100 Best Consulting Books of All Time

To find the keys to greatness, Collins's 21-person research team read and coded 6,000 articles, generated more than 2,000 pages of interview transcripts and created 384 megabytes of computer data in a five-year project. The findings will surprise many readers and, quite frankly, upset others.

The Challenge
Built to Last, the defining management study of the nineties, showed how great companies trium

Recommended by Jeff Bezos, Dave Ramsey, Drew Huston, and 34 others.

Founder/Amazon

"Collins briefed Amazon executives on his seminal management book before its publication. Companies must confront the brutal facts of their business, find out what they are uniquely good at, and master their fly wheel, in which each part of the business reinforces and accelerates the other parts," Stone writes. [source]

Author

Dave Ramsey recommended this book on his website. [source]

Max Levchin

Co-founder/PayPal, CEO/Affirm, Investor

Max Levchin recommended this book as an answer to "What business books would you advise young entrepreneurs read?" [source]

3

How to Win Friends & Influence People

Dale Carnegie

5.0

You can go after the job you want—and get it!
You can take the job you have—and improve it!
You can take any situation—and make it work for you!

Dale Carnegie’s rock-solid, time-tested advice has carried countless people up the ladder of success in their business and personal lives. One of the most groundbreaking and timeless bestsellers of all time, How to Win Friends & Influence People will teach

Recommended by Dave Ramsey, Daymond John, Dustin Moskovitz, and 58 others.

Author

Dave Ramsey recommended this book on his website. [source]

Daymond John

Founder/FUBU

I love all the Dale Carnegie books. [source]

Dustin Moskovitz

Co-founder/Facebook and Asana

Seek to be understood. [source]

4

Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

Robert B. Cialdini

4.9

Influence, the classic book on persuasion, explains the psychology of why people say "yes"—and how to apply these understandings. Dr. Robert Cialdini is the seminal expert in the rapidly expanding field of influence and persuasion. His thirty-five years of rigorous, evidence-based research along with a three-year program of study on what moves people to change behavior has resulted in this highly

Recommended by Charles T. Munger, Dan Ariely, Jim Collins, and 40 others.

Charles T. Munger

Vice Chairman/Berkshire Hathaway

Robert Cialdini has had a greater impact on my thinking on this topic than any other scientist. [source]

Dan Ariely

Author

It covers a range of ways in which we end up doing things, and how we don’t understand why we’re doing them. [source]

Max Levchin

Co-founder/PayPal, CEO/Affirm, Investor

Max Levchin recommended this book as an answer to "What business books would you advise young entrepreneurs read?" [source]

5

The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses

Eric Ries

4.8

Most startups fail. But many of those failures are preventable. The Lean Startup is a new approach being adopted across the globe, changing the way companies are built and new products are launched.

Eric Ries defines a startup as an organization dedicated to creating something new under conditions of extreme uncertainty. This is just as true for one person in a garage or a group of seasoned profes

Recommended by Sheryl Sandberg, Andrew Chen, Ben Horowitz, and 75 others.

Sheryl Sandberg

COO/Facebook

Provides a great inside look at how the tech industry approaches building products and businesses. [source]

Ben Horowitz

Co-founder/Andreessen Horowitz

Great. [source]

Dustin Moskovitz

Co-founder/Facebook and Asana

At Asana, we've been lucky to benefit from the author's advice firsthand; this book will enable him to help many more entrepreneurs answer the tough questions about their business. [source]

6

Case Interview Secrets: A Former McKinsey Interviewer Reveals How to Get Multiple Job Offers in Consulting

Victor Cheng

4.8

7

Flawless Consulting: A Guide to Getting Your Expertise Used

Peter Block

4.8

This Third Edition to Peter Block's Flawless Consulting addresses business changes and new challenges since the second edition was written ten years ago. It tackles the challenges next-generation consultants face, including more guidance on how to ask better questions, dealing with difficult clients, working in an increasingly virtual world, how to cope with complexities in international consultin

8

The Trusted Advisor

David H. Maister

4.7

Bestselling author David Maister teams up with Charles H. Green and Robert M. Galford to bring us the essential tool for all consultants, negotiators, and advisors.

In today's fast-paced networked economy, professionals must work harder than ever to maintain and improve their business skills and knowledge. But technical mastery of one's discipline is not enough, assert world-renowned professional a

9

Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future

Peter Thiel

4.7

If you want to build a better future, you must believe in secrets.

The great secret of our time is that there are still uncharted frontiers to explore and new inventions to create. In Zero to One, legendary entrepreneur and investor Peter Thiel shows how we can find singular ways to create those new things.

Thiel begins with the contrarian premise that we live in an age of technological stagnation,

Recommended by Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Reid Hoffman, and 77 others.

Elon Musk

Founder/SpaceX

Peter Thiel has built multiple breakthrough companies, and Zero to One shows how.” - Elon Mus [source]

Mark Zuckerberg

Founder/Facebook

This book delivers completely new and refreshing ideas on how to create value in the world. [source]

Ben Horowitz

Co-founder/Andreessen Horowitz

Zero To One is a great book. I learned a lot reading it. [source]

10

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change

Stephen R. Covey

4.7

When Stephen Covey first released The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, the book became an instant rage because people suddenly got up and took notice that their lives were headed off in the wrong direction; and more than that, they realized that there were so many simple things they could do in order to navigate their life correctly. This book was wonderful education for people, education

Recommended by Dave Ramsey, Dustin Moskovitz, John C. Maxwell, and 18 others.

Author

Dave Ramsey recommended this book on his website. [source]

Dustin Moskovitz

Co-founder/Facebook and Asana

I was surprised at how familiar the topics felt. [source]

Joe Martin

@benmorris @audible_com @Gladwell I enjoy the quiet on the way home, but on the way to work I am listening to the 7 habits book by Stephen Coveru, a fave of mine [source]

11

The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement

Eliyahu M. Goldratt, Jeff Cox

4.6

Written in a fast-paced thriller style, 'The Goal' contains a serious message for all managers in industry and explains the ideas which underline the Theory of Constraints developed by the author.

Recommended by Jeff Bezos, Danielle Morrill, Kevin Systrom, and 4 others.

Founder/Amazon

Encourages companies to identify the biggest constraints in their operations and then structure their organizations to get the most out of those constraints. [source]

Kevin Systrom

About basically manufacturing and supply chain management. It sounds really boring, but I promise you it’s really good. [source]

Chris Goward

Here are some of the books that have been very impactful for me, or taught me a new way of thinking: … The Goal. [source]

12

Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High

Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, and Al Switzler

4.6

Crucial Conversations: Tools For Talking When Stakes Are High is a guide to hone your conversation skills, and prepare you for the most important or trying times of your life and career. The book discusses how talking in the right way can help people achieve what they want. People are often tongue-tied when it comes to interacting with someone, especially when there is a lot of tension in the air.

Recommended by Max Levchin and Deke Bridges.

Max Levchin

Co-founder/PayPal, CEO/Affirm, Investor

A now-venerable guide to having tough conversations in a way that engages the debaters. [source]

Deke Bridges

Picked up this great book @Powells to read. Better conversation and listening enables you to get deeper into subjects at hand. When talking with people, this makes your communication skills a very powerful tool. Always be learning. #growth #education #leadership https://t.co/r0ujX9IPqh [source]

13

The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference

Malcolm Gladwell

4.6

An alternate cover edition exists here.

The tipping point is that magic moment when an idea, trend, or social behavior crosses a threshold, tips, and spreads like wildfire. Just as a single sick person can start an epidemic of the flu, so too can a small but precisely targeted push cause a fashion trend, the popularity of a new product, or a drop in the crime rate. This widely acclaimed bestseller,

Recommended by Ev Williams, Kevin Rose, Simon Sinek, and 21 others.

Kevin Rose

Co-founder/Digg

Bunch of really good information in here on how to make ideas go viral. This could be good to apply to any kind of products or ideas you may have. Definitely, check out The Tipping Point, which is one of my favorites. [source]

Seth Godin

Author, Marketer, Entrepreneur

Malcolm Gladwell's breakthrough insight was to focus on the micro-relationships between individuals, which helped organizations realize that it's not about the big ads and the huge charity balls... it's about setting the stage for the buzz to start. [source]

Andy Stern

I think that when we talk about making change, it is much more about macro change, like in policy. This book reminds you that at times when you're building big movements, or trying to elect significant decision-makers in politics, sometimes it's the little things that make a difference. Ever since the book was written, we've become very used to the idea of things going viral unexpectedly and then having massive impact. The Tipping Point, to me, is really an appreciation that very small things can rearrange thinking in ways – like infectious diseases – that have huge implications. While we're always searching for the big policy changes – and we think we have to do that in very traditional ways of building coalitions against constituencies, movements and the media – sometimes it's the little things that actually tip the situation. Like the story of a person and their unique set of circumstances that really captures an issue about health care or housing. So it's trying to remember, while you're thinking about the grand and the glorious, that thinking about the small things can equally bring about change. [source]

Cover unavailable

14

Million Dollar Consulting: the Professional's Guide to Growing a Practice

Alan Weiss

4.6

For the growing number of solo and small-group consultants, this book features the practical information needed to expand a small practice into a million-dollar consulting business. For example, the book shows how to increase sales by abandoning the bottom portion of the market; offers ten techniques for developing breakthrough relationships; details why value-based fee structures are better for p

15

The Secrets of Consulting: A Guide to Giving and Getting Advice Successfully

Gerald M. Weinberg

4.6

If you are a consultant, ever use one, or want to be one, this book will show you how to succeed.With wit, charm, humor, and wisdom, Gerald M. Weinberg shows you exactly how to become a more effective consultant. He reveals specific techniques and strategies that really work.

Through the use of vividly memorable rules, laws, and principles -- such as The Law of Raspberry Jam, The Potato Chip Princi

Cover unavailable

16

Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness

Richard H. Thaler

4.6

Every day, we make decisions on topics ranging from personal investments to schools for our children to the meals we eat to the causes we champion. Unfortunately, we often choose poorly. The reason, the authors explain, is that, being human, we all are susceptible to various biases that can lead us to blunder. Our mistakes make us poorer and less healthy; we often make bad decisions involving educ

Recommended by Dan Ariely, Vinod Khosla, Vinod Khosla, and 18 others.

Dan Ariely

Author

Nudge is a very important book. One of the reasons Nudge is so important is because it’s taking these ideas and applying them to the policy domain. Here are the mistakes we make. Here are the ways marketers are trying to influence us. Here’s the way we might be able to fight back. If policymakers understood these principles, what could they do? The other important thing about the book is that it describes, in detail, small interventions. It’s basically a book about cheap persuasion. [source]

Eric Ries

Founder/Long-Term Stock Exchange

A pioneer in behavioral economics and just recently awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics, his classic book on how to make better decisions. [source]

Ryan Holiday

Author

This might feel like a weird book to include, but I think it presents another side of strategy that is too often forgotten. It’s not always about bold actors and strategic thrusts. Sometimes strategy is about subtle influence. Sometimes it is framing and small tweaks that change behavior. We can have big aims, but get there with little moves. This book has excellent examples of that kind of thinking and how it is changing politics, government and business. My favorite example is about the bumblebee that they started putting on urinals–which drastically reduced the amount of spray and spillage because it changed where men aimed when they peed. It’s not exactly the coolest strategy but it solved a problem. So we can learn from it. [source]

17

Blue Ocean Strategy: How To Create Uncontested Market Space And Make The Competition Irrelevant

W. Chan Kim

4.6

Winning by not competing! This international best seller upends traditional thinking with principles and tools to make the competition irrelevant.
In an audiobook that challenges everything you thought you knew, W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne assert that tomorrow's leading companies will succeed, not by battling their rivals for market share in the bloody "red ocean" of a shrinking profit pool, bu

Recommended by Daymond John, Steve Blank, Danielle Morrill, and 13 others.

Daymond John

Founder/FUBU

There are the normal ones that everybody loves. There would be "Rich Dad Poor Dad," "Who Moved My Cheese?;" I love all the Dale Carnegie books; "The One Minute Manager." I love newer ones like "Blue Ocean Strategy" and all the "Freaknomics" books. [source]

Ryan Holiday

Author

I don’t remember who originally told me to read Blue Ocean Strategy but I’m glad they did because this simple recommendation would substantially shape the course of my life and my career. [source]

Ayush Kumar

One doesn't necessarily need to take from others to fill their glass & you can always build a successful business in any industry. [source]

18

Getting Started in Consulting

Alan Weiss

4.6

The Unbeatable, Updated, Comprehensive Guidebook For First-Time Consultants

Getting Started In Consulting

More people than ever are making the jump from corporate offices to home offices, taking control of their futures, being their own bosses, and starting their own consultancies. Consulting is a bigger business than ever and growing every day.

For almost a decade, Alan Weiss's Getting Started in Co

Cover unavailable

19

Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?

Seth Godin

4.6

"This is what the future of work (and the world) looks like. Actually, it's already happening around you." — Tony Hsieh, CEO, Zappos.com

In bestsellers such as Purple Cow and Tribes, Seth Godin taught readers how to make remarkable products and spread powerful ideas. But this book is about you—your choices, your future, and your potential to make a huge difference in whatever field you choose.

There

Recommended by Andra Zaharia, Ann Handley, Armina Sirbu, and 6 others.

Andra Zaharia

While I was thinking of the best books to add to this short list, I realized that not even half of them are directly related to digital marketing. This is because I believe that the best marketers are people who understand human nature deeply and aim to bring out the best in it. Call me naive, but that’s how I see it. If I were to want to pursue a career in marketing, I’d read anything by Seth Godin (Linchpin in particular). [source]

Armina Sirbu

My favorite book is Linchpin by Seth Godin. I think it's business, but it can very well be non-business as well because it's so much about life. I re-read fragments from time to time to get a jump-start when I need it. [source]

Bernard Tan

Now that I look at the books listed, they seem to carry an existential theme. I guess I like to understand humanity and human behaviour ultimately to better understand myself. I find reading a means to connect with people who may have lived before my time, or in a distant country, that I may never have had the chance to connect with in real life. As three-dimensional humans, we are all made up of so many faces and emotional layers that we find it hard to dissect them all, and when we find writers who can explain these thought processes in a way that’s tangible and digestible, there’s this incredibly comforting eureka moment of feeling understood. [source]

Cover unavailable

20

Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors

Michael E. Porter

4.6

Now nearing its 60th printing in English and translated into nineteen languages, Michael E. Porter's Competitive Strategy has transformed the theory, practice, and teaching of business strategy throughout the world. Electrifying in its simplicity -- like all great breakthroughs -- Porter's analysis of industries captures the complexity of industry competition in five underlying forces. Porter intr

Recommended by Denise Morris Kipnis.

Denise Morris Kipnis

Question: What five books would you recommend to young people interested in your career path & why? Answer: In addition to Built to Change, Process Consultation, and Flawless Consulting, I would add: The Wisdom of Teams by Katzenbach & Smith Diagnosing and Changing Organizational Culture by Cameron & Quinn Designing Organizations by Galbraith Understanding Research Methods by Patten Competitive Strategy by Michael Porter [source]

21

Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies

Jim Collins, Jerry I. Porras

4.5

"This is not a book about charismatic visionary leaders. It is not about visionary product concepts or visionary products or visionary market insights. Nor is it about just having a corporate vision. This is a book about something far more important, enduring, and substantial. This is a book about visionary companies." So write Jim Collins and Jerry Porras in this groundbreaking book that shatters

Recommended by Jeff Bezos, Drew Huston, Ev Williams, and 13 others.

Founder/Amazon

recommends this book because it shows how to create a long lasting company. [source]

Tim O'Reilly

Founder/O'Reilly Media

Built to Last, by James Collins and Jerry Porras. The idea here is that great companies aren't afraid to have strong values. In fact, their cult-like values are what make them stand out from the norm. [source]

Alden Mills

Built to Last focused my daydreaming mind into what it takes to build truly great companies. [source]

22

The Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail

Clayton M. Christensen

4.5

The bestselling classic on disruptive innovation, renowned author Clayton M. Christensen.

His work is cited by the world’s best-known thought leaders, from Steve Jobs to Malcolm Gladwell. In this classic bestseller—now updated with a fresh new package—innovation expert Clayton Christensen shows how even the most outstanding companies can do everything right—yet still lose market leadership. Read th

Recommended by Jeff Bezos, Malcolm Gladwell, Steve Jobs, and 38 others.

Founder/Amazon

Brad Stone's new book, The Everything Store, describes how Bezos developed this strategy after reading another book called The Innovator's Dilemma by Harvard professor Clayton Christensen. [source]

Steve Jobs

Founder/Apple

It's important that we make this transformation, because of what Clayton Christensen calls "the innovator's dilemma," where people who invent something are usually the last ones to see past it, and we certainly don't want to be left behind. [source]

Drew Houston

CEO/Dropbox

About how businesses get disrupted, and a lot of those themes are why startups can succeed and thrive even when there are big competitors who you would think would just wipe ’em out. [source]

23

Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving in

Roger Fisher, William L. Ury, Bruce Patton

4.5

The key text on problem-solving negotiation-updated and revised

Getting to Yes has helped millions of people learn a better way to negotiate. One of the primary business texts of the modern era, it is based on the work of the Harvard Negotiation Project, a group that deals with all levels of negotiation and conflict resolution.

Getting to Yes offers a proven, step-by-step strategy for coming to mut

Recommended by Charles T. Munger, Drew Houston, Dustin Moskovitz, and 8 others.

Charles T. Munger

Vice Chairman/Berkshire Hathaway

recommends this title in the book "Poor Charlie's Almanack: The Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger". [source]

Drew Houston

CEO/Dropbox

About principled negotiation, and I still think about and apply a lot of those concepts today. [source]

Dustin Moskovitz

Co-founder/Facebook and Asana

Dustin Moskovitz recommended this book on Twitter. [source]

24

The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich

Timothy Ferriss

4.5

More than 100 pages of new, cutting-edge content.
Forget the old concept of retirement and the rest of the deferred-life plan there is no need to wait and every reason not to, especially in unpredictable economic times. Whether your dream is escaping the rat race, experiencing high-end world travel, earning a monthly five-figure income with zero management, or just living more and working less, Th

Recommended by Eric Weinstein, Simon Sinek, Tim Draper, and 51 others.

Eric Weinstein

Managing Director/Thiel Capital

Eric Weinstein recommended this book on Twitter. [source]

Tim Draper

Founder/Draper Fisher Jurvetson

With this kind of time management and focus on the important things in life, people should be able to get 15 times as much done in a normal work week. [source]

Jack Canfield

Co-author/The Success Principles

It's about time this book was written. It is a long-overdue manifesto for the mobile lifestyle, and Tim Ferriss is the ideal ambassador. This will be huge. [source]

25

Outliers: The Story of Success

Malcolm Gladwell

4.5

In this stunning new book, Malcolm Gladwell takes us on an intellectual journey through the world of "outliers"--the best and the brightest, the most famous and the most successful. He asks the question: what makes high-achievers different?

His answer is that we pay too much attention to what successful people are like, and too little attention to where they are from: that is, their culture, their

Recommended by Bill Gates, Charles T. Munger, Charlie Munger, and 18 others.

Bill Gates

CEO/Microsoft

On Bill Gates's reading list in 2011. [source]

James Altucher

Founder/StockPickr

Gladwell is not the first person to come up with the 10,000 hour rule. Nor is he the first person to document what it takes to become the best in the world at something. But his stories are so great as he explains these deep concepts. How did the Beatles become the best? Why are professional hockey players born in January, February and March? And so on. [source]

Alex Circei

Question: What five books would you recommend to young people interested in your career path & why? Answer: Screw It, Let's Do It: Lessons In Life by Richard Branson Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone To Take Action by Simon Sinek The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers by Ben Horowitz Rich Dad Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not! by Robert T. Kiyosaki [source]

26

Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die

Chip Heath, Dan Heath

4.5

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - The instant classic about why some ideas thrive, why others die, and how to improve your idea's chances--essential reading in the "fake news" era.

Mark Twain once observed, "A lie can get halfway around the world before the truth can even get its boots on." His observation rings true: Urban legends, conspiracy theories, and bogus news stories circulate effortlessly. Mean

Recommended by Vinod Khosla, Vinod Khosla, Brian Armstrong, and 13 others.

Arvind Narayanan

@conorgil My all-time favorite example of research communication is The Selfish Gene. Astonishingly effective at explaining deep research ideas/findings to a lay reader. A book with great advice: https://t.co/QD1sM2o0z6 (It isn't specific to research but still super valuable.) [source]

Bill Liao

The Book "Made to Stick" combined with "The Poetics" by Aristotle really helped me to see the power of telling great stories with surprises in them and every time I meet a start-up I can always make a contribution to their pitch. [source]

Cristian-Dragos Baciu

I highly recommend all the books written by the Heath brothers, especially Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive And Others Die. This one's a must-read for marketers. The reason I enjoyed their work so much is because they offer real-life stories and insights that makes it so much easier for the reader to imprint that information in his mind [source]

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27

Rework

Jason Fried, David Heinemeier Hansson

4.5

Most business books give you the same old advice: Write a business plan, study the competition, seek investors, yadda yadda. If you're looking for a book like that, put this one back on the shelf.

Rework shows you a better, faster, easier way to succeed in business. Read it and you'll know why plans are actually harmful, why you don't need outside investors, and why you're better off ignoring the c

Recommended by Jeff Bezos, Mark Cuban, Tony Hsieh, and 30 others.

Founder/Amazon

Unperturbed by conventional wisdom, the authors start fresh and rewrite the rules of business. Their approach turns out to be as successful as it is counter-intuitive. [source]

Mark Cuban

Entrepreneur / Shark Tank

If given a choice between investing in someone who has read Rework or has an MBA, I'm investing in Rework every time. This is a must read for every entrepreneur. [source]

Tony Hsieh

CEO/Zappos.com

The wisdom in these pages is edgy yet simple, straightforward, and proven. Read this book multiple times to help give you the courage you need to get out there and make something great. [source]

28

Business Model Generation: A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers, and Challengers

Alexander Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur

4.5

Business Model Generation is a handbook for visionaries, game changers, and challengers striving to defy outmoded business models and design tomorrow's enterprises. If your organization needs to adapt to harsh new realities, but you don't yet have a strategy that will get you out in front of your competitors, you need Business Model Generation. Co-created by 470 -Business Model Canvas- practitione

Recommended by Nir Eyal, Steve Blank, Alexandra Stroe, and 3 others.

Alexandra Stroe

I'd recommend The Lean Startup by Eric Ries, Business Model Generation by Alexander Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur and Zero to One by Peter Thiel when they are in the starting phase of a business that needs to validate its business model. [source]

Ashley Hathaway

I could probably name a dozen books here, but I’ll point out The Business Model Generation and Value Prop Design from Strategyzer. I steal from these constantly and are engrained in my work process. These books put into practice really taught me how to think. As soon as I saw that everything should have a foundation of empathy, what good user-testing looks like, how to test and iterate it changed everything. After that any problem could be solved. It wasn’t solving one big monolithic problem. It was going through a process. [source]

Kaci Lambe Kai

This was a great book, because it opened up the idea of what a business model is supposed to be vs what it can be. It doesn't have to be a stuffy, boring document. [source]

29

Case in Point: Complete Case Interview Preparation

Marc P. Cosentino

4.5

The Wall Street Journal calls Case in Point the MBA Bible! Cosentino demystifies the consulting case interview. He takes you inside a typical interview by exploring the various types of case questions and he shares with you the acclaimed Ivy Case System which will give you the confidence to answer even the most sophisticated cases. The book includes 40 strategy cases, ten case starts exercises and

30

Thinking in Systems: A Primer

Donella H. Meadows

4.4

Meadows’ Thinking in Systems, is a concise and crucial book offering insight for problem solving on scales ranging from the personal to the global. Edited by the Sustainability Institute’s Diana Wright, this essential primer brings systems thinking out of the realm of computers and equations and into the tangible world, showing readers how to develop the systems-thinking skills that thought leader

Recommended by Tobi Lütke, Kate Raworth, and Mira Kirshenbaum.

Tobi Lütke

Founder & CEO/Shopify

Tobi Lütke recommended this book on the podcast "The Knowledge Project". [source]

Kate Raworth

It was a real revelation for me to discover such a different approach to thinking and analysing challenges. [source]

Mira Kirshenbaum

A nice overview of how initial conditions lead to patterns that determine what the relationship feels like to the people in it [source]

31

The McKinsey Way

Ethan Rasiel

4.4

"If more business books were as useful, concise, and just plain fun to read as THE MCKINSEY WAY, the business world would be a better place." --Julie Bick, best-selling author of ALL I REALLY NEED TO KNOW IN BUSINESS I LEARNED AT MICROSOFT. "Enlivened by witty anecdotes, THE MCKINSEY WAY contains valuable lessons on widely diverse topics such as marketing, interviewing, team-building, and brainsto

32

Good Strategy Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why It Matters

Richard Rumelt

4.4

Clears out the mumbo jumbo and muddled thinking underlying too many strategies and provides a clear way to create and implement a powerful action-oriented strategy for the real world

Developing and implementing a strategy is the central task of a leader, whether the CEO at a Fortune 100 company, an entrepreneur, a church pastor, the head of a school, or a government official. Richard Rumelt shows t

Recommended by Ann Handley, John Kay, Louis Grenier, and 3 others.

John Kay

It’s very well written and I see I am quoted on the back cover saying, ‘This is the only book about business strategy which I didn’t want to put down.' [source]

Louis Grenier

If you want to think about strategy, the proper strategy, how to understand what to do, what not to do, read: “Good Strategy, Bad Strategy”, “Good to Great” and “Blue Ocean Strategy”. [source]

Patricia Reed

I loved Good Strategy/Bad Strategy, by Richard Rumelt. It had many stories and examples about how strategy is often misconstrued, and what leaders can do to ensure they have a proper strategy. [source]

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33

The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business

Charles Duhigg

4.4

A young woman walks into a laboratory. Over the past two years, she has transformed almost every aspect of her life. She has quit smoking, run a marathon, and been promoted at work. The patterns inside her brain, neurologists discover, have fundamentally changed.

Marketers at Procter & Gamble study videos of people making their beds. They are desperately trying to figure out how to sell a new produ

Recommended by Naval Ravikant, Blake Irving, Alden Mills, and 15 others.

Naval Ravikant

CEO & Co-Founder/AngelList

I also recently finished The Power of Habit, or close to finish as I get. That one was interesting, not because of its content necessarily, but because it’s good for me to always keep on top of mind how powerful my habits are. … I think learning how to break habits is a very important meta-skill that can serve you better in life than almost anything else. Although you can read tons of books on it, the reality is you’re never going to learn how to break bad habits until you just break them. [source]

Blake Irving

CEO/GoDaddy

You know, there's a book called The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg. Simple read book about just how to build positive habits that can be I think I what I'd call you know whether in your personal life or whether in your business life to help you build you know, have a loop that can build your success and that's one I mean there are so many great books out there. [source]

Alden Mills

More recent books that have had a significant impact on me are The Power of Habit and The Diamond Cutter. Both represent different forces for me – the former helps me tactically with making incremental improvements in my life. [source]

34

Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ

Daniel Goleman

4.4

Everyone knows that high IQ is no guarantee of success, happiness, or virtue, but until Emotional Intelligence, we could only guess why. Daniel Goleman's brilliant report from the frontiers of psychology and neuroscience offers startling new insight into our "two minds"—the rational and the emotional—and how they together shape our destiny.

Through vivid examples, Goleman delineates the five crucia

Recommended by Drew Houston, Drew Huston, Magda Marcu, and 4 others.

Drew Houston

CEO/Dropbox

It’s nonfiction, but it spelled out something that I just didn’t know you could kind of break down in a logical way. And, suddenly, I had this understanding about the world that I didn’t have before. [source]

Magda Marcu

One of the most eye opening for me was “Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ” as it offered a different perspective on leadership, and how empathy can make you a more successful leader. Every person has some degree of empathy and through this book you understand how to apply it more intently. [source]

Robert Kelsey

Yes, that’s the key revelation. But another key element, which was quite revelatory for me when I read it, is about the impact of fear on your brain. The impact of fear as a physiological response was well known when he wrote the book, but what was less well known was the idea of fear as a neurological response. He pointed to research showing what happens to the brain when fear is triggered, and it’s very damaging. There’s a part of the brain called the amygdala, which is part of the limbic system, and deals with emotions such as fear and distress. Its main purpose is to alert you to danger and it sends an emergency signal. All those physiological responses you have are basically the body’s response to that emergency signal. That’s what people experience when they experience fear, but it’s not just the fear of a dog barking at you or someone attacking you, it’s fear based on a fear conditioning. These are moments when something happens to you that induces fear or distress, and can include fear of failure or fear of being upset, and the same response occurs. [source]

35

Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life

Marshall B. Rosenberg, Deepak Chopra

4.4

The latest edition of the communication guide that has sold more than 1,000,000 copies

An enlightening look at how peaceful communication can create compassionate connections with family, friends, and other acquaintances, this international bestseller uses stories, examples, and sample dialogues to provide solutions to communication problems both at home and in the workplace. Guidance is provided

Recommended by Dustin Moskovitz, Satya Nadella, Chad Dickerson, and 3 others.

Dustin Moskovitz

Co-founder/Facebook and Asana

Seek first to understand. [source]

Satya Nadella

CEO/Microsoft

Upon becoming CEO, Nadella confronted Microsoft’s legendarily combative culture by urging his new reports to read this book, which preaches the power of empathy, self-awareness, and authenticity in collaboration in the workplace, at home, and beyond. Like many of his favorites, it was first recommended to him by his wife, Anu: “I’m heavily influenced by the books she reads more than the books I read [source]

Chad Dickerson

Rosenberg’s book Nonviolent Communication is a life-changing text. Reading just now & his concept of “life-alienating communication” basically describes the worst of twitter. Love this, though: “Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing & right-doing, there is a field. I’ll meet you there.” https://t.co/9f9gK6pVSE [source]

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36

The Pyramid Principle: Logical Writing, Thinking and Problem Solving

Barbara Minto

4.4

The communication of ideas, whether to colleagues or clients, is one of the key factors in determining personal success. 'The Pyramid Principle' shows how to structure and present arguments so that they gain immediate understanding.

Recommended by Danielle Morrill, Patricia Reed, and 1 others.

Patricia Reed

The Minto Pyramid Principle: For would-be consultants, a (very dry) book on how to write effectively for business. [source]

37

The Consulting Bible: Everything You Need to Know to Create and Expand a Seven-Figure Consulting Practice

Alan Weiss

4.4

Everything you need to know about building a successful, world-class consulting practice Whether you are a veteran consultant or new to the industry, an entrepreneur or the principal of a small firm, The Consulting Bible tells you absolutely everything you need to know to create and expand a seven-figure independent or boutique consulting practice. Expert author Alan Weiss, who coaches consultants

Recommended by Jack Zenger and Nido Qubein.

Jack Zenger

An amazingly thorough compilation of distilled wisdom regarding the elements for success in consulting. The most experienced consultant will harvest many valuable tips, and the newcomer won't be able put it down. [source]

Nido Qubein

Alan Weiss is a genius marketing consultant who understands the business from the inside out. Apply his years of knowledge and experience to achieve the consulting business of your dreams. Follow the advice of this expert, and success is in your immediate future. [source]

38

The Effective Executive: The Definitive Guide to Getting the Right Things Done

Peter F. Drucker

4.4

A handsome, commemorative edition of Peter F. Drucker’s timeless classic work on leadership and management, with a foreword by Jim Collins.

What makes an effective executive?

For decades, Peter F. Drucker was widely regarded as "the dean of this country’s business and management philosophers" (Wall Street Journal). In this concise and brilliant work, he looks to the most influential position in mana

Recommended by Drew Houston, Ev Williams, Guy Kawasaki, and 15 others.

Drew Houston

CEO/Dropbox

I think one of the most valuable concepts from this book is measuring your time. [source]

Timothy Ferriss

Author & Entrepreneur

I think it's much more valuable than 99% of the so-called time management books out there. [source]

Matt Mullenweg

Founder & CEO/Automattic

We're both big fans of Peter Drucker and his book The Effective Executive, as well as Alain de Botton's How Proust Can Change your Life. [source]

39

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable

Patrick Lencioni

4.4

In The Five Dysfunctions of a Team Patrick Lencioni once again offers a leadership fable that is as enthralling and instructive as his first two best-selling books, The Five Temptations of a CEO and The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive. This time, he turns his keen intellect and storytelling power to the fascinating, complex world of teams.

Kathryn Petersen, Decision Tech's CEO, faces

Recommended by AnneMarie Schindler, Holger Seim, Jennifer Rock, and 3 others.

AnneMarie Schindler

I suggest these books because they really open up 'how' you think about life and in turn work, success/challenges/setbacks, and in general, yourself. I believe that the more you can understand yourself and broaden your approach to work, the easier it will be to find work that energizes you. Finally, I'm a team player at heart, and love working with others to achieve a huge goal so a portion of these deal with team composition and performance too. [source]

Holger Seim

Lencioni’s books helped me to shift my focus from individual performance to team performance, and what it takes to make a team perform well. It helped me to realize and take seriously the fact that great team performance doesn’t happen magically but needs conscious effort. When I discovered The Five Dysfunctions of a Team for the first time, we had a dysfunctional team at Blinkist and the book opened my eyes to see the problem clearly and showed clear steps for how they should be tackled. Beforehand I was aware that we had a problem, but I couldn’t pinpoint it specifically and hence, couldn’t solve it easily. This book helped a lot. [source]

Jennifer Rock

In Patrick Lencioni's book The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, the executive asks her senior leaders "Who is your first team?" And they each answer incorrectly that it's the team that reports to him or her. The point is that you need to shift your perspective to understanding your senior leadership peers are your first team. We read that book as a leadership team in a corporation where I worked -- and the environment was very competitive between us. When we agreed that our cross-functional leadership team was our first team, we became more cooperative, innovative and productive. And we vastly boosted our results. [source]

40

The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It

Michael E. Gerber

4.3

E-Myth \ 'e-,'mith\ n 1: the entrepreneurial myth: the myth that most people who start small businesses are entrepreneurs 2: the fatal assumption that an individual who understands the technical work of a business can successfully run a business that does that technical work

Voted #1 business book by Inc. 500 CEOs.

An instant classic, this revised and updated edition of the phenomenal bestseller dis

Recommended by Dave Ramsey, Simon Sinek, Timothy Ferriss, and 17 others.

Author

Dave Ramsey recommended this book on his website. [source]

Timothy Ferriss

Author & Entrepreneur

After reading The E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber and The 80/20 Principle by Richard Koch, I decided that extreme questions were the forcing function I needed. [source]

Brian Scudamore

Founder & CEO/1-800-GOT-JUNK?

The book that’s had the biggest impact on me is The E-Myth by Michael Gerber (I even wrote about it in my own book). I read it front to back, then reread it right away. Gerber takes you through every step of a running a business from start to finish, and shows you what you need to make it successful. I read it when I was looking to take 1-800-GOT-JUNK? to the next level, and I had an epiphany: people don’t fail, systems do. Reading his book got me to take a good, hard look at my business and focus on developing our systems and hiring happy people. His book is one of the reasons we were able to sell out of 1-800-GOT-JUNK? franchises and scale that success into three other home-service companies, WOW 1 DAY PAINTING, You Move Me, and Shack Shine under the O2E Brands banner. [source]

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41

First, Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently

Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman

4.3

The world s greatest managers differ in sex, age, and race. They employ different styles and focus on different goals. Despite their differences, great managers share one trait: They break virtually every rule conventional wisdom holds sacred. They don t believe that, with enough training, a person can achieve anything he sets his mind to. They don t try to help people overcome their weaknesses. T

Recommended by Simon Sinek, Jared Spool, Jessica Pryce-Jones, and 1 others.

Jared Spool

The first framework is from Gallup and was written up in their great book: First, Break All The Rules. https://t.co/w54in9zCyH It’s the Q12 employee engagement measures. Each question makes it simple for a manager to identify where they need to improve. https://t.co/A9L8Yx2NHp [source]

Jessica Pryce-Jones

I’m a sucker for books and I always buy management books when I get on planes. There I am at Heathrow Airport going on a business trip, and I think, ‘I’ve got to read this stuff!’ And normally I pick a book up, read the first few pages, then find I can’t face it and end up leaving it in a hotel room. But this book, I picked it up, started to read it and I thought, ‘Hallelujah! Here is a book that makes sense at last.’ And that was just so refreshing. I don’t even have a copy at the moment, because I have given about ten of them away to people saying, ‘You have just got to read this!’ [source]

42

The First 90 Days: Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders at All Levels

Michael Watkins

4.3

Since its original release, The First 90 Days has become the bestselling globally acknowledged bible of leadership and career transitions. In this updated and expanded 10th anniversary edition, internationally known leadership transition expert Michael D. Watkins gives you the keys to successfully negotiating your next move—whether you’re onboarding into a new company, being promoted internally, o

Cover unavailable

43

Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us

Seth Godin

4.3

A tribe is any group of people, large or small, who are connected to one another, a leader, and an idea. For millions of years, humans have been seeking out tribes, be they religious, ethnic, economic, political, or even musical (think of the Deadheads). It's our nature.

Now the Internet has eliminated the barriers of geography, cost, and time. All those blogs and social networking sites are helpin

Recommended by Andrew Youderian, Bogdana Butnar, Michael Herrmann, and 2 others.

Andrew Youderian

The book "Tribes" by Seth Godin has been helpful as I've learned and studied how to best lead a Community. [source]

Bogdana Butnar

I thought I might put my money where my mouth is. I keep whining that young people are not in touch with some essential books on advertising that have helped me shape the way I practise my trade today, but I never did anything about it. So I am starting here the ultimate books to read list. I will add to it as I get suggestions and as more good books get written. [source]

Michael Herrmann

Another good book for today. The author argues that every product/service appeals to a "Tribe" of like-minded people. As businesspeople it's important we understand their dynamics. [source]

44

The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures

Dan Roam

4.3

45

Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything

Steven D. Levitt

4.3

Which is more dangerous, a gun or a swimming pool? What do schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers have in common? Why do drug dealers still live with their moms? How much do parents really matter? What kind of impact did Roe v. Wade have on violent crime? Freakonomics will literally redefine the way we view the modern world.

These may not sound like typical questions for an economist to ask. But Steven

Recommended by Malcolm Gladwell, Daymond John, Ev Williams, and 12 others.

Malcolm Gladwell

Writer & Journalist

I don’t need to say much here. This book invented an entire genre. Economics was never supposed to be this entertaining. [source]

Daymond John

Founder/FUBU

I love newer books like this book. [source]

James Altucher

Founder/StockPickr

James Altucher recommended this book on the podcast "The Tim Ferriss Show". [source]

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46

What Got You Here Won't Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful

Marshall Goldsmith, Mark Reiter

4.3

America's most sought-after executive coach shows how to climb the last few rungs of the ladder The corporate world is filled with executives, men and women who have worked hard for years to reach the upper levels of management. They're intelligent, skilled, and even charismatic. But only a handful of them will ever reach the pinnacle--and as executive coach Marshall Goldsmith shows in this book,

Recommended by Cody McLain, Mark Moses, and Michael Sliwinski.

Cody McLain

Will assume career path is running a startup, getting clients and managing a team of employees or collaborating with founders. These are some of the best books to cover these areas. It’s hard running a startup, let alone being the person who has to make the highest decisions in the organization. These books help provide the framework in how to run a successful organization but also share some of the stories and pitfalls from other founders so you can avoid making the same mistakes. [source]

Mark Moses

listing the books that had the biggest impact on him [source]

Michael Sliwinski

Now I’m reading @coachgoldsmith’s book: what got you here won’t get you there - and it’s brilliant! https://t.co/xwcnpbiCSL [source]

47

Leading Change

John P. Kotter

4.3

The international bestseller—now with a new preface by author John Kotter.

Millions worldwide have read and embraced John Kotter’s ideas on change management and leadership.
From the ill-fated dot-com bubble to unprecedented M&A activity to scandal, greed, and ultimately, recession—we’ve learned that widespread and difficult change is no longer the exception. It’s the rule. Now with a new preface, t

Recommended by Helen Bevan.

Helen Bevan

Kotter's book "Leading Change", published 23 years ago, introduced us to the 8 steps model, the best known/used model for planning change in the world. Kotter has updated the model, based on new research & you can get the eBook for free: https://t.co/4dqW7x2fvm Via @KotterInc https://t.co/33DKCcj8DZ [source]

48

How to Measure Anything: Finding the Value of "Intangibles" in Business

Douglas W. Hubbard

4.3

Praise for How to Measure Anything: Finding the Value of Intangibles in Business

"I love this book. Douglas Hubbard helps us create a path to know the answer to almost any question in business, in science, or in life . . . Hubbard helps us by showing us that when we seek metrics to solve problems, we are really trying to know something better than we know it now. How to Measure Anything provides j

Recommended by Julia Galef and Nick Ganju.

Julia Galef

Has some good advice on how to improve your ability to make accurate predictions. [source]

Nick Ganju

About being outcome-based and getting these measurable outcomes. [source]

49

Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us

Daniel H. Pink

4.3

The New York Times bestseller that gives readers a paradigm-shattering new way to think about motivation

Most people believe that the best way to motivate is with rewards like money—the carrot-and-stick approach. That's a mistake, says Daniel H. Pink (author of To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Motivating Others). In this provocative and persuasive new book, he asserts that the secret t

Recommended by Tobi Lütke, Bogdan Lucaciu, David Brudo, and 5 others.

Tobi Lütke

Founder & CEO/Shopify

Tobi Lütke recommended this book in an interview in "The Globe and Mail." [source]

Bogdan Lucaciu

Spoiler: it’s autonomy, mastery, and purpose. [source]

David Brudo

One of the books that had an impact on . [source]

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50

The Charisma Myth: How Anyone Can Master the Art and Science of Personal Magnetism

Olivia Fox Cabane

4.3

What if charisma could be taught? For the first time, science and technology have taken charisma apart, figured it out and turned it into an applied science: In controlled laboratory experiments, researchers could raise or lower people's level of charisma as if they were turning a dial. What you'll find here is practical magic: unique knowledge, drawn from a variety of sciences, revealing what cha

Recommended by Marissa Mayer, Laura Lang, Dr. Monali Y. Desai, and 2 others.

Marissa Mayer

Former CEO/Yahoo!

Proud of our friend and neighbor Olivia Fox Cabane - her book 'The Charisma Myth' launched today and is already #122 of all books on Amazon. It went into its second printing even before launch! [source]

Laura Lang

CEO/Time Inc.

Olivia Fox Cabane offers hands-on advice and a practical guide to humanizing leaders without comprising integrity or authority. She focused on the ‘it’ factors that can make a real difference. [source]

Dr. Monali Y. Desai

Currently, my favorite business book is The Charisma Myth (Olivia Fox Cabane) because I feel it has so many small but impactful takeaways about improving how you communicate with others, I try to reread it once a year. [source]

51

Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard

Chip Heath and Dan Heath

4.3

Why is change so difficult and frightening? How do you create change when you have few resources and no title or authority to back you up? Chip and Dan Heath, the best-selling authors of Made to Stick, are back with a ground-breaking book that addresses one of the greatest challenges of our personal and professional lives — how to change things when change is hard.

In their follow-up book to the cr

Recommended by Africa Mentor, Richard H Thaler, Satya Patel, and 2 others.

Africa Mentor

6 fine summer reads | London Business School London Business School Review A good book is the best travel companion – wherever you are. By the pool or on your commute, be transported with these titles chos... https://t.co/Wo9NYOrwqG via @theafricamentor #entrepreneur #africabiz [source]

Tudor Mihailescu

First thing first, finance people need to be decent communicators, ideally awesome communicators. There is an art in building a case or in delivering a presentation and we need to treat this step as seriously as we have treated the other steps. I do believe this is a top priority for an aspiring or practicing CFO - There are plenty of books on this topic, I would recommend the works of Chip and Dan Health like Switch and Made to Stick [source]

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52

McKinsey Mind

Ethan Rasiel

4.3

The groundbreaking follow-up to the international bestseller--a hands-on guide to putting McKinsey techniques to work in your organization

McKinsey & Company is the most respected and most secretive consulting firm in the world, and business readers just can't seem to get enough of all things McKinsey. Now, hot on the heels of his acclaimed international bestseller The McKinsey Way, Ethan Rasiel br

53

Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction

Philip E. Tetlock, Dan Gardner

4.3

A New York Times Bestseller

An Economist Best Book of 2015

"The most important book on decision making since Daniel Kahneman's Thinking, Fast and Slow."
—Jason Zweig, The Wall Street Journal

Everyone would benefit from seeing further into the future, whether buying stocks, crafting policy, launching a new product, or simply planning the week’s meals. Unfortunately, people tend to be terrible foreca

Recommended by Vinod Khosla, Vinod Khosla, Julia Galef, and 1 others.

Julia Galef

Has some good advice on how to improve your ability to make accurate predictions. [source]

Sheil Kapadia

Read the book Superforecasting, had a great conversation with @bcmassey and came up with seven ideas for how NFL teams can try to find small edges during the draft process. Would love to hear feedback on this one. https://t.co/PdN1fKCagl [source]

54

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life

Mark Manson

4.3

Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780062457738

In this generation-defining self-help guide, a superstar blogger cuts through the crap to show us how to stop trying to be "positive" all the time so that we can truly become better, happier people.

For decades, we’ve been told that positive thinking is the key to a happy, rich life. "Fk positivity," Mark Manson says. "Let’s be honest, shit is fked and w

Recommended by Ryan Holiday, Alex Blackwell, Aunty Ada, and 21 others.

Ryan Holiday

Author

I loved Mark Manson’s The Subtle Art of Not Giving A Fuck. There’s a reason this book is blowing up. It’s that good. [source]

Alex Blackwell

@whitbywonder Great book [source]

Aunty Ada

Finally done! Amazing book, I recommend😊 https://t.co/IDTawuWn8f [source]

55

Purple Cow, New Edition: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable--Includes new bonus chapter

Seth Godin

4.3

You're either a Purple Cow or you're not. You're either remarkable or invisible. Make your choice.

What do Starbucks and JetBlue and KrispyKreme and Apple and DutchBoy and Kensington and Zespri and Hard Candy have that you don't? How do they continue to confound critics and achieve spectacular growth, leaving behind former tried-and true brands to gasp their last?

Face it, the checklist of tired '

Recommended by Joe Gebbia, Vinod Khosla, Vinod Khosla, and 21 others.

Joe Gebbia

Co-founder/Airbnb

Make something that’s distinct enough that people want to talk about it. [source]

Marvin Liao

Partner/500 Startups

My list would be (besides the ones I mentioned in answer to the previous question) both business & Fiction/Sci-Fi and ones I personally found helpful to myself. The business books explain just exactly how business, work & investing are in reality & how to think properly & differentiate yourself. On the non-business side, a mix of History & classic fiction to understand people, philosophy to make sense of life and Science fiction to picture what the future could be like (not always utopian). [source]

Noah Kagan

Founder/Sumo

A few months ago, I was drinking a Noah’s Mill whiskey (cute) with my good buddy Brian Balfour and talking about life... During the conversation, we got on the topic of books that changed our lives. I want to share them with you. I judge a book's success if a year later I'm still using at least 1 thing from the book. [source]

56

The Irresistible Consultant's Guide to Winning Clients: 6 Steps to Unlimited Clients & Financial Freedom

David A. Fields

4.3

Cover unavailable

57

The Lords of Strategy: The Secret Intellectual History of the New Corporate World

Walter Kiechel

4.3

Imagine, if you can, the world of business - without corporate strategy.

Remarkably, fifty years ago that's the way it was. Businesses made plans, certainly, but without understanding the underlying dynamics of competition, costs, and customers. It was like trying to design a large-scale engineering project without knowing the laws of physics.

But in the 1960s, four mavericks and their posses inst

58

Who Moved My Cheese?

Spencer Johnson

4.3

Who Moved My Cheese? is a simple parable that reveals profound truths. It is an amusing and enlightening story of four characters who live in a "Maze" and look for "Cheese" to nourish them and make them happy.

Two are mice named Sniff and Scurry. And two are "Littlepeople"—beings the size of mice who look and act a lot like people. Their names are Hem and Haw.

"Cheese" is a metaphor for what you wan

Recommended by Dave Ramsey, Daymond John, Darren Chua, and 5 others.

Author

Dave Ramsey recommended this book on his website. [source]

Daymond John

Founder/FUBU

Daymond John said this is one of his most-recommended books. [source]

Darren Chua

When asked what books he'd recommend to young people interested in the same career path, mentioned Who Moved My Cheese. [source]

59

Never Eat Alone: And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time

Keith Ferrazzi and Tahl Raz

4.3

Do you want to get ahead in life?

Climb the ladder to personal success?

The secret, master networker Keith Ferrazzi claims, is in reaching out to other people. As Ferrazzi discovered early in life, what distinguishes highly successful people from everyone else is the way they use the power of relationships—so that everyone wins.

In Never Eat Alone, Ferrazzi lays out the specific steps—and inner min

Recommended by Simon Sinek and Sol Orwell.

Sol Orwell

I hate business books. They are full of wishy-washy inspirational stuff and rarely of anything actionable. And even when actionable, it's from the context of that founder and the story they've spun, not the reality that most people face. So if anything, I'd have people read books such as Jayson Gaignard's Mastermind Dinners; Derek Coburn's Networking is Not Working; Shane Snow's Storytelling edge; Keith Ferrazzi's Never Eat Alone. [source]

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60

Influencer: The Power to Change Anything

Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, David Maxfield, Ron McMillan, Al Switzler

4.3

From the bestselling authors who taught the world how to have Crucial Conversations comes Influencer, a thought-provoking book that combines the remarkable insights of behavioral scientists and business leaders with the astonishing stories of high-powered influencers from all walks of life. You'll be taught each and every step of the influence process-including robust strategies for making change

61

The 80/20 Principle: The Secret to Achieving More with Less

Richard Koch

4.2

How anyone can be more effective with less effort by learning how to identify and leverage the 80/20 principle--the well-known, unpublicized secret that 80 percent of all our results in business and in life stem from a mere 20 percent of our efforts.

The 80/20 principle is one of the great secrets of highly effective people and organizations.

Did you know, for example, that 20 percent of customers a

Recommended by Timothy Ferriss and Marvin Liao.

Timothy Ferriss

Author & Entrepreneur

After reading The E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber and The 80/20 Principle by Richard Koch, I decided that extreme questions were the forcing function I needed. [source]

Marvin Liao

Partner/500 Startups

SUCH a hard question to answer because there are so MANY favorite books of mine. For Business, i'd say either 80/20 Principle (Koch) or 4 Hour Work Week (Ferriss) for the principles it teaches on how to optimize work & life. [source]

62

SPIN Selling: Situation Problem Implication Need-payoff

Neil Rackham

4.2

The international bestseller that revolutionized high-end selling!

Written by Neil Rackham, former president and founder of Huthwaite corporation, SPIN Selling is essential reading for anyone involved in selling or managing a sales force. Unquestionably the best-documented account of sales success ever collected and the result of the Huthwaite corporation's massive 12-year, $1-million dollar resear

Recommended by Mark Roberge, Geoffrey James, Michael Herrmann, and 3 others.

Mark Roberge

CRO/HubSpot

The other book on selling is an oldie but goldie, never goes away: SPIN Selling, by Neil Rackham. It's the one when a founder is trying to learn how to sell, belly to belly, I tell them to check out Spin Selling. [source]

Michael Herrmann

Good book on sales. [source]

Primoz Cigler

Yes, it was sometime earlier this year. I read a book SPIN Selling by Neil Rackham. Chapter four has invaluable insights and instructions how to do sales calls and improve the probability that you make a sale. This year, I had to change my role at ProteusThemes, as I have thoroughly explained in my other interview. I learned in the SPIN Selling book how to structure both the user interviews and the sales calls in a way that people like to participate and eventually buy from you because you show that you care about them and their business. Everything became easier since. [source]

63

Pitch Anything: An Innovative Method for Presenting, Persuading, and Winning the Deal

Oren Klaff

4.2

About the Book:

When it comes to delivering a pitch, Oren Klaff has unparalleled credentials. Over the past 13 years, he has used his one-of-a- kind method to raise more than $400 million--and now, for the first time, he describes his formula to help you deliver a winning pitch in any business situation.

Whether you're selling ideas to investors, pitching a client for new business, or even negotiati

Recommended by Alice Kemper, Jeff Gibbard, Michael Herrmann, and 1 others.

Jeff Gibbard

This book single-handedly changed my life. BY learning the principles of "Frame Control" I have had much greater success in sales, public speaking, and in managing my team. [source]

Michael Herrmann

Great book on pitching, and more generally, sales. Funny too. Has some ideas very reminiscent of Thinking Fast and Slow. [source]

64

The Structure of Scientific Revolutions

Thomas S. Kuhn

4.2

A good book may have the power to change the way we see the world, but a great book actually becomes part of our daily consciousness, pervading our thinking to the point that we take it for granted, and we forget how provocative and challenging its ideas once were—and still are. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions is that kind of book. When it was first published in 1962, it was a landmark eve

Recommended by Mark Zuckerberg, Tim O'Reilly, Danielle Morrill, and 3 others.

Mark Zuckerberg

Founder/Facebook

It's a history of science book that explores the question of whether science and technology make consistent forward progress or whether progress comes in bursts related to other social forces. I tend to think that science is a consistent force for good in the world. I think we'd all be better off if we invested more in science and acted on the results of research. I'm excited to explore this theme further. [source]

Tim O'Reilly

Founder/O'Reilly Media

The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, by Thomas Kuhn. Kuhn introduced the term "paradigm shift" to describe the changeover from Ptolemaic to Copernican astronomy. But the book is far more than a classic in the history of science. It's also a book that emphasizes how what we already believe shapes what we see, what we allow ourselves to think. I've always tried to separate seeing itself from the stories I tell myself about what I see. Pattern recognition is impeded if you are trying to overlay an existing pattern on the facts rather than letting the facts sit quietly until they tell their own story. That's General Semantics again. [source]

Andra Zaharia

I’ve gone through quite a few experiences brought on or shaped by what I’ve learned from books. A particularly unexpected one happened in college when our public relations teacher asked us to read a book called The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas Kuhn. As a humanities student, you can imagine that I wasn’t thrilled I’d have to read a book on science, but what followed blew my mind at the time. In the book, Kuhn argues that human knowledge does not accumulate incrementally, but increases in leaps, through paradigm shifts which are brought on by crises and scientific revolutions. This was one of the first books that prompted me to think about how I want to evolve in the context of all the fast-paced changes happening around me. [source]

65

The Phoenix Project: A Novel About IT, DevOps, and Helping Your Business Win

Gene Kim

4.2

Bill is an IT manager at Parts Unlimited. It's Tuesday morning and on his drive into the office, Bill gets a call from the CEO.

The company's new IT initiative, code named Phoenix Project, is critical to the future of Parts Unlimited, but the project is massively over budget and very late. The CEO wants Bill to report directly to him and fix the mess in ninety days or else Bill's entire department

Recommended by Jeffrey Snover and Louis Nyffenegger.

Jeffrey Snover

Great thread. I know of a number of devops people that haven't read this book. Ya'll should fix that. https://t.co/Yri4JJ0jBZ [source]

Louis Nyffenegger

I don't think I have a specific book that I can call my favourite. Some books have had a big impact on my view of how to build a product/company ("Rework"), some were very enjoyable to read ("The Phoenix Project"), some helped me improve the way I think ("The Pleasure Of Finding Things Out") and some the way I live ("Essentialism") or work ("Deep Work"). [source]

66

The Flawless Consulting Fieldbook and Companion: A Guide to Understanding Your Expertise

Peter Block

4.2

Don't venture into the consulting field without this essential Fieldbook & Companion! Following on the heels of the best-selling Flawless Consulting, Second Edition comes The Flawless Consulting Fieldbook and Companion. Whether you work as a consultant or you work with consultants, this relentlessly practical guide will be your best friend as you discover how consulting influences your business- a

67

Getting Naked: A Business Fable about Shedding the Three Fears That Sabotage Client Loyalty

Patrick Lencioni

4.2

Another extraordinary business fable from the New York Times bestselling author Patrick Lencioni Written in the same dynamic style as his previous bestsellers including The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, Lencioni illustrates the principles of inspiring client loyalty through a fascinating business fable. He explains the theory of vulnerability in depth and presents concrete steps for putting it to w

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68

The Firm: The Story of McKinsey and Its Secret Influence on American Business

Duff McDonald

4.2

A behind-the-scenes, revelatory history of McKinsey & Co., America’s most influential and controversial business consulting firm, told by one of the nation’s leading financial journalists.

It ranks among the unquestioned laws of American big business over the last half century: If you want to be taken seriously, you hire McKinsey & Company.

FOUNDED IN 1926, McKINSEY CAN LAY CLAIM to the following pa

Recommended by Andrew Chen.

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69

Valuation: Measuring and Managing the Value of Companies

McKinsey & Company Inc., Tim Koller, Marc Goedhart, David Wessels

4.2

Hailed by financial professionals worldwide as the single best guide of its kind, Valuation, Fourth Edition is thoroughly revised and expanded to reflect business conditions in today's volatile global economy. Valuation provides up-to-date insights and practical advice on how to create, manage, and measure an organization's value. Along with all-new case studies that illustrate how valuation techn

70

The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering

Frederick P. Brooks Jr.

4.2

Few books on software project management have been as influential and timeless as The Mythical Man-Month. With a blend of software engineering facts and thought-provoking opinions, Fred Brooks offers insight for anyone managing complex projects. These essays draw from his experience as project manager for the IBM System/360 computer family and then for OS/360, its massive software system. Now, 20

Recommended by Jeff Bezos, Alan Kay, Andrew Chen, and 1 others.

Founder/Amazon

From "The Everything Store", written by Brad Stone “An influential computer scientist makes the counterintuitive argument that small groups of engineers are more effective than larger ones at handling complex software projects. The book lays out the theory behind Amazon’s two pizza teams,” Stone writes. [source]

Alan Kay

An early look and experience with timeless truths (and gotchas) from systems building with teams [source]

71

Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time

Jeff Sutherland

4.2

72

The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More Change the Way You Lead Forever

Michael Bungay Stanier

4.2

Coaching is an essential skill for leaders. But for most busy, overworked managers, coaching employees is done badly, or not at all. They’re just too busy, and it’s too hard to change.

But what if managers could coach their people in 10 minutes or less?

In Michael Bungay Stanier’s The Coaching Habit, coaching becomes a regular, informal part of your day so managers and their teams can work less ha

Recommended by Armina Sirbu, Brene Brown, Dan Rockwell, and 3 others.

Armina Sirbu

The Coaching Habit by M. Stanier - for people who need to coach their teams. [source]

Brene Brown

Coaching is an art and it's far easier said than done. It takes courage to ask a question rather than offer up advice, provide and answer, or unleash a solution. giving another person the opportunity to find their own way, make their own mistakes, and create their own wisdom is both brave and vulnerable. In this practical and inspiring book, Michael shares seven transformative questions that can make a difference in how we lead and support. And he guides us through the tricky part - how to take this new information and turn it into habits and a daily practice. [source]

Scott Perry

Michael Bungay-Stanier’s The Coaching Habit was the first book I read when I received the altMBA6 “care package.” It delivers a system for developing worthwhile habits and engagements that I found compelling and effective. I use the seven question system Michael teaches in my work as a guitar teacher, life coach, and musical collaborator. [source]

73

The Personal MBA: Master the Art of Business

Josh Kaufman

4.2

Master the fundamentals, hone your business instincts, and save a fortune in tuition.

The consensus is clear: MBA programs are a waste of time and money. Even the elite schools offer outdated assembly-line educations about profit-and-loss statements and PowerPoint presentations. After two years poring over sanitized case studies, students are shuffled off into middle management to find out how bus

Recommended by Brian Burkhart, Ola Olusoga, and 1 others.

Brian Burkhart

It’s jam-packed with little digestible bites of wisdom—from finance to marketing to organizational development. It’s the guru bible of business. [source]

Ola Olusoga

For business, I've read Influence by Robert Cialdini 3 times, and Traction by Gabriel Weinberg twice, so if number of times read indicates favor, then those are it. There are a whole bunch of others, like The Personal MBA by Josh Kaufman, Confession of an Advertising Man by David Ogilvy, The 4 Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss, and Running Lean by Ash Maurya, that I've also enjoyed and recommend to people. [source]

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74

Million Dollar Consulting Proposals: How to Write a Proposal That's Accepted Every Time

Alan Weiss

4.2

Bestselling author of Million Dollar Consulting shares the secrets of writing winning proposals Intended for consultants, speakers, and other professional services providers, Million Dollar Consulting(R) Proposals ends forever the time-consuming and often frustrating process of writing a consulting proposal. It begins with the basics--defining these proposals and why they are necessary--and coache

75

The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of the Learning Organization

Peter M. Senge

4.2

Completely Updated and Revised

This revised edition of Peter Senge’s bestselling classic, The Fifth Discipline, is based on fifteen years of experience in putting the book’s ideas into practice. As Senge makes clear, in the long run the only sustainable competitive advantage is your organization’s ability to learn faster than the competition. The leadership stories in the book demonstrate the many

Recommended by Brian Tracy, Jana Eggers, Josh Brewer, and 2 others.

Jana Eggers

My entrepreneurial and leadership inspiration came from a long line of amazing women in my family that always acted independently and gave me the fire and confidence to chose my path, and some fantastic and inspiring men who always expected me to do more. What I love about 5th Discipline is that it focuses on learning, specifically teaching and inspiring your organization to be a learning org. It is more critical than now than ever before that we be able to learn from customers and the current context of our business for adapting to new challenges. One of my favorite parts of the book is how it teaches teams to work across boundaries -- systems thinking. I've found this builds amazingly cohesive and respectful teams. So this is a business book, but it is really about organizations and how to get them learning and working together for a common purpose. [source]

Josh Brewer

After working at many startups and now running my own company, the one difference I have observed between good and great companies (and products) is how oriented the org is toward learning, The more people in an organization learn, the more value they create for the whole company. [source]

76

Managing The Professional Service Firm

David H. Maister

4.2

International expert and consultant David Maister offers a brilliant and accessible guide to every management issue at play in professional firms.

Professional firms differ from other business enterprises in two distinct ways: first, they provide highly customized services and thus cannot apply many of the management principles developed for product-based industries. Second, professional services a

77

Playing to Win: How Strategy Really Works

A.G. Lafley, Roger L. Martin

4.2

Are you just playing—or playing to win?

Strategy is not complex. But it is hard. It’s hard because it forces people and organizations to make specific choices about their future—something that doesn’t happen in most companies.

Now two of today’s best-known business thinkers get to the heart of strategy—explaining what it’s for, how to think about it, why you need it, and how to get it done. And they

Recommended by Meg Whitman and Jeremy Miller.

Meg Whitman

CEO/HP

The entire company has organized around "Playing to Win" which is a book written by A.G. Lafley and a colleague of his. Listen, there are many ways to deploy strategy in companies. This is one I found to be particularly helpful because organizations have a lot of trouble making decisions, particularly at our scale. So this notion of where to play, what countries, what market segments, what products, and where not to play because we can't do it profitably, has been a very good discipline. ... And then once you determine where you're going to play, how to win. That is through a combination of where you are going to excel versus competitors. It's actually been a really good common framework that we can apply across HP. It's easily understandable and actually forces the tough trade-offs. [source]

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78

The 4 Disciplines of Execution: Achieving Your Wildly Important Goals

Chris McChesney, Sean Covey, Jim Huling

4.2

“The 4 Disciplines of Execution is a book every leader should read.” —Clayton Christensen, Professor, Harvard Business School, and author of The Innovator’s Dilemma

For fans of Good to Great and The First 90 Days, The Four Disciplines of Execution is the foundational text for creating lasting organizational change. A #1 Wall Street Journal bestseller with more than 500,000 copies sold, The Four Dis

Recommended by Michael Hyatt.

79

The 1-Page Marketing Plan: Get New Customers, Make More Money, And Stand out From The Crowd

Allan Dib

4.2

WARNING: Do Not Read This Book If You Hate Money

To build a successful business, you need to stop doing random acts of marketing and start following a reliable plan for rapid business growth. Traditionally, creating a marketing plan has been a difficult and time-consuming process, which is why it often doesn't get done.

In The 1-Page Marketing Plan, serial entrepreneur and rebellious marketer Alla

80

Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most

Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton, and Sheila Heen

4.2

The 10th-anniversary edition of the New York Times business bestseller-now updated with "Answers to Ten Questions People Ask"

We attempt or avoid difficult conversations every day-whether dealing with an underperforming employee, disagreeing with a spouse, or negotiating with a client. From the Harvard Negotiation Project, the organization that brought you Getting to Yes, Difficult Conversations

Recommended by April Wensel, Auren Hoffman, Bogdan Lucaciu, and 1 others.

April Wensel

@amyvpellegrini I really liked a book called Difficult Conversations. I also love the book Nonviolent Communication for conflicts. [source]

Auren Hoffman

@insta_eich i love the book! [source]

Bogdan Lucaciu

I’m re-reading “Difficult Conversations”. It’s written by the “Harvard Negotiation Project” guys that also wrote “Getting to Yes” and “Thanks for the Feedback”. It allowed me to navigate super important conversations by shifting from a “who’s right” stance to a learning stance. Giving it another spin after two years from the first read as I'm working on my assertiveness. [source]

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81

The Boston Consulting Group on Strategy: Classic Concepts and New Perspectives

Carl W. Stern, Michael S. Deimler

4.1

A collection of the best thinking from one of the most innovative management consulting firms in the worldFor more than forty years, The Boston Consulting Group has been shaping strategic thinking in business. "The Boston Consulting Group on Strategy" offers a broad and up-to-date selection of the firm's best ideas on strategy with fresh ideas, insights, and practical lessons for managers, executi

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82

Reinventing Organizations: A Guide to Creating Organizations Inspired by the Next Stage of Human Consciousness

Frédéric Laloux

4.1

FROM THE BACKCOVER

The way we manage organizations seems increasingly out of date. Deep inside, we sense that more is possible. We long for soulful workplaces, for authenticity, community, passion, and purpose.

In this groundbreaking book, the author shows that every time, in the past, when humanity has shifted to a new stage of consciousness, it has achieved extraordinary breakthroughs in collabora

Recommended by Armina Sirbu, Bogdan Lucaciu, Cristina Riesen, and 1 others.

Armina Sirbu

Reinventing Organizations by F. Laloux - the best book there is about the organizations of the future. [source]

Bogdan Lucaciu

Completely unrelated people told me about it at the same time, for different reasons. People that I really looked up to. Quite serendipitous. It was almost spooky reading it, I didn't expect such a highly regarded book to be so close to my unconventional beliefs about organisation design. [source]

Cristina Riesen

First, a word on career paths. In time, I realised that career paths are like one-way streets. Magic happens in unexplored territories. Plus life is how you choose to live every moment, every day. So today, rather than building a career, I prefer to make lateral moves in life, working with great people and being part of ambitious projects impacting the world. There are a few books that got me here: … Frederic Laloux "Reinventing Organizations". [source]

83

Crucial Accountability

Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, Al Switzler

4.1

The authors of the New York Times bestseller Crucial Conversations show you how to achieve personal, team, and organizational success by healing broken promises, resolving violated expectations, and influencing good behavior.

Discover skills to resolve touchy, controversial, and complex issues at work and at home--now available in this follow-up to the internationally popular Crucial Conversations.

84

The Visual Display of Quantitative Information

Edward R. Tufte

4.1

The classic book on statistical graphics, charts, tables. Theory and practice in the design of data graphics, 250 illustrations of the best (and a few of the worst) statistical graphics, with detailed analysis of how to display data for precise, effective, quick analysis. Design of the high-resolution displays, small multiples. Editing and improving graphics. The data-ink ratio. Time-series, relat

Recommended by Bret Victor and Michael Okuda.

Michael Okuda

Edward Tufte's classic book, The Visual Display of Quantitative Information is a fascinating, surprisingly readable treatise for anyone interested in infographics. When I hired artists for the Star Trek graphics dept, I sometimes asked them to read it.https://t.co/cK4GQqBDxp [source]

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85

HBR'S 10 Must Reads: The Essentials

Harvard Business Review, Peter F. Drucker, Clayton M. Christensen, Michael E. Porter, Daniel Goleman

4.1

Change is the one constant in business, and we must adapt or face obsolescence. Yet certain challenges never go away. That's what makes this book "must read." These are the 10 seminal articles by management's most influential experts, on topics of perennial concern to ambitious managers and leaders hungry for inspiration--and ready to run with big ideas to accelerate their own and their companies'

86

The Alter Ego Effect: The Power of Secret Identities to Transform Your Life

Todd Herman

4.1

87

Just Listen: Discover the Secret to Getting Through to Absolutely Anyone

Mark Goulston

4.1

Drawing on his experience as a psychiatrist, business consultant, and coach, author Mark Goulston combines his background with the latest scientific research to help readers turn the “impossible” and “unreachable” people in their lives into allies, devoted customers, loyal colleagues, and lifetime friends. Just Listen does this by providing simple but powerful techniques readers can use to really

Recommended by Bill Liao.

Bill Liao

The human world occurs in language so best get good at it! [source]

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88

More Secrets of Consulting: The Consultant's Tool Kit

Gerald M. Weinberg

4.1

Widely acclaimed as a consultant's consultant, Gerald M. Weinberg builds on his perennial best-seller The Secrets of Consulting with all-new laws, rules, and principles. You'll learn how to fight burnout, stay curious, understand your clients, negotiate effectively, and much, much more.Consultants need more than technical skills -- they need self-awareness and a strong set of personal abilities. W

89

In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America's Best-Run Companies (Collins Business Essentials)

ROBERT H WATERMAN PETERS, TOM & JR

4.1

The "Greatest Business Book of All Time" (Bloomsbury UK), In Search of Excellence has long been a must-have for the boardroom, business school, and bedside table.

Based on a study of forty-three of America's best-run companies from a diverse array of business sectors, In Search of Excellence describes eight basic principles of management -- action-stimulating, people-oriented, profit-maximizing pra

Recommended by Ev Williams, Aidan Connolly, Alden Mills, and 1 others.

Aidan Connolly

I read In Search Of Excellence at the age of 16 while on vacation and it convinced me that I had a passion for management, leadership and strategy. Prior to that I had planned to be an Engineer. I still have the copied I read three times in a row, and the key sentences are highlighted. Probably good that I read it then! [source]

Alden Mills

In Search of Excellence focused my daydreaming mind into what it takes to build truly great companies. [source]

90

Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance

Michael E. Porter

4.1

The essential complement to the pathbreaking book Competitive Strategy, Michael E. Porter's Competitive Advantage explores the underpinnings of competitive advantage in the individual firm.

Competitive Advantage introduces a whole new way of understanding what a firm does. Porter's groundbreaking concept of the value chain disaggregates a company into "activities," or the discrete functions or proc

91

To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others

Daniel H. Pink

4.1

From the bestselling author of Drive and A Whole New Mind comes a surprising--and surprisingly useful--new book that explores the power of selling in our lives.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, one in nine Americans works in sales. Every day more than fifteen million people earn their keep by persuading someone else to make a purchase.

But dig deeper and a startling truth emerges:

Ye

Recommended by Cat Williams-Treloar, Jeffrey Shaw, and Ola Olusoga.

Cat Williams-Treloar

Daniel Pink "To Sell is Human" - describes selling as a way to move and serve people along the journey. It's packed full of examples, science and experiments in an easily digestible form. [source]

Jeffrey Shaw

I’m asked all the time what books I suggest. These are the best of the best. Links to each book are here https://t.co/pJXWOeZtBu #marketing #entrepreneur https://t.co/1wCkqQw8GX [source]

Ola Olusoga

Like Charlie Munger once said: “I’ve long believed that a certain system - which almost any intelligent person can learn - works way better than the systems most people use to understand the world. What you need is a latticework of mental models in your head. And, with that system, things gradually fit together in a way that enhances cognition. Just as multiple factors shape every system, multiple mental models from a variety of disciplines are necessary to understand that system". You can read this book to start building a "latticework of mental models in your head". [source]

92

The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail - But Some Don't

Nate Silver

4.1

One of Wall Street Journal's Best Ten Works of Nonfiction in 2012

New York Times Bestseller

"Not so different in spirit from the way public intellectuals like John Kenneth Galbraith once shaped discussions of economic policy and public figures like Walter Cronkite helped sway opinion on the Vietnam War…could turn out to be one of the more momentous books of the decade."
-New York Times Book Review

"Na

Recommended by Bill Gates.

Bill Gates

CEO/Microsoft

Anyone interested in politics may be attracted to Nate Silver’s The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail—but Some Don't. Silver is the New York Times columnist who got a lot of attention last fall for predicting—accurately, as it turned out–the results of the U.S. presidential election. This book actually came out before the election, though, and it’s about predictions in many domains besides politics. Silver knows a lot about baseball, and I especially liked his explanation of hold’em poker. A few pages – where he talks about how early computers supposedly made everything less efficient—are utter nonsense. I wish he had gone into more depth on some things, like why it is that voters are increasingly polarized. I liked the book, though I wish he’d gone deeper on a number of topics. [source]

93

Managing Transitions,: Making the Most of Change

William Bridges

4.0

The business world is constantly transforming. When restructures, mergers, bankruptcies, and layoffs hit the workplace, employees and managers naturally find the resulting situational shifts to be challenging. But the psychological transitions that accompany them are even more stressful. Organizational transitions affect people; it is always people, rather than a company, who have to embrace a new

94

Our Iceberg Is Melting: Changing and Succeeding Under Any Conditions

John Kotter, Holger Rathgeber

4.0

A new edition of the classic business parable that has sold more than a million copies since 2006.

Our Iceberg Is Melting is a simple fable about doing well in an ever-changing world. Based on the award-winning work of Harvard’s John Kotter, it is a story that has been used to help thousands of people and organizations.

The fable is about a penguin colony in Antarctica. A group of beautiful empero

Recommended by Virginia LeBlanc.

Virginia LeBlanc

Question: What books had the biggest impact on you? Perhaps changed the way you see things or dramatically changed your career path. Answer: The Art of War by Sun Tzu Who Moved My Cheese by Spencer Johnson, M.D. Our Iceberg is Melting: Changing and Succeeding Under Any Conditions by John Kotter Conscious Capitalism by John Mackey The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle Divergent series by Veronica Roth A mash up, I know…some simple others profound but just as important, eye-opening, and affirming. These and so many more helped change how I see things, my thinking and being, and helped to understand and accept my divergent (differing/deviating) career path in life. [source]

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95

Humble Consulting: How to Provide Real Help Faster

Edgar H. Schein

4.0

Consulting in Complex and Changing Times

Organizations face challenges today that are too messy and complicated for consultants to simply play doctor: run a few tests, offer a neat diagnosis of the "problem," and recommend a solution. Edgar Schein argues that consultants have to jettison the old idea of professional distance and work with their clients in a more personal way, emphasizing authentic

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96

Key Management Models: The 60+ Models Every Manager Needs to Know

Marcel Van Assen, Gerben Van den Berg, Paul Pietersma

4.0

With over 33,500 copies sold of the previous edition, the winning formula of this incredibly successful book will remain the same. From SWOT analysis and core competencies to risk reward analysis and the innovation circle, "Key Management Models" explains each model in a clear, structured and practical way.

There is a brief overview of each of the 61 essential models that spans no more than

3-4 page

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97

The Great Mental Models: General Thinking Concepts

Shane Parrish, Rhiannon Beaubien

4.0