And The Winner is: The Best Business Books Ever
What are the best business and management books of all-time? Professor David Wyld has compiled a list of the best of the best throughout the decades.
A Compendium of the Best Business Books in History by David Wyld, Professor of Management, Southeastern Louisiana University
From The CEO Refresher (http://www.refresher.com/bestbooks.html)
Soaring To Excellence, Learning To Let Employees Lead
by James Belasco and Ralph Stayer
One of the best ever books on leadership and self directed action. James Belasco provides the academics and Ralph Stayer the practical nuts and bolts of achieving breakthroughs in business through developing ownership and self directed action. What does great performance look like? How can I contribute to your great performance? It is an inspiring work and one that definitely will ‘twist your head’ as you take a good look into the mirror and take ownership for your great performance as a leader. Visit The Leadership Imperative in The CEO Refresher Archives for articles inspired by this brilliant work.
The Art & Practice Of The Learning Organization
by Peter Senge
Peter Senge’s work is a true classic. It is by no means an easy read as he delves very deeply into the very fundamental and systemic issues limiting growth and development. Senge deals with systems archetypes and the principle of leverage – how our actions create our reality, and how to change it. He also outlines the core disciplines of the Learning Organization – personal mastery, mental models, shared vision and team learning – and the leader’s “new work” to lead a learning organization. It is indeed a brilliant work – and truly insightful!
translated by Thomas Cleary
The Art of War (Sunzi bingfa/Sun-Tzu ping-fa) was compiled over two thousand years ago by a mysterious Chinese warrior-philosopher and is one of most widely read and influential books on strategy today. In translator Thomas Cleary’s words, “As a study of the anatomy of organizations in conflict The Art of War applies to competition and conflict in general, on every level from the interpersonal to the international. It’s aim is invincibility, victory without battle, and unassailable strength through understanding of the physics, politics, and psychology of conflict.” Cleary’s translation seems to bring the classic work to life – in how he allows the classic text to emerge centre stage. His concluding remarks ring so very true to this work. “… the classics seem to grow wiser as we grow wiser, more useful the more we use them.”
Choosing Service Over Self Interest
by Peter Block
Peter Block’s work is profound and very deep. It will challenge your fundamental beliefs and offers a clearer path of new and more relevant principles of how businesses can organize to unleash ownership, creative talent and performance. “No one should make a living anymore watching, measuring, or defining what is best for human beings.” This great work deals with the harsh reality of the human spirit and profit, and the need for the redistribution of power, purpose and wealth. It is about partnership and choice, and especially the choice of responsibility over entitlement. See Stewardship in The CEO Refresher Archives for more.
by Gordon Cain
This is an absolutely delightful story of a remarkable man who engineered LBOs in the chemical industry in the 1980s. In his words it’s “a simple account of how honorable men, advised by competent lawyers and investment bankers who never violated a confidence, carried out transactions in which everybody won.” This gentleman ‘walked the talk’ and generated several billion dollars in the process. Gordon Cain’s remarkable story renews our faith in intelligence, business enterprise and the human spirit. See Everybody Wins! A Life in Free Enterprise in The CEO Refresher Archives for a review of this great book.
Crazy Times Call for Crazy Organizations
by Tom Peters
Tom Peters started ‘twisting heads’ with Liberation Management and Thriving on Chaos but the ‘raging, inexorable, thunder lizard evangelist’ took you ‘beyond’ everything in his seminar. The book captures the unique firebrand blend of business logic, passion and compulsive energy he delivers live and it is truly an incredible and mindful adventure. He takes you beyond change – to abandon everything; beyond decentralization – disorganize to unleash imagination; beyond empowerment – every person is a business person; beyond learning – to the curious corporation; toward wow! and perpetual revolution. It may be crazy, but it all makes sense. See The Tom Peters Seminar – The Race Beyond for more. N.B. The book cover links to Amazon.com where it appears only used copies are available. The text links to the audio book.
by James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner
This leadership classic continues to be a bestseller after three editions and twenty years in print. It is the gold standard for research-based leadership, and the premier resource on becoming a leader. This new edition, with streamlined text, more international and business examples, and a graphic redesign, is more readable and accessible than ever before. It’s a superb handbook for contemporary leaders!
A Cubicle’s Eye View of Bosses, Meetings, Management Fads & Other Workplace Afflictions
by Scott Adams
Does your company practice the Dilbert Principle? Is your CEO’s office plastered with Mission Statements and ‘change’ initiatives? Are you asked for status reports on status reports? Have bonuses been replaced with novelty items inscribed with the corporate logo? Are idiots promoted because they have good hair? Scott Adams has captured the essence of the stupidity of ‘management’ in a brilliant book that mocks almost everything traditional bureaucrats hold as sacred.
Assuring High Performance in an Age of Complexity, Vol. 1
by Karl E. Weick and Kathleen M. Sutcliffe
One of the great challenges any business or organization can face is how to deal with the unexpected. The authors look to high reliability organizations (HROs) — aircraft carriers, nuclear power plants, firefighting crews, and others — for the answer. HROs have developed ways of acting that provide a template for all organizations that want to be more reliable in managing the unexpected. Managing the Unexpected is about “mindfulness” and developing a collective state of mindfulness that produces an enhanced ability to discover and correct errors before they escalate into a crisis.
by Gary Hamel and C. K. Prahalad
Gary Hamel and C. K. Prahalad are very ‘large’ in their comprehensive analysis and vision of moving beyond incrementalism to create the future. In their own words their work “provides would be revolutionaries with the tools and concepts they need to challenge the protectors of the past.” This is not light reading – it has an academic bent that is often challenging however, it is grounded in the reality of how great enterprises have crafted a ’strategic architecture’ and have shaped their future. A central theme is ‘core competencies’ – what they are and how to build gateways to the future. This work is about making significant differences: by creating unimaginable products and services; in creating deep meaning in the pursuit of ambitious aspiration; and by inventing new competitive space, generating new wealth, and building a legacy.
Every Person’s Guide to Topsy-Turvy Times
by Tom Peters
Tom Peters took us beyond everything in The Tom Peters Seminar and he’s now ‘out there.’ We’re talking about “Milk, Cookies and Managing People,” “Breaking the Mold,” “Searching for the Diversity Advantage,” “Tomorrow’s Strange Enterprises,” and “Attaining Perpetual Adolescence.” It is truly one of the best business books of all time because even after you have read it countless times you can open it up on any page and find a gem of insight. It’s pure unadulterated insight that will knock your socks off and challenge every assumption you have ever had about what it takes to be the best in business. It is very valuable – because it cuts through and gets through. See Tom Peters Pursuit of Wow in The CEO Refresher Archives for more.
The Four Keys to Finding Success and Satisfaction as a Lifestyle Entrepreneur
by Jamie S. Walters
Jamie S. Walters has written a thought provoking book that celebrates the art and power – of small. It offers us a refreshing new vision of satisfaction and success as a lifestyle entrepreneur. The vision is ‘very large’ and provides practical insights and inspiration for smaller business owners and entrepreneurs, and the opportunity to redefine your personal vision of ‘greatness.’ Big Vision, Small Business also provides invaluable insight for every CEO and corporate executive on the issues of personal success, satisfaction, balance, authenticity, integrity, values, business growth and what is truly meaningful and important. The CEO Refresher features several articles from Ivy Sea Online in Authenticity & Ethics in The CEO Refresher Archives.
Achieving Success at Work and in Life, One Conversation at a Time
by Susan Scott
The secret of “Fierce” is out! How do you inspire followers, attract believers, win contracts, and build visions that become reality? One conversation at a time. One fierce conversation at a time, if you’ve ever worked with Susan Scott. Conversations are the work of the leader and the work horses of every organization. The most popular tool, yet the least understood and most poorly utilized. Susan Scott brings a new and powerful perspective to the topic. Susan’s work is brilliant! She has a very unique talent of being able to ‘engage’ your intellect and then connect it to what you have to do to be more effective in your role as the leader. This is one of the best books of all time – and it will challenge you to be more than you ever believed you could be.
Control Your Destiny or Someone Else Will
by Noel M. Tichy and Stratford Sherman
Few would argue that Jack Welch has been one of the most successful and admired CEOs in history, in terms of creating shareholder value and leading the significant transformation of a major enterprise. The account of the GE Revolution is fascinating in its description of the processes and impact, but especially so in the insights into the thinking, values and the behaviour of the leader. “Change or die,” “Head, heart and guts,” “Boundarylessness,” “Nothing sacred.” “Facing reality,” The “edge” – an insatiable passion for winning and growing – it’s all about high impact and “come follow me” leadership – pure and simple. It is truly a ‘must read’ for leaders who aspire to greatness.
by Angela Mondou
I love it when the book cover breaks the mold and doesn’t fit with convention. That’s just the start of this amazing and inspiring adventure of leadership. This is an action-packed, head-twisting, edgy and powerful handbook that will show you how to lead your own adventure and turn your plans into reality. Hit the Ground Leading is ‘actionable insight’ and is a must read for all of your future leaders. This is one of the best leadership guides of all time. Thank you Angela for your excellent work!
Scoring A Win In A Chaotic World
by Dudley Lynch and Paul L. Kordis
Lynch and Kordis were indeed more than ’slightly ahead of their time’ in their exploration of the need to change “the quality and quantity of our awareness of complexity and our skills and comfort level in working with it.” The authors’ insights are brilliant and so very relevant to the challenges most individuals and organizations faced through the nineties and still grapple with today: going for the elegant outcome; leveraging the wave; breaking set; being on purpose; seeing through the brain’s ‘time window’; releasing to a higher order; pushing the envelope; shifting in time. It’s deep and intelligent, but not intellectual. It’s a thoughtful blueprint and practical road map of useful insight. Available through BrainTechnologies.com .
Work Is Theater and Every Business a Stage
by Joseph Pine and James Gilmore
Goods and services are no longer enough. To be successful in today’s increasingly competitive environment companies must learn to stage experiences for each one of their individual customers. We have entered the Experience Economy, a new economic era in which all businesses must orchestrate memorable events for their customers that engage each one of them in an inherently personal way. This book is brilliant. If Pine and Gilmore’s insights are not taking root in your organization today … please read it as a wake up call. We are in the Experience Economy and going beyond.
Getting Past Lip Service to Passionate Action
by Jeanne Bliss
This book is absolutely brilliant! It may just twist your head to get beyond the feeble lip service to customer service that most enterprises experience today. It’s about reality and how to get the customer thing done beyond the crystal balls and anthems and big kick-offs. It’s a play book of survive and thrive tactics from one who has very deep experience and knows. Thank you Jeanne.
I Love You More Than My Dog: Five Decisions That Drive Extreme Customer Loyalty in Good Times and Bad by Jeanne Bliss In I Love You More Than My Dog Jeanne Bliss explores how only an elite number of businesses have achieved a level of customer devotion she’s called “beloved” – with passionate, loyal and vocal customers and advocates that sustain their business even in tough times. It’s an exciting, edgy and captivating read driven by Jeanne’s passion and ’soul’, and filled with examples that will thrill you with what’s possible! It’s brilliant, and was the very best of 2009!
by Josh Leibner, Gershon Mader and Alan Weiss
This outstanding book shows readers how to improve strategic processes and execution by engaging the support of managers, employees, boards, suppliers, investors and all stakeholders, outlining the key factors that determine commitment, and powerful ways to build buy-in and alignment. The authors offer a blueprint for moving beyond compliance towards that magical point where every initiative is embraced by every employee at all levels.
Understanding Secular Stock Market Cycles
by Ed Easterling
Ed Eastering co-authored several chapters of John Mauldin’s Bull’s Eye Investing (our best book of 2004) and this outstanding book will take you deep into the research to explain secular stock market cycles. Based on years of meticulous research Easterling provides the indepth knowledge you must have to be in the game with confidence, and win. It is absolutely brilliant.
Targeting Real Returns in a Smoke & Mirrors Market
by John Mauldin
Mauldin takes a look at what history has to teach us about the potential for stock market returns over the rest of this decade. His analyses, and the information he has gathered from a wide variety of sources, tell us we are in a secular bear market – and he shows us where the opportunities for successful stock market investing lie under these conditions. What is different this time is that the rules for investing have changed: what worked during the 1980s and 1990s won’t work over the coming decade. An investment return relative to the market may have been satisfactory back then, but in today’s market we have to focus on absolute returns, and that is the essence of Bull’s Eye Investing. This is one of the most comprehensive analysis of the markets and the new bible for investors for the next decade and beyond.
Human Sigma: Creating Value at the Employee – Customer Encounter
by John H. Fleming and Jim Asplund
The groundbreaking methodology Six Sigma changed the face of manufacturing quality. Now, HumanSigma is poised to do the same for sales and service. It incorporates cutting-edge research in the neurosciences and behavioral economics – including brain imaging research into customer’s emotional connections to the companies they love – with proven techniques for improving workforce performance and revenues generated from existing customers. This practical handbook appeals to senior leaders and line managers alike who are looking for a way to dramatically increase productivity, retain high value customers, and enhance organizational performance.
Business Leadership the Marine Corps Way
by Dan Carrison and Rod Walsh
Dan Carrison and Rod Walsh have authored a fascinating book revealing the leadership principles of the U.S. Marine Corps. Semper Fi: Business Leadership the Marine Corps Way is a lively and practical ‘manual’ for business managers and executives to lead their department or enterprise to victory. The ‘concept’ of applying the leadership principles, values and vision of the Marine Corps to business is brilliant, and Carrison and Walsh’s work at doing so is exceptional. Articles by Carrison and Walsh are regularly featured in The CEO Refresher. See The Marines are Coming in The CEO Refresher Archives for more.
Whoever Tells the Best Story Wins: How to Use Your Own Stories to Communicate With Power and Impact
by Annette Simmons
People float in an ocean of data and disconnected facts that can often overwhelm them with choices. A meaningful story can feel like a life preserver that tethers you to something safe and important – at the very least, to a trace of humanity. Filled with enlightening anecdotes, this practical guide gives readers the tools they need to persuade, inspire, and influence others through the power of story. This is an exceptional work!
Winning Without Losing Your Way:
by Rebecca Barnett
By living and leading with character you can make a great difference in your life, in your children’s lives and in the lives of those you lead. Winning weaves in statistical research on organizational integrity with inspirational stories and quotes from interviews with over 100 business leaders and Olympians. This original and authoritative research offers fresh leadership insights and shares the wisdom and experience of everyday leaders and the story of one athlete’s journey from competitor to true coach. Thank you Rebecca for your inspiration!
The Coach Approach to Peak Performance
by Cynder Niemela and Rachael Lewis
Coaching is a recent phenomenon in American business that is producing startling and dramatic results. From employees and bosses struggling with the pace of change in a shifting economy to companies grappling to meet demands from market forces that they can no longer predict, all are finding that coaching is the competitive advantage they need to stay ahead of the curve. Cynder Niemela is one of the best of a new breed of coaches that will challenge you to greatness. Many of her articles from her “Rapid Fire Inspiration for Leaders” newsletter are featured in The CEO Refresher.
by Adrian J. Slywotzky
The Art of Profitability reveals the invisible but important governing principles that can mean the difference between business failure and success. Writing with wit and provocative insight, bestselling author Adrian Slywotzky tells the story of eccentric strategy teacher David Zhao and his young student. Each of the book’s twenty-three chapters presents a lesson from the exuberant and always challenging master – and a profit paradigm that will open your mind to the many ways to make profit happen. The editors of The CEO Refresher have rated The Art of Profitability as the best book of 2002 – and a review by Ian Bullock is featured in The CEO Refresher – here. Congratulations Adrian on your excellent work.
The New Law of Demand and Supply:
The Revolutionary New Demand Strategy for Faster Growth and Higher Profits
by Rick Kash
Rick Kash in his new book describes the process companies need to know to prosper in a demand side environment. With decades of examples, using profiles of fortune 500 companies, Kash shows how businesses don’t delve far enough to find out their customers real needs and how best to satisfy them, thereby boosting their sales and gaining greater market share. This is a very profound and mindful work that every business leader should read – and read very carefully. It will challenge you to find the answers to be able to chart a profitable course in these turbulent times.
How Extraordinary Companies Transcend Commodity and Defy Comparison
by Joe Calloway
Ordinary companies compete in their categories, or even lead them. Extraordinary companies create their own categories by doing what no one else does-in effect, becoming a Category of One. Calloway doesn’t offer any mumbo-jumbo or flavor-of-the-day buzzwords, just simple lessons that lead to real, proven results. With his guidance, you’ll learn what makes some of the best companies on earth so successful-and then learn to apply their winning strategies to your own business. This book is essential brain food for the business challenges we face today!
The Power of Thinking Without Thinking
by Malcolm Gladwell
Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink is a fascinating exploration of rapid cognition, the “thinking” that takes place within the “blink of an eye.” In the author’s words “It’s thinking – it’s just thinking that moves a little faster and operates a little more mysteriously than the kind of deliberate, conscious decision-making that we usually associate with “thinking.” This is serious brain food!
by Paul Thornton
Paul Thornton has written a very straightforward, concise and most effective guide to the “nuts and bolts” of leadership. Paul’s book starts with a crystal clear premise – “leaders provide their followers with something they can’t provide themselves.” Paul’s 3C Leadership Model encompasses three essential actions and facets of growth – Challenge, Confidence and Coaching. And it’s not about how we think we should act, or how we can convince others that we are the leader. The title drives the point home – it is about ‘being’ the leader. It is about what effective leaders do, pure and simple, and it is ‘right on the money.’ See Be The Leader in The CEO Refresher Archives for more.
From Eric Lindquist, CIO Insight (http://blogs.cioinsight.com/lundquist/content/careers/the_ten_best_business_books_of_all_time_for_cios.html)
The Ten Best Business Books Of All Time For CIOs
Look, 2009 is shaping up to be a very tough economic year. Here is my list of business books that are enduring, well written and may just help you get through the current economic crunch. While some of these titles are classics, a few are new, and some are different and I have little doubt will not be found on any other business book list.
One Peter Drucker, The Effective Executive. This is indeed a classic that is more than 30-years-old. If you want to read the original thinking about decision making, allocating time and managing projects this is the one.
Two. Peter Drucker. Concept of the Corporation. No fair I suppose, but Drucker gets two books on my list. I don’t think you can really understand how far General Motors has fallen unless you understand how the creation of G.M. changed the business picture worldwide.
Three. Regis McKenna, Relationship Marketing. Regis has written a bunch of other books since this 1992 classic but none of those were as remarkable as this one. If you are in high tech and think that social networks and peer marketing are new concepts, you better find a copy of this in your library.
Four. The Travels Of Marco Polo (Latham edition). The next time you feel like complaining about having to sit in coach, or not having all your marketing materials available or an early breakfast after a late night dinner, take some time to follow this 13th Century, seventeen year odyssey from what became Italy to China and back. How much of it is fiction? I don’t know, how much of your travel and expense report is fiction? The Latham edition is slower going but a closer translation.
Five. Margaret Atwood, Payback. This is newly published in 2008. Atwood has published a lot of fiction and non-fiction but is probably best known for the fiction work, “The Handmaid’s Tale.” If nothing else, she is a master of timing. Payback is all about debt including how the concept derived, the role it has played in history and religion and how debt became part of the structure of human society. This is not a book about how to get into or out of debt or how a business should manage debt, but if as you watch the economic turmoil and start asking yourself just what is money, debt and what happens when it all comes due, this is a good business read.
Six. Straight to the Top: Becoming a world-class CIO. Gregory Smith. First a caveat, Greg is a friend and an occasional golf pal. But this is a list for CIOs and there are very few books that examine what it take not to become just a competent CIO, but the best there is. Smith’s book could use an update but if you read it, you can have see your resume stacks up against the world-class requirements.
Seven. How to tell when you’re tired: A brief examination of work. Reg Theriault. How many business books do you really remember from your college/business school days? This one has stayed with me since my business school course in the psychology of business. Theriault was a longshoreman, migrant worker and deep thinker about work, the difference between blue and white collars and the dignity of doing a job well. In a time of outsourcing and layoffs by the thousands, this book serves to remind us that behind all those numbers are people.
Eight. The Road Ahead, Bill Gates. Bill Gates knows a lot about business. Nathan Myhrvold know a lot about everything. But when the hardcover edition of this book was published in 1995, both Gates and Myhrvold totally missed the onrushing importance of the Internet. They corrected this monumental miss in the softcover edition and Gates took the goof sufficiently to heart to redirect the company. This book is worth a read to realize that even the best business and technology minds can miss an oncoming train by looking the wrong way.
Nine. Something Happened. Joseph Heller. Right, the author of Catch 22 did write this sort of business and life book combined. “I get the willies when I see closed doors.” (from the book) and written about working in a modern corporation, may be the best and shortest depiction of the current business world.
Ten. Marcus Aurelius. Meditations, When you are done chuckling over Heller’s view of business, it is time to take a deep dive into the thinking of the last great emperor of Rome. In what I’d argue was the first blog, Aurelius took time during a military campaign in 170 A.D.to think about duty, service and life. This was not only the first blog but was the first self help book.
From The New York Times (http://executivesuite.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/17/the-best-business-books-ever/)
JULY 17, 2008, 10:22 AM
The Best Business Books Ever?
By JOE NOCERA
Regular readers of my column-and I mean really regular readers – might recall that several years ago, I asked for nominations of good examples of business fiction written in the last 25 years. I promised to return to the subject in a future column once readers weighed in. This was a promise, alas, I failed to keep. Once I got the nominations, I bought many of the books, but there they sat, on the floor of my office, looking at me balefully for months, begging to be read. I just couldn’t do it. Doug Coupland’s brand of alienated-office-drone fiction didn’t move me.
Several readers mentioned JR by William Gaddis, but I couldn’t get past page 20. Some authors named their own books. I had already read Tom Wolfe’s two business novels, “Bonfire of the Vanities,” and “A Man In Full,” but I never felt they qualified as first-rate fiction. (I’m still upset that Wolfe abandoned book-length journalism, where he was unparalleled.) And several books, like Richard Ford’s wonderful Frank Bascombe trilogy, were not really business novels, even though the business of real estate was in the backdrop. I did read a lovely Steven Millhauser novel, “Martin Dressler: The Story of An American Dreamer,” but that was about it. Ah, but business non-fiction – that’s another story. There I’m in my comfort zone. Thus it was that in my column last Saturday, I rather confidently credited Bryan Burrough with being the co-author of “one of the greatest business books ever written.” I was referring, of course, to “Barbarians at the Gate,” the rollicking account of KKR’s leveraged buyout of RJR Nabisco, which he wrote with my friend John Helyar. After that column was published, a reader asked me to name other business narratives that I thought deserved the title “great.” (Narratives only; no management tomes or advice books allowed.) After consulting several of my rabbis – the author and a former Times public editor Dan Okrent, the editor-in-chief of Time Inc. John Huey, and Adrian Zackheim, who runs the Portfolio imprint at Penguin Books – here’s my short list. I’m sure I’ve forgotten some other great books – so weigh in with your candidates.
In no particular order:
“Liar’s Poker,” by Michael Lewis (even though I’ve since become convinced that the anecdote that gives the book its title never happened). “The Devil’s Candy,” by Julie Salamon. (Greatest dissection of the movie business ever written.) “The Box,”, by Marc Levinson. (Hard to believe you can write a great book about the rise and importance of the shipping container, but he pulled it off.) “Indecent Exposure,” by David McClintick. (Published in 1982, it single-handedly created the business narrative genre). “The Go-Go Years,” by John Brooks. (The best book by the most elegant writer to ever make business his subject.) “The Kingdom and the Power,” by Gay Talese. (Yes, the subject is The New York Times, but how can you leave it off any list of great business books?) “Titan,” by Ron Chernow. (Chernow’s magisterial biography of John D. Rockefeller.) “Do You Sincerely Want To Be Rich,” by Godfrey Hodgson, Bruce Page and Charles Raw. (Hard to believe that this committee of authors could write a sensational narrative about the rise and fall of Bernard Cornfeld, but that they did.) “Disney Wars,” by James Stewart. (”Best corporate psychoanalysis I’ve ever read,” says John Huey.) “The Informant,” by Kurt Eichenwald (Forget his Enron book, “Conspiracy of Fools.” This book, about the strange saga of Mark Whitacre and Archer Daniels Midland, is his masterpiece.) “Father, Son and Co.: My Life at IBM and Beyond”, by Thomas J. Watson and Peter Petre (The only great ghost-written C.E.O. autobiography ever written. No one else – not even Lee Iacocca or Jack Welch – even comes close.) “When Genius Failed,” by Roger Lowenstein. (Another one of those “how-did-he-do-it?” books: this account of the fall of Long Term Capital Management, which by all rights should be a tough slog, is crackling good read.) “Greed and Glory on Wall Street,” by Ken Auletta. (This book, about the crack up of Lehman Brothers, has a great cast of characters, starting with Steve Schwartzman.) “The Smartest Guys in the Room,” by Peter Elkind and Bethany McLean. (O.K., O.K., they are former colleagues of mine, and I was deeply involved in editing this book – but I have to say, I think it turned out pretty well!)
From HarperBusiness
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_2000_Jan_7/ai_58491490
HarperBusiness – The Best Business Books of the Century
BARBARIANS AT THE GATE: The Fall of RJR Nabisco by Bryan Burrough
BEATING THE DOW: A High-Return, Low-Risk Method for Investing in the
Dow Jones Industrial Stocks with as Little as $5,000 by Michael B.
O’Higgins with John Downes
BUILT TO LAST: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies by James C.
Collins and Jerry I. Porras
DIE BROKE: A Radical, Four-Part Financial Plan to Restore Your
Confidence, Increase Your Net Worth, and Afford the Lifestyle of Your
Dreams by Stephen M. Pollan and Mark Levine
THE DILBERT PRINCIPLE: A Cubicle’s-Eye View of Bosses, Meetings,
Management Fads, and Other Workplace Afflictions by Scott Adams
THE EFFECTIVE EXECUTIVE by Peter F. Drucker
THE E-MYTH REVISITED: Why Most Small Business Don’t Work and What to
Do about It by Michael E. Gerber
HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS WITHOUT BEING WHITE: Straight Talk on
Making It in America by Earl G. Graves
IN SEARCH OF EXCELLENCE by Tom Peters
THE INTELLIGENT INVESTOR: A Book of Practical Counsel by Benjamin Graham
THE LEADERSHIP ENGINE: How Winning Companies Build Leaders at Every
Level by Noel M. Tichy with Eli Cohen
THE NEW MONEY MASTERS: Winning Investment Strategies of: Soros, Lynch,
Steinhardt, Rogers, Neff, Wanger, Michaelis and Carret by John Train
THE POPCORN REPORT: Faith Popcorn on the Future of Your Company, Your
World, Your Life by Faith Popcorn
REENGINEERING THE CORPORATION: A Manifesto for Business Revolution by
Michael Hammer and James Champy
THE WISDOM OF TEAMS: Creating the high Performance Organization by Jon
R. Katzenbach and Douglas K. Smith
From Forbes Magazine (http://www.forbes.com/2002/09/30/0930booksintro_2.html)
Forbe?s list of the 20 Most Influential Business Books from 1981-2000.
In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America’s Best-Run Companies
Thomas Peters, Robert H. Waterman
Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies
James C. Collins, Jerry I. Porras
Reengineering the Corporation: A Manifesto for Business Revolution
Michael Hammer, James A. Champy
Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco
Bryan Burrough, John Helyar
Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance
Michael E. Porter
The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference
Malcolm Gladwell
Crossing the Chasm: Marketing and Selling Technology Products to
Mainstream Customers
Geoffrey A. Moore
The House of Morgan
Ron Chernow
The Six Sigma Way
Peter S. Pande et al, Robert P. Neuman, Roland R. Cavanagh
Seven Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal
Change Stephen R. Covey
Liar’s Poker
Michael Lewis
The Innovator’s Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail
Clayton M. Christensen
Japan Inc.
Shotaro Ishinomori
Den of Thieves
James B. Stewart
The Essential Drucker
Peter F. Drucker
Competing for the Future
Gary Hamel, C. K. Prahalad
The Buffett Way: Investment Strategies of the World’s Greatest Investor
Robert G. Hagstrom
Jack: Straight from the Gut
Jack Welch, John A. Byrne
Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t
James Collins
The New New Thing: A Silicon Valley Story
Michael Lewis
From The 100 Best Business Books of All Time, by Jack Covert and Todd Sattersten (http://100bestbiz.com/more-on-the-100-best/)
BOOKS IN THE 100 BEST
All the books in the 100 best, separated by chapter.
You Improving your life, your person and your strengths.
Flow by Mihaly Csikzentmihalyi
Getting Things Done by David Allen (also available in CD and audio)
The Effective Executive by Peter Drucker
How to Be a Star at Work by Robert E. Kelley
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey (also available in audio)
How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie (also available in audio)
Swim with the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive by Harvey B. Mackay
The Power of Intuition by Gary Klein
What Should I Do with My Life? by Po Bronson (also available in audio)
Oh, the Places You’ll Go by Dr. Seuss/Theodore Geisel (also available in audio)
Chasing Daylight by Eugene O’Kelly
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Leadership Inspiration. Challenge. Courage. Change.
On Becoming a Leader by Warren Bennis
The Leadership Moment by Michael Useem
The Leadership Challenge by James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner (also available in CD)
Leadership Is an Art by Max De Pree (also available in CD and audio)
The Radical Leap by Steve Farber
Control Your Destiny or Someone Else Will by Tichy and Sherman (also available in CD)
Leading Change by John P. Kotter (also available in CD and audio)
Questions of Character by Joseph L. Badaracco, Jr.
The Story Factor by Annette Simmons
Never Give In! Speeches by Winston Churchill (also available in audio)
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Strategy Eight organizational blueprints from which to draft your own.
In Search of Excellence by Thomas J. Peters and Robert H. Waterman, Jr.
Good to Great by Jim Collins
The Innovator’s Dilemma by Clayton M. Christensen (also available in audio)
Only the Paranoid Survive by Andrew S. Grove
Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance? by Louis V. Gerstner, Jr. (also available in audio)
Discovering the Soul of Service by Leonard Berry
Execution by Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan (also available in CD and audio)
Competing for the Future by Gary Hamel and C. K. Prahalad
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Sales and Marketing Approaches and pitfalls in the ongoing process of creating customers.
Influence by Robert B. Cialdini, PhD
Positioning by Al Ries and Jack Trout
A New Brand World by Scott Bedbury with Stephen Fenichell
Selling the Invisible by Harry Beckwith (also available in CD and audio)
Zag by Marty Neumeier
Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey A. Moore
Secrets of Closing the Sale by Zig Ziglar (also available in CD and audio)
How to Become a Rainmaker by Jeffrey J. Fox (also available in CD and audio)
Why We Buy by Paco Underhill (also available in audio)
The Experience Economy by B. Joseph Pine II and James H. Gilmore (also available in audio)
Purple Cow by Seth Godin (also available in audio)
The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell (also available in CD and audio)
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Rules and Scorekeeping The all-important numbers behind the game.
Naked Economics by Charles Wheelan
Financial Intelligence by Karen Berman and Joe Knight
The Balanced Scorecard by Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton
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Management Guiding and directing the people around you.
The Essential Drucker by Peter Drucker
Out of the Crisis by W. Edwards Deming
Toyota Production System by Taiichi Ohno (also available in CD)
Reengineering the Corporation by Michael Hammer and James Champy
The Goal by Eliyahu M. Goldratt and Jeff Cox (also available in CD and audio)
The Great Game of Business by Jack Stack with Bo Burlingham
First, Break all the Rules by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman (also available in CD)
Now, Discover Your Strengths by Buckingham and Clifton (also available in CD)
The Knowing-Doing Gap by Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert I. Sutton
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni (also available in audio)
Six Thinking Hats by Edward De Bono
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Biographies Seven lives. Unlimited lessons.
Titan by Ron Chernow
My Years with General Motors by Alfred P. Sloan, Jr.
The HP Way by David Packard
Personal History by Katharine Graham
Moments of Truth by Jan Carlzon
Sam Walton: Made in America by Sam Walton with John Huey
Losing My Virginity by Richard Branson
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Entrepreneurship Seven guides to the passion and practicality necessary for any new venture.
The Art of the Start by Guy Kawasaki (also available in CD and audio)
The E-Myth Revisited by Michael E. Gerber (also available in CD and audio)
The Republic of Tea ** by Mel Ziegler, Patricia Ziegler, and Bill Rosenzweig
The Partnership Charter by David Gage
Growing a Business by Paul Hawken
Guerrilla Marketing by Jay Conrad Levinson (also available audio)
The Monk and the Riddle Randy Komisar with Kent Lineback
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Narratives Six industry tales of both fortune and failure.
McDonald’s: Behind the Arches by John F. Love
American Steel ** by Richard Preston
The Force by David Dorsey
The Smartest Guys in the Room by Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind
When Genius Failed by Roger Lowenstein
Moneyball by Michael Lewis (also available in audio)
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Innovation & Creativity Insight into the process of developing new ideas.
Orbiting the Giant Hairball by Gordon MacKenzie
The Art of Innovation by Tom Kelley with Jonathan Littman (also available in audio)
Jump Start Your Business Brain by Doug Hall
A Whack on the Side of the Head by Roger Von Oech
The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp
The Art of Possibility by Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander
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Big Ideas The future of business books lies here.
The Age of Unreason by Charles Handy
Out of Control by Kevin Kelly
The Rise of the Creative Class by Richard Florida
Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman (also available in CD and audio)
Driven by Paul R. Lawrence and Nitin Nohria
To Engineer is Human by Henry Petroski
The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki (also available in audio)
Made to Stick by Chip Heath and Dan Heath (also available in CD and audio)
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Takeaways What everyone is looking for.
The First 90 Days by Michael Watkins (also available in CD and audio)
Up the Organization by Robert Townsend
Beyond the Core by Chris Zook
Little Red Book of Selling by Jeffrey Gitomer (also available in CD and audio)
What the CEO Wants You to Know by Ram Charan
The Team Handbook by Peter Scholtes, Brian Joiner, and Barbara Streibel
A Business and Its Belief by Thomas J. Watson, Jr.
Lucky or Smart? by Bo Peabody (also available in audio)
The Lexus and the Olive Tree by Thomas L. Friedman (also available in CD and audio)
Thinkertoys by Michael Michalko
More Than You Know by Michael J. Mauboussin
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** To buy The Republic of Tea, visit their site.
** American Steel is presently out-of-print. Your best bet is to head to your local library.
From About.com (http://management.about.com/od/careerdevelopment/tp/TopMgtBooks.htm)
Gallup’s Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman summarize in this book the results of their in-depth study of great managers. The managers who ultimately became the focus of the research excelled at developing each employee’s specific talents and growing them into top performers. These managers, as the title says, do not hesitate to break any rule that conventional wisdom says must be followed.
2. Business: The Ultimate Resource
This book is the most detailed business resource you can imagine. It includes more than 150 original best practice essays, a management library, management checklists, and profiles of top management thinkers. It covers every significant intellectual, practical, and factual area of management. (As a contributing author, my part of this work begins on page 265.)
3. Now Discover Your Strenghts
Another great book by Marcus Buckingham (and Donald Clifton). Use the insights of this book to help you understand your own strengths (and weaknesses) better. Then stretch and use it to help you understand your people better.
4. New Yorker Book of Business Cartoons
I enjoy New Yorker cartoons because they make me both laugh and think. This collection of cartoons about business is an enjoyable read, especially away from the office.
5. Communicate with Confidence!
Each year, Dianna Booher teaches thousands of people how to communicate more effectively, at work, at home, in any situation. This book distills her tips into a single source that you can use to increase your ability to think on your feet and verbally communicate with confidence.
The full title of the book is “Executive Thinking: The Dream, The Vision, The Mission Achieved”. However, based on my interview with its author, Leslie Kossoff, I usually refer to it as “Dare to Dream”, because most of us are afraid to do just that. Read my interview with her and then see if you don’t buy the book.
Collins calls Good To Great a “prequel” to his hugely successful Built To Last, which set a target for all of us. However, that book left out critical information for those of us struggling to move our companies from Good To Great as opposed to those trying to hold on to greatness. The missing piece is clearly identified in Collins’ Good To Great.
8. The 16 Personality Types, Descriptions for Self-Discovery
This book is an interesting twist on the 16 personality types of Myers Briggs. It got me thinking about the differences between management styles and communications styles – is there really any difference? Isn’t the KEY management skill the ability to communicate effectively?
by Spencer Johnson and Kenneth H. Blanchard Originally published in 1986, the message of this book is universal and timeless. To get more out of life and more out of your people, this is the guidebook to read. Brief and to the point lessons in the day-to-day application of fundamental management principles.
10. Leading Change
When an organization needs change, it needs leadership. In this book, John Kotter lays out his eight-step process to create the sense of urgency that will make the changes successful. Remember these eight simple steps the next time you are the one responsible for making change happen.
From Gary Hamel, London Business School (http://blogs.wsj.com/management/2008/12/02/essential-reading-for-management-revolutionaries/)
Essential Reading for Management Revolutionaries
I hate reading business books. Most are tedious DIY guides that tell you how to keep your customers happy, grow the top line, be a better leader, motivate your employees, find a new strategy, or manage change. Nothing wrong with this if your goal is to wring another few drops of performance out of your overly bureaucratized organization or cure your chronic insomnia. If, on the other hand, you want to build a genuine performance advantage, you’ll need to read stuff that’s a lot more radical; books that will hammer away at the carapace of your unshakeable beliefs, that are filled with ideas your competitors would regard as irrelevant or utopian.
As I’ve argued elsewhere, the Management 1.0 practices found in most companies strangle innovation, frustrate collaboration, curtail ambition, undermine loyalty, and stymie adaptation. That’s why I’ve spent the last several years struggling to free myself from the straitjacket of management orthodoxy.
In my search for the outlines of Management 2.0 (a journey summarized in my most recent book, “The Future of Management”), I drew on the wisdom of some adventuresome scouts who’ve already been out reconnoitering the contours of a post-managerial world.
Believe me: over the next decade we will witness a management revolution that is no less momentous than the one that spawned the modern economy. If you’re hoping to be in the vanguard, here’s some essential reading that will get you out in front.
“Creative Experience,” Mary Parker Follett, 1924.
No typo on the date. Mary Follett worked as a community organizer in Boston in the early 1900s. She developed a model of “servant leadership” long before this term was fashionable. The world’s most prescient management thinker, her advice is more timely than ever before.
Quote to savor: “The best leader knows how to make his followers actually feel power themselves, not merely acknowledge his power.”
“Out of Control,” by Kevin Kelly, 1994.
Kevin Kelly, a founder of Wired magazine, has the best over the horizon radar of anyone I know. His book, Out of Control, is a multi-faceted argument for the power of biological principles in enabling human collaboration. Kevin has seen the organization of the future and it looks like a beehive: emergent, distributed, organic and adaptive. If you don’t believe there’s a viable alternative to top-down hierarchies, read this book.
Quote to savor: “The challenge is simply stated: Extend the company’s internal network outward to include all those with whom the company interacts in the marketplace. Spin a grand web to include employees, suppliers, regulators and customers; they all become part of your company’s collective being. They are the company.”
“The Age of Heretics,” by Art Kleiner, 1996.
If we’re close to a tipping point in the evolution of human organization, it is thanks in large part to the pioneering efforts of management heretics like Douglas McGregor, Kurt Lewin, Chris Argyris, and Warren Bennis. Working in the middle of the last century, these individuals devoted their lives to humanizing the workplace. They were inventors, not arm-chair theorists, and they put their ideas to work in organizations like Shell, Procter & Gamble, and IBM. Twenty-first century management innovators have much to learn from the successes and failures of these path breakers.
Quote to savor: “Despite all [the] frustrations, it is better to be a heretic than to have one’s soul wither through the denial of a truth.”
“Manufacturing the Employee,” Roy Jacques, 1996.
How did those early industrialists turn independent and bloody-minded farmers, laborers and craftsmen into order-taking, forelock-tugging employees? How did people become “human resources,” the flesh-and-blood equivalents of steel and cash? And how did the distinction between “managers” and “employees” become so deeply engrained within our organizations? Roy Jacques answers these questions and in doing so reminds us that our management beliefs are not eternal truths but elements of a recently constructed paradigm-one that will trap us if we fail to challenge the foundational assumptions upon which it was built.
Quote to savor: “During times of transformational change, … not only do new problems arise; old ways of understanding problems become problems themselves.
“Competing on the Edge,” Shona L. Brown and Kathleen M. Eisenhardt, 1998.
This book is a six-lane highway that bridges Kelly’s biological metaphors with the hard work of running a company in an age of “intense, high-velocity change.” The authors argue that every company must become as good at changing as it is at executing. The goal-a company that is carefully balanced between structure and chaos, exploitation and experimentation, planning and improvisation.
Quote to savor: “Competing on the edge is about surprise. It is not about planning an approach and knowing how it will unfold. The future is too uncertain for such pin-point accuracy. It is more about making some moves, observing what happens, and continuing with the ones that seem to work. Although the past and future matter, the focus of attention is today.”
“The Cathedral and the Bazaar,” Eric S. Raymond, 1999.
A cathedral is designed by a visionary architect, and once built, is static and unchanging. A bazaar, by contrast, is a semi-chaotic assembly of independent agents who come together to trade. It is loosely designed and inherently flexible. In Raymond’s analogy, the open source movement is a bazaar and most businesses are cathedrals. This highly readable book outlines the critical design rules of successful open source projects: broad access to innovation tools, a meritocracy of ideas, competition for reputational capital, transparent peer review, and self-selection of key tasks-principles that make rigidly constructed corporate cathedrals become energetic and dynamic bazaars.
Quote to savor: “Yes, the success of open source does call into some question the utility of command-and-control systems, of secrecy, of centralization, and of certain kinds of intellectual property. It would be disingenuous not to admit that it suggests (or at least harmonizes with) a broadly libertarian view of the proper relationship between individuals and institutions.”
Next week: The second half of our Management 2.0 booklist.
Is it possible to achieve coordination without centralization? To have leadership without hierarchy? To be specialized without being balkanized? To do things at scale without turning employees into drones? To be highly efficient without becoming inflexible? To organize without organizations and manage without managers? Can we reap the benefits of industrial-age organizations without incurring the costs? In other words, is there an organizational equivalent to seedless grapes, non-fat ice cream and low-carb beer? These are the big questions that will lead us towards Management 2.0-and these books are the brightest beacons lighting the way.
More Must-Reads for Management Revolutionaries
The world is inundated with mediocre business books pedaling the same old threadbare nostrums. There are rare exceptions, though-books that telescope the future or send our minds racing down new tracks. Last week I nominated half a dozen tomes that have shaped my thinking about the future of management. This week, you’ll find a list of six more that can help us escape the greased grooves of conventional management thinking.
Small Pieces Loosely Joined, by David Weinberger, 2002.
What’s the most adaptable, innovative and engaging thing on the planet? Sad to say, it’s not your company, or any company. It’s the Internet. And the social revolution that has spawned blogging, crowd-sourcing, opinion markets, authority scoring, folksonomies and mash-ups is going to turn traditional management structures inside out. If you have you doubt this now, you won’t after reading David Weinberger’s engaging portrait of humanity’s most important social institution-which, weirdly enough, is no institution at all.
Quote to savor: “Our biggest joint undertaking as a species [the Internet] is working out splendidly, but only because we forgot to apply the theory that has guided us ever since the pyramids were built.”
The Rise of the Creative Class, by Richard Florida, 2002. Thirty-six years after Peter Drucker proclaimed the birth of the knowledge economy in The Effective Executive, Richard Florida announced the arrival of the creative economy. In the course of two generations, the foundations of wealth creation have shifted from physical capital (tangible assets) to intellectual capital (technical expertise) to creative capital (imagination and passion). In this extraordinarily well-researched book, Florida outlines the implications of this tectonic shift for individuals, organizations, communities and countries.
Quote to savor: “What [creative individuals] have in common is a strong desire for organizations and environments that let them be creative-that value their input, challenge them, have mechanisms for mobilizing resources around ideas and are receptive to both small changes and the occasional big idea. Companies and places that can provide this kind of environment, regardless of the size, will have an edge in attracting, managing and motivating creative talent.”
The Future of Work, Thomas W. Malone, 2004.
Tom Malone is an MIT professor who has led several groundbreaking studies on the future of work and organization-and is one of the smartest guys I know. Malone’s central thesis is that organizations must become more like markets and less like hierarchies-a transition enabled by rapidly falling communication costs. Such a shift will de-politicize decision-making and empower those on the front lines. The Future of Work offers a wealth of practical advice for leaders who are eager to change the DNA of their organizations from “command and control” to “cultivate and coordinate.”
Quote to savor: “… when future generations look back at the history of business, they will likely realize that the huge, centralized, hierarchical corporations of the twentieth century were not the pinnacle of business organization. Instead, they may see those ‘traditional’ organizations as merely a temporary aberration-an interlude of centralization-between periods of largely decentralized organizations.”
The Wisdom of Crowds, by James Surowiecki, 2004.
Everyone knows that the many are usually smarter than the few when it comes to making predictions. But in this closely argued book, Surowiecki demonstrates that a decentralized decision network can be equally effective in solving complex coordination problems. But while he’s banging another nail into the coffin of centralization, Surowiecki is careful not to overreach. In clearly outlining the circumstances in which a wise crowd can become a stupid one, he give us a hindsight-in-advance explanation of the 2008 financial meltdown.
Quote to savor: “Diversity and independence are important because the best collective decisions are the product of disagreement and contest. … Paradoxically, the best way for a group to be smart is for each person in it to think and act as independently as possible.”
Firms of Endearment, by Raj Sisodia, Jag Sheth and David B. Wolfe, 2007.
I’ve always believed that putting shareholders first is a stupid idea. Shareholders don’t create value-employees do, when they deliver outstanding service or create lust-worthy products. Shareholder primacy is an inherently self-limiting ideology, because it focuses management attention on the scoreboard rather than the game. It’s tough, of course, to make this argument to a manager whose just been crucified by a gaggle of analysts at the end of a tough quarter. Nevertheless, Raj Sisodia and his colleagues do a phenomenal job of demonstrating unequivocally that love pays. Put simply, firms that love their employees, customers and neighborhoods, do better than those that don’t.
Quote to savor: “Humanistic companies-or firms of endearment-seek to maximize their value to society as a whole, not just to shareholders. They are the ultimate value creators: They create emotional value, experiential value, social value, and of course, financial value. People who interact with such companies feel safe, secure, and pleased in their dealings. They enjoy working with or for the company, buying from it, investing in it, and having it as a neighbor.”
Here Comes Everybody, by Clay Shirky, 2008.
In Here Comes Everybody, Shirky works through the epochal consequences of technologies that make it “ridiculously” easy for groups to form, collaborate, and take collective action. One of his most interesting points: In an organization filled with highly paid conscripts, failure, of any sort, is expensive. Since companies can’t afford to explore a near-infinite range of potential options, many of which will prove to be dead ends, they must settle for a sub-optimal solutions to pressing problem. In a global network of volunteers, though, this constraint disappears. It’s an eye-opening riff on the old hacker axiom: With enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow.
Quote to savor: “Most of the institutions we had last year we will have next year. In the past the hold of these institutions on public life was irreplaceable, in part because there was no alternative to managing large-scale effort. Now that there is competition to traditional institutional forms for getting things done, those institutions will continue to exist, but their purchase on modern life will weaken as novel alternatives for group action arise.”
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David C. Wyld (dwyld@selu.edu) is the Robert Maurin Professor of Management at Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond, Louisiana. He is a management consultant, researcher/writer, and executive educator. His blog, Wyld About Business, can be viewed at http://wyld-business.blogspot.com/.
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Great post…well done….