Business Books: What do you like?
I read a lot of business books as I try to absorb as much data funneled into my brain as possible. The good ones I’ll even read multiple times.
It’s interesting to see how different the content can be from book to book. Some books are more theoretical (like Creating Customer Evangelists), while others are incredibly tactical (like The Art of the Start).
I’m curious - what style do you like? Theoretical or tactical? Basically, what do you like in a good business book?
Related Entries
- “Now is Gone” Review
- Blog Business Book Tour
- Creating a book, one blog entry at a time
- The easily lost reputation
- Blink
3 Responses to “Business Books: What do you like?”
Whilst my reading probably isn’t as broad as others I’ve found Michael E. Gerber’s ‘The E Myth’ a very interesting read as well as some older books. I suppose I am more of a tactical reader in that sense but I really do enjoy anything that gets me thinking and gets me excited about business.
This is a tough question for a guy who reads business books for a living. I would say I tend toward the theory side of the spectrum. I would start with Pfeffer and Sutton’s books Knowing Doing Gap and Hard Facts. They address what karl is referring to with business mangement being a new discipline. They you need to have spent time with Effective Executive, Positioning, and The Fifth Discipline.
I am also looking for inspiration. I want a charge to go and try cool stuff. Purple Cow, Radical Leap, The Book of Yo!, and Lucky or Smart all fit the bill.
Finally you need some big idea books like Blink, Wisdom of Crowds, and A Whole New Mind.
The most important part is that you are reading and taking in new stuff. Just listen to what others are saying to sifted through the crap.
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
I tend to like business books that encourage critical thinking, that don’t take business diciplines as gospel. In the end modern business is a young dicipline, unlike math and physics it does not have thousands of years of track record. Modern business is maybe a 50+ year old dicipline and even then it’s transitioned from being an accounting led dicipline to being a marketing led dicipline. If your like me and you think business is becoming more design led as we speak then it’s onto its 3rd major paradigm in 50 years, so there is no gospel. Besides gospel means “good news”.
So I like business books from Seth Godin, Tom Peters, I also like the Cluetrain Manefesto, and No Logo by Naomi Klein. Also, a brilliant book from a few years ago was called “simplicity: the new competitive advantage” and that was great. More traditional authors I like Hamel and Pralahad competing for the future, Porter On Competition. Probably the number one business book for me right now is The Future of Competition: Co-Creating Unique Value with Customers by Prahalad & Ramaswamy.