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  • Published: 19 May 2026
  • ISBN: 9781405965873
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 432

Incorruptible

Why Good Companies Go Bad and How Great Companies Stay Great




A powerful call-to-action and practical guide for building mission-driven companies that are truly incorruptible

\"Indispensable!\" —Kim Scott, New York Times bestselling author of Radical Candor

\"Ries shows us, with rigor and optimism, how to build organizations that are worthy of our trust.\" —Frances Frei, Harvard Business School

\"A playbook to help avoid the inevitable pitfalls and find your path to the business you set out to create.\" —Mark Cuban, entrepreneur and investor

The most radical and powerful idea in business isn’t disruption… it’s integrity.

The Lean Startup transformed how a generation of entrepreneurs build products and sparked a global movement for smarter, faster innovation. Now Eric Ries takes the next step, asking a deeper question: how can we build companies that stay true to their mission once they succeed?

In Incorruptible, Ries reveals the hidden forces that cause even great organizations to drift from their values and shows how to design businesses that can withstand that pressure. Drawing on two decades of work with founders, CEOs, and investors around the world, he exposes the structural flaws that make modern companies vulnerable to short-term thinking and moral compromise. He then offers the blueprint for \"mission-locked\" organizations that can grow, prosper, and endure without losing their soul.

Drawing on wide ranging examples including Cadbury, John Lewis Partnership, Vanguard and Anthropic, Incorruptible uncovers the urgent need for purpose-driven leadership. It gives every builder—founder, executive, investor, or citizen—the tools to create enterprises that uplift rather than exploit. We all have a role to play in shaping a better future. This book is the place to start.

  • Published: 19 May 2026
  • ISBN: 9781405965873
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 432

About the author

Eric Ries

Eric Ries is an entrepreneur and author of the popular blog Startup Lessons Learned. He cofounded and served as CTO of IMVU, his third startup, and has had plenty of startup failures along the way. He is a frequent speaker at business events, has advised a number of startups, large companies, and venture capital firms on business and product strategy, and is an entrepreneur-in-residence at Harvard Business School. His Lean Startup methodology has been written about in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Harvard Business Review, the Huffington Post, and many blogs. He lives in San Francisco.

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