Your shortcut to the most important ideas on innovation, management and strategy
(2018)
AVAILABLE NOW! Buy links to your right.
By Tom Butler-Bowdon
What do great enterprises have in common? What sort of person starts them?
A single idea can help you find the next big thing, but it takes time to trawl through hundreds of business books to find inspiration. With insightful commentaries on the landmark writings of old and new, 50 Business Classics presents the great entrepreneur stories, the best management thinking and the proven ideas on strategy, innovation and marketing – in one volume.
Below is the list of books covered in 50 Business Classics: Your shortcut to the most important ideas on innovation, management and strategy.
Table of Contents
Introduction
1. P. T. Barnum – The Art of Money Getting (1880)
There are no shortcuts to business success; good character is everything… and it helps to advertise
2. Richard Branson – Losing My Virginity (1998)
Don’t be afraid to be different. On entering any new field or an industry, aim to really shake it up and provide new value
3. Andrew Carnegie – The Gospel of Wealth (1899)
The wealth creator has a moral obligation to enrich the lives of others in whatever way they can
4. Alfred Chandler – The Visible Hand (1977)
It is not entrepreneurship but management that has brought the greatest advances in business
5. Ron 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 consumer
6. Clayton Christensen – The Innovator’s Dilemma (1997)
Businesses must purposefully engage in “disruptive innovation” if they are to survive and prosper
7. Duncan 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 them
8. Jim Collins – Great by Choice (2011)
Great companies outperform even in turbulent times
9. W. Edwards Deming – Out of the Crisis (1982)
Enterprises with an extreme focus on quality, better systems and constant improvement have the edge
10. Peter Drucker – The Effective Executive (1967)
Effectiveness at work depends on clarity of aims and the desire to contribute
11. Roger Fisher, William Ury & Bruce Patton – Getting To Yes (2011)
Successful negotiation is based on principles, not pressure
12. Martin Ford – Rise of the Robots (2015)
Automation and artificial intelligence will change the landscape of work and production forever
13. Michael E. Gerber – The E-Myth Revisited (2001)
The key to real prosperity in business is to work on your enterprise, not in it
14. Conrad Hilton – Be My Guest (1957)
Faith in your idea and thinking big are essential to building a great business
15. Ben Horowitz – The Hard Thing About Hard Things (2014)
Nothing really prepares you for leading an organization and getting it through the inevitable crises
16. Walter Isaacson – Steve Jobs (2011)
A great vision can require shocking intensity to realize
17. Josh Kaufman – The Personal MBA (2010)
You don’t have to spend a fortune getting a good business education
18. Guy Kawasaki – The Art of the Start (2004)
The fundamental purpose in starting any new enterprise is to create meaning
19. John Kay – Obliquity (2010)
Companies that put profits before mission inevitably falter in the long-term
20. Stuart Kells – Penguin and the Lane Brothers (2015)
Build an enterprise that uplifts people or opens up knowledge to millions
21. W. Chan Kim & Renée Mauborgne – Blue Ocean Strategy (2005)
Companies make the mistake of focusing on the competition when they should be focused on creating big leaps in value
22. Phil Knight – Shoe Dog (2016)
A great businesses can be the result of a personal passion writ large
23. Richard Koch & Greg Lockwood – Simplify (2016)
It is the radical simplifiers of products and services, rather than the innovators, that win the big prizes in business
24. Terry 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-centric
25. Patrick Lencioni – The Five Dysfunctions of a Team (2002)
The best teams trust each other, welcome conflict, are accountable, and focus on results
26. Marc Levinson – The Box (2006)
How a simple innovation, the shipping container, transformed world trade
27. Theodore Levitt – Marketing Myopia (1960)
Truly understand what business you are in, and you have a chance of shaping your future
28. Stanley McChrystal – Team of Teams (2015)
Transparency of information enables people to make good decisions and creates unity of purpose
29. Douglas 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 met
30. Geoffrey A. Moore – Crossing the Chasm (1991)
Attracting early adopters to your product does not mean you will capture the mainstream market
31. Tom Rath & Barry Conchie – Strengths Based Leadership (2008)
Maximizing your strengths, not trying to correct for your weaknesses, is the key to work success
32. Al Ries & Jack Trout – Positioning (1981)
Successful companies don’t simply sell products, they occupy very specific spaces in people’s minds
33. Eric 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 capital
34. Sheryl 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
35. Eric Schmidt & Jonathan Rosenberg – How Google Works (2014)
Only by creating a culture of learning and innovation will you attract the right people to your enterprise
36. Alice Schroeder – The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life (2008) Time, discipline, and focus are the most important ingredients in building a fortune
37. Howard Schultz – Pour Your Heart Into It (1997)
Huge enterprises can be built by giving people a small moment of joy in their day
38. Peter Senge – The Fifth Discipline (1990)
Great companies are communities in which there is a genuine commitment to every member’s potential being realized
39. Simon 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”
40. Seema Singh – Mythbreaker: Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw and the Story of Indian Biotech (2016)
Advanced industries can emerge in unlikely environments
41. Alfred P. Sloan – My Years with General Motors (1963)
A new breed of huge corporation required a different kind of management
42. Brad 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 retailer
43. Matthew Syed – Black Box Thinking (2015)
Willingness to fail frequently, while absorbing the lessons of failure and making constant adjustments, is the only real path to success
44. Frederick Winslow Taylor – The Principles of Scientific Management (1911) Dramatic increases in productivity benefit capital and labor alike
45. Peter Thiel – Zero To One (2014)
To grow faster, the world needs transformative technology and business models
46. Robert 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 beings
47. Donald Trump – The Art of the Deal (1987)
To succeed in business, balance boldness and promotion with patience, caution and flexibility
48. Ashlee Vance – Elon Musk (2015)
The visionary entrepreneur should not just create a business but shape the future
49. Jack Welch – Jack: Straight from the Gut (2001)
Never underestimate how far you can go by just being yourself
50. James 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