"Reading it made me so hopeful and excited that I've been telling everyone I know about it. This is not just a book for MBAs or people who work in business. It's for anyone who has wondered, 'Is capitalism fixable?'...The book doesn't encourage a pivot away from profit-making. Quite the contrary—it argues that if you want your business to do well, founders and executives should focus on doing good."
Description
Instant New York Times Bestseller and a Barnes & Noble Best Business Book of 2026
"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.
Reviews
"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."
