My Game-Changing Business Books
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Not long ago, Michael Wade had a post on his always-excellent Execupundit blog that was titled: "Ten Books and More." Michael listed books that had shaped his world.
Last week, Todd Sattersten shared some ideas about business books that you should choose for your reading program. Dr. Bret Simmons didn't like some of the choices. He responded to my invitation to share his own ideas with a post on his blog titled: "So You Want To Be A Good Leader? These Books Should Help."
In his poem, "Ulysses," Tennyson writes:
"I am a part of all that I have met;
Yet all experience is an arch wherethro’
Gleams that untravell’d world"
I am a part of all that I have met and all that I have read. And they are a part of me.
Every day I hope that I'll discover another book that changes the way that I think and the way I do my job. There are very few books like that for anyone. Here are my four game-changing books from almost a half-century of business reading.
I read my first business books to complete class assignments. The books were mostly awful. They were theoretical, sometimes with only a tenuous connection to the real world. And they were written as if the authors got extra points for boring you.
Peter Drucker was different. He wrote superbly. And I could take an idea from one of his books and try it out. More often than not, the idea would work. I think of his Effective Executive and Managing for Results as two parts of the same book.
Several people, including Todd Sattersten, suggest a book like The Essential Drucker. I disagree. Drucker wrote the way Mozart composed. They both created whole, harmonious works that have an arc and a flow to them. If you reduce Drucker to a collection of wise sayings, you lose a lot that's valuable.
In 1982 I picked up a copy of In Search of Excellence by Tom Peters and Bob Waterman. It was well written and good enough to be a best-seller on the main best seller list. But it was important in another way, too In Search of Excellence changed the nature of the conversation about what managers do and should do. It provided a voice for the innovative and enthusiastic, but messy human side of management.
In the mid-1990s I attended a religious retreat. There was a speaker on liberation theology. One of his points was that "communism" doesn't mean the same thing in different cultures. A Russian communist and an Italian communist and a South American communist all expressed their belief differently.
During the discussion, a stock broker named Ted, said, "That's true for capitalism, too." He told us about a book he'd read titled The Seven Cultures of Capitalism by Charles Hampden-Turner and Alfons Trompenaars.
I couldn't find a copy of the book anywhere. I called Ted and asked to borrow his. He refused to loan it out, but he let me read it in his reception area. It took me a week. When I was done, I understood business across borders in a totally new way.
The last of my game-changers has a title that puts many people off. The Science of Success sounds like one of those books by a motivational speaker who's hoping the book will make him successful. It's not that, at all.
The author, Charles G. Koch, is the CEO of Koch Industries. They're the largest privately held US company. The book is the result of a thoughtful and well-read executive spending most of his working life developing a system for making a company successful.
In his post, Bret Simmons makes the point that "some books are philosophical and anecdotal, while others are (or claim to be) supported by research and real evidence." For me, The Science of Success is a superb combination of the two.
A recommendation from a knowledgeable reader is the best place to begin considering whether to buy and read a business book. You've got Todd's recommendations, and Bret's and mine. What great books do you have to suggest for others to consider.
Wally's Working Supervisor's Support Kit is a collection of information and tools to help working supervisors do a better job. It's based on what Wally's learned in over twenty years of supervisory skills training. Click here to check it out.
Categories: Leadership Reading, Books
Tags: Leadership Reading Books
Good esoteric collection of books.
Bet you could add more with a little prodding!
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I wouldn't add more to this collection, Mark. These four were game changers for me. I've learned a lot from other books and other authors. The only other thing that had the power these had was not a book. It's Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions which gave me a simple and consistent ways to assess cultures.
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The Tom Peters book you site was the game changer for me. I was a young manager and a college student when it came out. It helped fuel my passion for leadership. To be honest, I've tried to read other Tom Peters books since then but have never finished a single one. Your point about Drucker is very well taken. Unlike Peters, I can pick up any Drucker book and be enthralled from cover to cover. Good work, Wally. Bret
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That's an interesting insight for me, Bret. That's true for me as well (except for Thriving on Chaos which I read to review it). I think it's a reflection of the strengths of each writer. Drucker is more systematic and structural. Peters has more energy and pushes more ideas onto the page. There are similarities, too. Both Peters and Drucker draw on a wide variety of examples from outside of "business."
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The best Drucker is The Executive In Action, which is three of this books. The Effective Executive, Innovation and Entrepreurship and Managing For Results. They cover the field.
The books I would add to your excellent list: The Diffusion of Innovations by Ev Rogers. A textbook but helps one to understand how good ideas get spread.
I have to commend Charles Handy - Beyond Uncertainty. Like you appreciate Drucker, Drucker appreciated Handy. The quality of the prose is excellent, in addition to the ideas.
Finally, as a game changer, I think everyone needs to understand The Experience Economy by Joe Pine and Jim Gilmore as they explain the shift of what people are actually buying now. Their follow on, Authenticity is not quite as game changing but still worth the read.
And while Execution by Ram Charan and Bossidy was a restatement of the obvious points of good management, I think it reawakened the links between strategy, management and action. A must read.
Dave Travis
Managing Director
Leadership Network
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Thanks for adding that great stuff Dave. This list wasn't intended as a list of "best" books. It's a list of four books that really changed my world. List of "best" books would be much longer and include many of the ones you suggest.
We'll disagree on your Drucker selection because I think the innovation book is among his weakest. The analysis and lucidity are there, but it seemed (to me at least) that the connection with real-world, messy, human, innovation was not.
On diffusion of innovation, I like James Utterback. Whoever you pick, it's a topic that doesn't get enough attention.
I don't know the Joe Pine book, but I usually like what he does, so that one goes on my "get it and read it" list. Thanks.
I think you're dead right about Execution. There's been a tendency in American business to separate planning from the execution of the plan. Execution was the first of several recent books that have linked those more like they are in real life.
Thanks for some great comments.
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I have recently met a very charming genteleman and he provided me with a copy of his book which I believe like many others have extensively read business leadership books for three or so decades but would like to reccomend as game changing.Think Like a CEO and ACT Like a Leader by Michael F Andrew
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Thanks for sharing those, John.
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I am sure these books are good but you may also wish to read the following:
"The Daily Drucker" by Peter Drucker, "Management Secrets of the Good, the Bad and the Ugly" by Michael Miller and
"Management: Tidbits for the New Millennium" by Maxwell Pinto.
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Thanks for sharing those recommendations, Josie. I think the Daily Drucker is a great too, as long as you're reading the books, as well.
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