Editor’s Note: This blog will take the next two weeks off. See you in the new year!
Tom Butler-Bowdon has made a career of selecting 50 books on a given topic and making a book about those 50. I don’t think he is trying to produce the Readers Digest or Cliff Notes version of those books, but rather giving potential readers a chance to peek into the topics covered by the books he writes about so they can decide which ones would interest them the most.
In his book 50 Business Classics, he sets out to show us those who have written books addressing these questions: What do great enterprises have in common? What sort of person leads them? Where do the best new ideas come from?
Have a look at his book and then decide which of these, his 50 selections, you want to read. You will already know some of them because Butler-Bowden does not set out to uncover obscure titles. Some are controversial like Ron Chernow’s book Titan which praises the benefits of monopoly..
Here are the 50 titles he writes about:
P. T. Barnum - The Art of Money Getting (1880)
There are no shortcuts to business success; good character is everythingRichard Branson - Losing My Virginity (1998)
Don't be afraid to be different. On entering any new field or an industry, aim to shake it up and provide new valueAndrew Carnegie - The Gospel of Wealth (1899)
The wealth creator has a moral obligation to enrich the lives of others in whatever way they canAlfred Chandler - The Visible Hand (1977)
It is not entrepreneurship but management that has brought the greatest advances in businessRon Chernow - Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. (1998)
Society's interests are best served by giant monopolies which provide quality and lower prices for the consumerClayton Christensen - The Innovator's Dilemma (1997)
Businesses must purpose/idly engage in Uisruptive innovation" if they are to survive and prosperDuncan Clark - Alibaba: The House That Jack Ma Built (2016)
Don't be cowed by the big players in your industry. Vision, patience, and agility can see you outpace themJim Collins - Great by Choice (2011)
Great companies outperform even in turbulent timesW Edwards Deming - Out of the Crisis (1982)
Enterprises with an extreme focus on quality; better systems and constant improvement have the edgePeter Drucker - The Effective Executive (1967)
Effectiveness at work depends on clarity of aims and the desire to contributeRoger Fisher, William Ury & Bruce Patton - Getting To Yes (2011)
Successful negotiation is based on principles, not pressureMartin Ford - Rise of the Robots (2015)
Automation and artificial intelligence will change the landscape of work and production foreverMichael E. Gerber - The E-Myth Revisited (2001)
The key to real prosperity in business is to work on your enterprise, not in itConrad Hilton - Be My Guest (1957)
Faith in your idea and thinking big are essential to building a great businessBen Horowitz - The Hard Thing About Hard Things (2014)
Nothing really prepares you for leading an organization and getting it through the inevitable crisesWalter Isaacson - Steve Jobs (2011)
A great vision can require shocking intensity to realizeJosh Kaufman - The Personal MBA (2010)
You don't have to spend a fortune getting a good business educationGuy Kawasaki - The Art of the Start (2004)
The fundamental purpose in starling any new enterprise is to create meaningJohn Kay - Obliquity, (2010)
Companies that put profits before mission inevitably falter in the long-termStuart Kells - Penguin and the Lane Brothers (2015)
Build an enterprise that uplifts people or opens up knowledge to millionsW Chan Kim & Renee Mauborgne - Blue Ocean Strategy (2005)
Companies make the mistake of focusing on the competition when they should be focused on creating big leaps in valuePhil Knight - Shoe Dog (2016)
A great businesses can be the result of a personal passion writ largeRichard Koch & Greg Lockwood - Simplify (2016)
It is the radical simplifiers of products and services, rather than the innovators, that win the big prizes in businessTerry Leahy - Management in Ten Words (2012)
Simplicity and clarity are the most powerful advantages in business, but you only arrive at them by being radically customer-centricPatrick Lencioni - The Five Dysfunctions of a Team (2002) The best teams trust each other, welcome conflict, are accountable, and focus on results
Marc Levinson - The Box (2006)
How a simple innovation, the shipping container, transformed world tradeTheodore Levitt - Marketing Myopia (1960)
Truly understand what business you are in, and you have a chance of shaping your futureStanley McChrystal - Team of 'Teams (2015)
Transparency of information enables people to make good decisions and creates unity of purposeDouglas McGregor - The Human Side of Enterprise (1960)
People will naturally want to do their best for an organization if they feel that their higher personal development goals are being metGeoffrey A. Moore - Crossing the Chasm (1991)
Attracting early adopters to your product does not mean you will capture the mainstream marketTom Rath & Barry Conchie - Strengths Based Leadership (2008)
Maximizing your strengths, not trying to correct for your weaknesses, is the key to work successAl Ries & Jack Trout - Positioning (1981)
Successful companies don't simply sell products, they occupy very specific spaces in people's mindsEric Ries - The Lean Startup (2011)
A lack of resources can be a boon in creating new enterprises, with experimentation and analysis replacing grand strategy and capitalSheryl Sandberg - Lean In (2013)
More women at the top is not just good for its own sake, companies will only succeed if they are properly representative of half of their market.Eric Schmidt & Jonathan Rosenberg - How Google Works (2015)
Only by creating a culture of learning and innovation will you attract the right people to your enterpriseAlice Schroeder - The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life (2008)
Time., discipline, and focus are the most important ingredients in building a fortuneHoward Schultz - Pour Your Heart Into It (1997)
Huge enterprises can be built by giving people a small moment of joy in their dayPeter Senge - The Fifth Discipline (1990)
Great companies are communities in which there is a genuine commitment to every member's potential being realizedSimon Sinek - Start With Why (2009)
Average companies are focused on "what" they produce. Great business leaders inspire people to take action by galvanizing them behind a compelling reason, a "why"Seema Singh - Myth breaker: Kiran Mazutndar-Shaw and the Story of Indian Biotech (2016)
Advanced industries can emerge in unlikely environmentsAlfred P. Sloan - My Years with General Motors (1963)
A new breed of huge corporation required a different kind of managementBrad Stone - The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon (2013)
Relentless innovation to please the customer and a very long-term view created a dominant online retailerMatthew Syed - Black Box Thinking (2015)
Willingness to fail frequently, while absorbing the lessons of failure and making constant adjustments, is the way to business successFrederick Winslow Taylor - The Principles of Scientific Management (1911)Dramatic increases in productivity benefit capital and labor alike
Peter Thiel - Zero To One (2014)
To grow Ulster, the world needs transformative technology and business modelsRobert Townsend - Up the Organization (1970)
People are most motivated and successful at work when they are left to do their thing and treated as human beingsDonald Trump - The Art of the Deal (1987)
To succeed in business, balance boldness and promotion with patience, caution and flexibilityAshlee Vance - Elon Musk (2015)
The visionary entrepreneur should not just create a business but shape the futureJack Welch - Jack: Straight from the Gut (2001)
Never underestimate how far you can go by just being yourselfJames P. Womack, Daniel T. Jones & Daniel Roos - The Machine that Changed the World (1990)
New practices in manufacturing and management have saved vast resources and brought higher quality goods
Author Tom Butler-Bowdon
Happy reading!
Herb