporate governance not as bureaucracy or compliance, but as a creative and strategic act at the heart of building enduring, mission-controlled companies.
At a moment when trust in business is eroding, Incorruptible offers a clear-eyed diagnosis and a practical blueprint for change.
Success alone will not protect what matters most. Only incorruptible design can.
Get more information and bonus materials at incorruptible.co. Over the last two decades, Eric Ries's ideas about continuous innovation, long-term thinking, governance, and market reform have reshaped company building and management practices. He is the creator of the Lean Startup method and the author of the New York Times bestseller The Lean Startup, The Leader's Guide, and The Startup Way. As a founder, Eric has put his own ideas into practice with the Long-Term Stock Exchange (LTSE); Answer.AI, an AI R&D lab; Virgil, a legal services startup; and IMVU. On The Eric Ries Show, he talks with world-class technologists, thought leaders, and executives building for the long-term. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife and three children. "Every founder hopes their path is a straight line. It won't be. They hope they will have the right mentor to help them avoid problems. They won't. Eric Ries gives founders a playbook to help avoid the inevitable pitfalls and find your path to the business you set out to create." "Incorruptible is the rare business book that is both a moral compass and a practical playbook. Ries shows us, with rigor and optimism, how to build organizations that are worthy of our trust." "Incorruptible is a must-read for any founder, board member, investor, or consumer who cares about protecting entrepreneurship, innovation, and the productive power of capitalism from the dangers of short-term thinking-and for anyone who recognizes the importance of trustworthy and enduring institutions for a thriving democracy." "Better is possible, but only if we understand what we're up against. This profound book will inform and infuriate, and then it will help you see a path forward. It should be required reading for anyone who manages (or has a manager). Gravity is real." "Incorruptible demonstrates the importance of mission-driven leadership and defying the status quo to build organizations that withstand the test of time. Through Eric's decades of experience building and running businesses, he articulates how companies avoid the traps of corr