Best Books – Business
Below are my favorite books on business organized by major thematic area. I have tried to list my favorite ones to the top of each section.
Strategy
Favorites
- Boyd by Robert Coram
- Innovator’s Dilemma by Clayton Christenson
- The Innovator’s Solution by Clayton Christenson
- Good Strategy, Bad Strategy by Richard Rumelt
- Different by Youngme Moon
- 7 Powers by Hamilton Helmer
- Creating Great Choices: A Leader’s Guide to Integrative Thinking Fantastic book by Roger Martin – I wrote a longer blog post on this book here
Others
- Alchemy by Rory Sutherland
- Playing to Win by Lafley and Martin
- Lords of Strategy by Walter Kiechel
- Art of War by Sun Tzu
- Bringing Home the Birkin by Michael Tonnello
- Built to Last by Jim Collins
- Competition Demystified by Bruce Greenwald
- Competitive Strategy by Michael Porter
- Co-Opetition by Adam Brandenburger, Barry Nalebuff
- Double Your Profits in 6 mo or less by Bob Fifer
- Good to Great by Jim Collins
- In Search of Excellence by Tom Peters
- Purpose Driven Church by Rick Warren
- Small Giants by Bo Burlingham
- Starfish and the Spider by Ori Brafman, Rod Becstrom
- Storybrand by Donald Miller
- Trading Up by Michael Silverstein, Neil Fiske
- We Might as Well Win by Johann Bruneel
- Winning Ugly by Brad Gilbert
Management Theory, Leadership, Etc.
Favorites
- Essentialism by Greg McKeown
- 4 Disciplines of Execution by Chris McChesney, Sean Covery, Jim Huling
- Excellence wins by Horst Schulze
- Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz
- Creating Great Choices by Roger Martin
- Managing the Professional Services Firm by David Maister
- Setting the table by Danny Meyer
- Team of Teams by Stanley McCrystal
- What it Takes by Charles Ellis
- Primal Leadership (Unleashing the Power of Emotional Intelligence) – This was recommended to me and is an amazing exploration of the brain science behind emotional intelligence. The book also connects leadership aptitude with corporate performance.
- With Winning in Mind – This book is short and fantastic. For anyone looking to level up in any field of endeavor, this book is a must read.
Others
- It’s Your Ship by Michael Abrashoff
- How Google Works by Eric Schmidt
- 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by John Maxwell
- Confessions of a public speaker by Scott Berkun
- Creative Selection: Inside Apple’s Design Process During the Golden Age of Steve Jobs by Ken Kocienda
- Entreleadership by Dave Ramsey
- Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
- G2 – Building the Next Generation by Philip Palaveev
- HBR Guide to Making Every Meeting Matter by Greene
- High Output Management by Andy Grove
- How to Fail at almost everything and still win big by Scott Adams
- Leading from your gut by John Townsend
- Lessons for Corporate America by Warren Buffet
- Mastery by Robert Greene
- Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss
- Only the Paranoid Survive by Andrew S. Grove
- Reboot by Jerry Colonna
- Rework by Jason Fried David Heinemeier Hannsson
- Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the time by Jeff / JJ. Sutherland
- So Good they Can’t Ignore You by Cal Newport
- TED Talks by Chris Anderson
- The Captain Class by Sam Walker
- The End of Competitive Advantage by Rita Gunther McGrath
- The Ensemble Practice by Philip Palaveev
- The Innovation Stack by Jim McKelvey
- The Irresistible Consultant’s Guide to Winning Clients by David A Fields
- The Mckinsey Mind by Ethan Rasiel
- The Mckinsey Way by Ethan Rasiel
- The One Minute Manager by Ken Blanchard
- The Service Profit Chain by Heskett, Sasser, Schlesinger
- The Toyota Way by Jeffrey Liker
- Trillion Dollar Coach by Eric Schmidt
- What the CEO wants you to know by Ram Charan
- When Professionals Have to Lead by Delong, Gabarro, Lees
- TED Talks: The Official TED Guide to Public Speaking – Interesting look behind the scenes of the TED conference
- Confessions of a Public Speaker – Entertaining
- Awaken the Giant Within and Unlimited Power – I’ve always been skeptical of the Tony Robbins complex. I listened to these 2 of his older books on a drive. What struck me was how much of Tony’s material has now been validated with research.
Marketing
- Confessions of an Advertising Man by David Ogilvy
- Never Eat Alone by Keith Ferrazi
- The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing by Al Ries and Jack Trout
- Trust me I’m lying by Ryan Holiday
- Aesthetic intelligence by Pauline Brown
- Giftology by John Ruhlin
- How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
- I F**ing love that company by Bayard Winthrop and Randy Komisar
- Luxury Strategy by Kapferer and Bastien
- On Practice Management by Deena Katz
- Perennial Seller by Ryan Holiday
- Selling the Invsibible by Beckwith
- The Art of the Sale by Philip Delves Broughton
Profiles of Leaders, Entrepreneurs and Companies
Favorites
- American Icon by Bryce Hoffman
- Creativity Inc by Ed Catmull
- Conspiracy by Ryan Holiday
- Cable Cowboy: John Malone and the rise of the modern cable biz by Mark Robichaux
- Idea Factory by Jon Gertner
- Personal History by Katherine Graham
- Shoe Dog by Phil Knight
- The Partnership by Charles Ellis
- Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance by Louis Gerstner
Other Reads
- Allen Klein by Fred Goodman
- Barry Diller Story by Georege Mair
- Be My Guest by Conrad Hilton
- Creativity Inc by Ed Catmull
- Endurance by Alfred Lansin
- Factory Man by Beth Macy
- First a Dream by Jim Clayton
- Fish that Ate the Whale by Cohen
- Fortunes Fiddles Fried Chicken by Bill Carey
- Heads in Bed by Jacob Tomsky
- In the Plex by Steven Levy
- Jack by Jack Welch
- Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg
- Les Schwab – Pride in Performance by Les Schwab
- Losing my Virginity by Richard Branson
- Made in America by Sam Walton
- Master of the Big Board – Bio of Jack Massey by Bill Carey
- Master of the Game – Steven Ross by Connie Bruck
- Maverick by Ricardo Semler
- Minding the Store by Stanley Marcus
- My Father’s Business by Cal Turner Jr
- My Share of the Task by Stanley McCrystal
- Pride in Performance by Les Schwab
- Steve Jobs by Walter Issacson
- The First Billion is the Hardest by T. Boone Pickens
- The Frackers by Gregory Zuckerman
- The HP Way by David Packard
- The Perfect Store by Adam Cohen
- The Plaza by Julie Satow
- The Towering World of Jimmy Choo by Lauren Goldstein Crowe
- Titan by Ron Chernow
- To Pixar and Beyond by Lawrence levy
- Warren Buffett CEOs by Robert P. Miles
- When I stop talking you’ll know I’m Dead by Jerry Weintraub
- When Hollywood Had a King by Connie Bruck
- Who is Michael Ovtiz by Michael Ovitz
- Why the Mighty Fall by Jim Collins
- Winner Takes All – Steve Wynn by Christina Brinkly
- Built from Scratch by Bernie Marcus
- Grinding it Out by Ray Kroc
- The Innovators by Walter Isaacson
- The Innovation Stack: Building an Unbeatable Business One Crazy Idea at a Time – This is the story of Square