Best Business Books

Reading is one of the most effective ways to stay up-to-date. Demonstrate to your leader that you have a genuine interest in your field.

Best business books

An MBA friend recently entered the workforce and asked me to recommend some good business books. He is fortunate because his job puts him in situations where he spends extended periods with executives. He figured that reading any books would help him with his new career. Consequently, he wasn’t asking for anything in particular. At first, I was stumped. His request was so broad that I didn’t know where to point him. I didn’t think I could effectively pick a book to satisfy his curiosity and capture his interest. With this in mind, I took a different direction on his request.   

I explained that I didn’t know what he was looking for, but I had an idea that would hopefully solve his request. My thought was to provide a list of books that would enable him to hold interesting conversations with CEOs and other MBAs. Some are “must-read,” but there should be a few that will give you a different way to think about “best business books.”  With this in mind, I put together the following list of books that I believe will give him talking points so he can hold conversations with his executive-level customers: 

Book recommendation approach

Instead of learning about spreadsheets, operating a business, or the biographies of business leaders, I took a different route. I recommend books that he could share a common language with when talking with colleagues, mentors, and executives in the business world.  Most of his peer MBAs and equivalents will have read the following books. When you say “10,000 hours”, SMART Goals, or “bottom 10 percent”, they will know exactly what you mean. Reading the following books will also demonstrate to your manager and VPs that you are pushing yourself to learn and maintain a better attitude than your colleagues.   

One great practice that our CEO has implemented is promoting business books within the company. If he has read a good business book, he will discuss it at our weekly all-company meeting and offer to purchase it for anyone in the company who is interested. With books directly relevant to our current work, we have designated them as required reading for the entire management staff. The books are optional for any individual contributors. This way, everyone is familiar with the lexicon when referring to specific examples listed in the books.

Of course, we offer business books in any format you’re interested in, whether Kindle, Hardback, CD, or others. Who wouldn’t want to read what their company’s CEO is currently reading? Asking your CEO’s opinion on a business book is always a great icebreaker and a way to show you are pushing yourself.

The shortlist

With this mentality in mind, I compiled a shortlist of books that most executives and MBAs (i.e., decision-makers) will be familiar with. Again, this isn’t a list of the top business books to read.  This isn’t a comprehensive list of specific learnings, by any stretch of the imagination.  I hope that by being familiar with these, you can ask interesting questions of the execs and decision-makers in your world.  Don’t we all want to ask interesting questions about the senior people in our lives? I missed several classics, so please add them to the list in the comments below.  (I am not on an affiliate program with Amazon or being paid to review these books. These are books I recommend to friends. 

I just finished reading The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz, a well-respected CEO turned VC. A CEO wrote this book about CEO experiences. The intended audience was other CEOs.  Along the way, it gained a cult following within the business and startup community. Being a CEO is hard. Horowitz delves into the trials and tribulations of his job as a CEO, offering insight into his “never give up” attitude that has helped him persevere. This book delivers real-life lessons everyone can learn from.

A Classic

Millionaire Next Door:  The book I wish Mrs. HRNasty would read. The difference in day-to-day habits that you wouldn’t suspect between millionaires and those living paycheck to paycheck.  Why do millionaires drive 10-year-old cars? This book offers a groundbreaking look at the wealthy, revealing that many millionaires live quietly among non-millionaires. You won’t find “lifestyles of the rich and famous” profiles in this book. You will find ordinary folks who rolled up their sleeves, worked hard, and saved diligently. This explains how the everyday person can become a millionaire.  I am confident that most managers would prefer to hire someone with this mentality.

I am a Gladwell fanboy, so anything from Malcolm Gladwell would be very high on the list. Outliers would be one of the first books I recommend. If you haven’t already read this, I am confident you will find it fascinating. Gladwell proposes a sound theory for “what makes high achievers different.” I find everything by Gladwell entertaining and thought-provoking.  

Social Skills in Business

How to Win Friends and Influence People:  Every successful salesperson and CEO has read this book. I have preached throughout the blog that despite your crappy manager, your career is your responsibility. This book is a significant first step to understanding how to take the initiative in personal and professional relationships and control your destiny.      

Never Eat Alone by Keith Ferrazzi. As Ferrazzi discovered early in life, highly successful people are distinguished by how they use the power of relationships. Ferrazzi outlines the specific steps required to connect with colleagues, friends, and associates. This is the networker’s bible.

One of the greats

Jack Welch and the GE way:  Although some may feel this is dated, your VP probably read this classic.  Jack Welch took GE to greatness. Welch was chosen to lead GE, one of the largest and most traditional Fortune 500 companies. He was a proponent of cutting the bottom 10% every year, and GE has one of the most talent-rich management benches in the world.

The No Asshole Rule:  Working in HR, and I want to spread this word as much as possible. Not so much so that assholes are not hired, but just as much so that assholes (and they know who they are) frickin change their asshole ways. I don’t care how smart you are, assholes will be dinosaurs. 

Must read in a modern world

The World is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman. As more third-world countries become industrialized, your phone calls to your phone carrier are now being routed overseas.  Even your doctor’s reports on your check-up are being written overseas. This explains how competition is not just local but global for every industry, and why more jobs are being outsourced overseas. The message for me as an HR pro-am and someone collecting a paycheck was that as employees, we need to think about improving our productivity to save our jobs.  

As a superfan and having had the fortune of working with him, I must include anything by Brad Feld. Brad is a well-respected venture capitalist and began his career as a software developer. He isn’t your traditional banking VC. Most of his books are broken up into chapters that can be read independently. I especially like “Do More Faster.” This is a book that interviews many start-up CEOs and gathers lessons learned the hard way. 

Books on perfection (and food)

One of my all-time favorite books is “The Soul of a Chef” by Michael Ruhlman, as he observes the rigorous three-day Certified Master Chef exam at the Culinary Institute of America. In this book, he shares his observations of working under Chef Thomas Keller at The French Laundry. For myself, this book delves into “What causes chefs to strive for absolute perfection?”  What does it take to achieve high levels of accomplishment?

Jiro Dreams of Sushi, available in both book and video formats, offers a fascinating glimpse into one man’s quest to achieve perfection in his craft. I recommended the book and video to our executive team; everyone found it fascinating. To such an extent that it was agreed that if any of us made it big, we would take each other to Japan and order sushi from Jiro. After 50 years, Jiro, the sushi chef featured in the book, doesn’t feel he has mastered his craft of preparing sushi, despite a 6-month reservation wait and a $ 500 price tag on a meal at his restaurant. If you work for a perfectionist, this is a must-read or watch.   

Business books for networking

Habits of highly effective people by Steven R Covey. Nothing more needs to be said about this one. If you haven’t heard of this one, I can’t help you. 

How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie is required reading in schools and businesses. This is a great place to start if you are wondering how to strengthen your leadership skills. This is standard reading for most High Performer programs at Fortune companies. 

Classic business books

The thought process behind this list is that these books are 100 to 500 years old. These are “da real classics”. If an idea has survived this long, there must be something to it. New ideas emerge and fade away every day.  Everybody has an opinion and a theory, including me. I have certain philosophies about interviewing, and I hope they will remain relevant in the next decade. Read the classics first as a baseline, and read what your CEO and execs have read. 

48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene was a New York Times bestseller. Although this book was published in 2000, it is based on an analysis of the powerful that spans 3,000 years. This book draws on the philosophies of Machiavelli and Sun Tzu to Kissenger and PT Barnum. 

The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli (1532) was initially written as an instruction guide for governing Princes in the 1500s. This is probably one of the most famous books on politics. Whenever you work with a group of three or more, politics will inevitably arise.

One of the most-read books on the list

Art of War by Sun Tzu, written in the 5th century BC, is a classic, and no list of business books would be complete without it. This is a military treatise written by a high-ranking military general, strategist, and tactician. There are 13 chapters, each devoted to one aspect of warfare—recommended reading for all US military Intelligence personnel and required reading for all CIA officers. Many business books have been written, and lessons from this book have been applied to corporate strategy for competitive business situations. 

Book on Teamwork

I grew up in the shadow of the University of Washington. This book is being made into a movie and is making a comeback, I am also including “The Boys in the Boat.“  This is the true story of the 1932 University of Washington rowing team that competed at the Olympics. You don’t have to be into rowing to get this feel-good story about underdogs building a winning team.  I have read this one multiple times.  

I know that there are many other excellent business books available. Please take a moment to share your must-read in the comments below and recommend your favorites.  

See you at the after party,
HRNasty

nasty: an unreal maneuver of incredible technique, something that is ridiculously good, tricky, and manipulative but with a result that can’t help but be admired, a phrase used to describe someone good at something. “He has a nasty forkball”.

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