These books are full of ideas about how to take your business forward, innovate, develop your leadership talents and stand out from the crowd.

1. Seven Secrets of Inspired Leaders: How to achieve the extraordinary… by the leaders who have been there and done it. By Phil Dourado and Dr. Phil Blackburn.

2. Rules for Renegades: How to storm the boardroom, build power, harness your individuality and get stuff done! By Christine Comaford-Lynch.

3. Our Emperors Have No Clothes. Incredibly stupid things corporate executives have done while reengineering, restructuring, downsizing, TQM’ing, team-building, and empowering … in order to cover their ifs, ands or “buts”. By Alan Weiss.

4. Funky Business Forever: How to enjoy capitalism. By Jonas Ridderstrale and Kjell Nordstrom.

5. Re-imagine! By Tom Peters.

6. The 18 Challenges of Leadership. A practical, structured way to develop your leadership talent. By Trevor Waldock and Shenaz Kelly-Rawat.

7. Purple Cow: Transform your business by being remarkable. By Seth Godin.

8. Inspiring Women: 25 top female entrepreneurs reveal how real women succeed in business. By Michelle Rosenberg.

9. What the Best CEOs Know: 7 exceptional leaders and their lessons for transforming any business. By Jeffrey A. Krames.

10. The New Leaders: Transforming the art of leadership into the science of results. By Daniel Goleman.

11. Best-Laid Plans: Turning strategy into action throughout your organisation. By Alan Weiss.

These intelligent, creative authors write highly readable, thought-provoking books that are stuffed with ideas that can help inspire creativity and change. These times may be challenging, but they present a perfect opportunity for us to learn and grow, expand our thinking and take lessons from those who have been there before us. And why wouldn’t you?