There’s no shortage of books about improved efficiency and innovation in business. Most of them are forgettable, but here are 12 business books to read that will change the way you think about strategy, management, products and most importantly your customers.
Ray Dalio – Principles
Dalio shares the principles used in his company, the biggest hedge fund, Bridgewater Associates. Principles is a masterpiece. The main thesis is that finding the truth is the only way to make good decisions. He advocates looking at the company around you as a machine from a higher level with the ability to be tuned.
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Sun Tzu – The Art of War
Know when to fight and when not to fight: Seek higher moral ground and avoid what is strong. How to deceive the enemy: appear weak when you are strong, and strong when you are weak. Know your strengths and weaknesses: You need to know the enemy and yourself. The book requires minimal ability to adapt to the modern world but has strong points.
Peter F. Drucker – The Essential Drucker
Peter Drucker, known as the Father of Modern Management Theory, coined leadership terms and strategies that are still used today. He advocated for a more flexible, collaborative workplace, and the delegation of power. Peter Drucker already anticipated the shift towards a society characterized by entrepreneurship.
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Erik Peterson, Tim Riesterer – Conversations That Win The Complex Sale
Erik and Tim describe in an easy to understand way why deals get stuck in the status quo and what your sales message needs to look like to break this. Because some form of selling is part of everybody’s life, understanding the concepts of The Value Wedge, Power Positions enables you to sell products as well as ideas.
Nicholas A. C. Read, Stephen J. Bistritz – Selling to the C-Suite
To sell requires to create value by helping clients find viable solutions to their problems. During a meeting with high-ranking people, your primary job is not to sell but to help them address their issues. Your goal is to become an adviser. This resonates very well with the co-creation concept and explains partially why it is efficient to do so.
Michael E. Porter – Competitive Strategy
A company’s strategy must depend on its immediately the environment of its industry. Michael describes the competitive situation in an industry as a function of five basic factors (Porter’s Five Forces). The supplier power. The level of threat from new entries. The power of customers. The threat of substitution. The rivalry amongst current industry participants.
Alexander Osterwalder, Yves Pigneur – Business Model Generation
Business Model Generation describes the blueprints of business models of major companies. The illustrative way of describing the process as well as the different models make it an easy, but powerful read.
Marty Cagan – INSPIRED
Inspired is THE must-read for every person working in or with products. The book explains how to create the holy grails in tech industry and focuses on people, culture, product managers, outcomes and process. It significantly influenced the way I think about products.
Stephen R. Covey – 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
The book explains habits highly effective people have. Even though I would have called it efficient, not effective, the mook lists some very good habits. Be Proactive, Begin with the End in Mind, Put First Things First, Think Win-Win, Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood, Synergize and Sharpen the Saw. The habits are outwards as well as inwards to have healthy relationships.
Eliyahu M. Goldratt – The Goal
In The Goal, Eliyahu leads the reader through a process optimization journey of a factory floor. Three areas are hereby in focus: Throughput (rate the system generates money through sales), Inventory and OPEX (money to turn inventory into throughput). TOC clearly points out flaws that can be found in all companies such as optimization of local optima. It sharpened my thoughts on Value-Based Pricing.
Benjamin Graham – The Intelligent Investor
Even though he describes some forms of investments, such as savings bonds which might not be as attractive anymore, Graham also explains a very valid investment methodology based on fundamental stock analysis. The goal is to learn how to avoid allowing emotions to control investment decisions. Rather, Graham provides the foundation for making businesslike decisions.
Robert T. Kiyosaki – Rich Dad
Even though I have to say that I’m not a fan of investment and money books, I find the easy to follow way in explaining the terminology around assets and liability as well as the visualization of it very helpful. The core of the book is to invest in assets, which per definition put money in your pocket, whereas liabilities take it out. Reading this book gave me a unified way of thinking about investments.