Top books business owners should consider reading

Recommended by Dennis Conforto
A-Z Media

1. The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell: Defining that precise moment when a trend becomes a trend, Malcolm Gladwell probes the surface of everyday occurrences to reveal some surprising dynamics behind explosive social changes. He examines the power of word-of-mouth and explores how very small changes can directly affect popularity. Perceptive and imaginative, The Tipping Point is a groundbreaking book destined to overturn conventional thinking in business, sociological, and policy-making arenas.
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2. Blink by Malcolm Gladwell: In his #1 bestseller The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell redefined how we understand the world around us. In BLINK, he revolutionizes the way we understand the world within. How do we make decisions--good and bad--and why are some people so much better at it than others? That's the question Malcolm Gladwell asks and answers in BLINK. Drawing on cutting-edge neuroscience and psychology, Gladwell shows how the difference between good decision making and bad has nothing to do with how much information we can process quickly, but rather with the few particular details on which we focus.
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3. Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey A. Moore: Here is the bestselling guide that created a new game plan for marketing in high-tech industries. Crossing the Chasm has become the bible for brining cutting-edge products to progressively larger markets. This revised and updated edition provides new insights into the realities of high-tech marketing, with special emphasis on the Internet.
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4. Good to Great by Jim Collins: The findings of the Good to Great study will surprise many readers and shed light on virtually every area of management strategy and practice. The findings include:
-Level 5 Leaders: The research team was shocked to discover the type of leadership required to achieve greatness.
-The Hedgehog Concept (Simplicity within the Three Circles): To go from good to great requires transcending the curse of competence.
-A Culture of Discipline: When you combine a culture of discipline with an ethic of entrepreneurship, you get the magical alchemy of great results. Technology
-Accelerators: Good-to-great companies think differently about the role of technology.
-The Flywheel and the Doom Loop: Those who launch radical change programs and wrenching restructurings will almost certainly fail to make the leap.
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5. Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson: With over a million copies in print, the #1 New York Times bestseller Who Moved My Cheese? An A-Mazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life (G.P. Putnam's Sons) has grown from a guide and training tool for America's top corporations and organizations to a cultural phenomenon that is changing people's lives. While a few analytical or skeptical people find the story too simple on the surface, the vast majority of readers' responses reveal it is the clear simplicity that makes it so easy to understand and apply to changing situations at work or in life.
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6. Business at the Speed of Thought: Succeeding in the Digital Economy by Bill Gates: The CEO and chairman of Microsoft shows how technology has become key factor in effectively operating businesses; discusses how the creation of a worldclass digital nervous system will provide constant learning and promote success; and provides indepth examples of companies that used technology to turn failure into victory.
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7. Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking when Stakes Are High by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Al Switzler, Ron McMillan, Joseph Grenny: Learn how to keep your cool and get what you want when emotions flare. When stakes are high, opinions vary, and emotions run strong, you have three choices: Avoid a crucial conversation and suffer the consequences; handle the conversation badly and suffer the consequences; or read Crucial Conversations and discover how to communicate best when it matters most. This wise and witty guide gives you the tools you need to step up to life's most difficult and important conversations, say what's on your mind, and achieve positive outcomes that will amaze you.
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8. Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make Competition Irrelevant by W. Chan Kim, Renee Mauborgne: Kim and Mauborgne present a non-competitive approach for achieving high business growth through the development of uncontested market space with practically limitless potential. Drawing upon a study of 150 strategic moves spanning more than 100 years and thirty industries, they explain how "value innovation" renders rivals obsolete and creates new demand. The authors teach strategy and management at INSEAD in Fontainebleu, France. 
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9. The Definitive Drucker: The Final Word from the Father of Modern Management by Elizabeth Haas Edersheim: For sixteen months before his death, Elizabeth Haas Edersheim was given unprecedented access to Peter Drucker, widely regarded as the father of modern management. At Drucker's request, Edersheim, a respected management thinker in her own right, spoke with him about the development of modern business throughout his life-and how it continues to grow and change at an ever-increasing rate.
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10. Driving Change: The UPS Approach to Business by Mike Brewster, Fred Dalzell: We see them everywhere—those brown trucks with the golden logo, the drivers delivering their share of 14 million parcels handled daily. To most of us, UPS is a reliable fact of life. But to well-informed businesspeople, Big Brown is a company to emulate. Quietly and steadfastly, UPS has earned a reputation as one of the leading companies in America, known as much for its innovative practices as its skill in creating satisfied customers and employees.
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11. True North: Discover Your Authentic Leadership by Bill George, Peter E. Sims: True North shows how anyone who follows their internal compass can become an authentic leader. This leadership tour de force is based on research and first-person interviews with 125 of today's top leaders-with some surprising results. In this important audio book, acclaimed former Medtronic CEO Bill George and coauthor Peter Sims share the wisdom of these outstanding leaders and describe how the listener can develop as an authentic leader. True North presents a concrete and comprehensive program for leadership success and shows the listener how to create his own.
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12. The 360 Degree Leader: Developing Your Influence from Anywhere in the Organization by John C. Maxwell: 360 Degree Leaders' influence is greater than they know. They have a unique opportunity to exercise influence in all directions-up (to the boss), across (among their peers), and down (to those they lead). When they practice the disciplines of 360 Degree Leadership, the opportunities will be endless . . . for their organization, for their career, and for their life.
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13. The Hands-Off Manager by Steve Chandler, Duane Black: In The Hands-Off Manager, Chandler and Black offer a new vision for all managers. With stories, examples, and vibrant activities for the reader to practice, this book shows any manager-new or seasoned-how to coach and mentor employees rather than hover over their shoulders and goad them into action. In this system, each employee's strengths are honored and honed in a climate of partnership and mutual goal-setting. Chandler, whose 100 Ways to Motivate Others is a best-selling favorite with small and large businesses alike, has called The Hands-Off Manager "my most original work to date" because it finally solves the age-old problem of getting the best performance out of people without frustrating yourself and them.
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14. Words That Work: It's Not What You Say, It's What People Hear by Frank Luntz: In Words That Work, Luntz offers a behind-the-scenes look at how the tactical use of words and phrases affects what we buy, who we vote for, and even what we believe in. With chapters like "The Ten Rules of Successful Communication" and "The 21 Words and Phrases for the 21st Century," he examines how choosing the right words is essential.
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15. Firms of Endearment: How World-Class Companies Profit from Passion and Purpose by Rajendra Sisodia, David B. Wolfe, Jagdish Sheth: It's a fact: People are increasingly searching for higher meaning in their lives, not just more possessions. This trend is transforming the marketplace, the workplace, and the very soul of capitalism. Increasingly, today's most successful companies are those who've brought love, joy, authenticity, empathy, and soulfulness into their businesses: companies that deliver emotional, experiential, and social value, not just profits. Firms of Endearment illuminates this: the most fundamental transformation in capitalism since Adam Smith. It's not a book about corporate social responsibility: it's about building companies that can sustain success in a radically new era.
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16. What Got You Here Won't Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful by Marshall Goldsmith, Mark Reiter: The Harvard Business Review asked Goldsmith, “What is the most common problem faced by the executives that you coach?” Inside, he answers this question by discussing not only the key beliefs of successful leaders, but also the behaviors that hold them back. He addresses the fundamental problems that often come with success–and offers ways to attack these problems. Goldsmith outlines twenty habits commonly found in the corporate environment and provides a systematic approach to helping you achieve a positive change in behavior.
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17. Outside Innovation: How Your Customers Will Co-Design Your Company's Future by Patricia B. Seybold: In Outside Innovation, Patricia Seybold, author of the best-selling Customers.com and The Customer Revolution, argues that the only way organizations can break out of the pack is to open up their entire business to passionate customers and welcome them into every aspect of product and service design. In fact, those companies that bring customers into the innovation process—the ones that innovate from the outside in—will create products that better meet the needs of prospective customers, revolutionize business models and practices, and build fanatically loyal customers.
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18. Wikinomics By Don Tapscott, Anthony D. Williams: Today, encyclopedias, jetliners, operating systems, mutual funds, and many other items are being created by teams numbering in the thousands or even millions. While some leaders fear the heaving growth of these massive online communities, Wikinomics proves this fear is folly. Smart firms can harness collective capability and genius to spur innovation, growth, and success.A brilliant guide to one of the most profound changes of our time, Wikinomics challenges our most deeply rooted assumptions about business and will prove indispensable to anyone who wants to understand competitiveness in the twenty-first century.
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19. Leading with Character: Stories of Valor and Virtue and the Principles They Teach by John J. Sosik: "What kind of character strengths must leaders develop in themselves and others to create and sustain extraordinary organizational growth and performance? The author, John J. Sosik, answers this question by reviewing what is known about the connection between authentic transformational leadership and positive psychology. He summarizes a wealth of leadership knowledge in a unique collection of stories about 25 famous leaders from business, history and pop culture." The author includes dozens of interesting examples, vivid anecdotes, and clear guidelines to offer readers an in-depth look at how character and virtue forms the moral fiber of authentic transformational leadership.
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20. Leading at a Higher Level: Blanchard on Leadership and Creating High Performing Organizations by Ken Blanchard: In Leading at a Higher Level, Blanchard and his colleagues have brought together all they've learned about world-class leadership. You'll discover how to create targets and visions based on the “triple bottom line”...and make sure people know who you are, where you’re going, and the values that will guide your journey.
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21. Mastering Business Negotiation: A Working Guide to Making Deals and Resolving Conflict by Roy J. Lewicki, Alexander Hiam: A handy resource for any leader or manager who needs practical strategies and ideas when conducting business negotiations. Grounded in solid research, the authors - experts in the field of business negotiation - reduce the huge volume of available information into an accessible handbook for busy executives who need to prepare for everyday negotiations as well as for more demanding and complex negotiation situations.
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22. Exceptional Selling: How the Best Connect and Win in High Stakes Sales by Jeff Thull:"Thull's leading-edge thinking makes this book extraordinary. This straightforward guide to communicating across all cultures with credibility and respect will give you a significant competitive advantage in a complex and crowded global marketplace." —Guenter Lauber, Vice President, Siemens Energy & Automation, Inc., EA Systems
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23. Know-How: The 8 Skills That Separate People Who Perform from Those Who Don't by Ram Charan: For well over four decades, Ram Charan has been learning in the most visceral way the underlying reasons why leaders succeed and fail. As one of the most influential advisers to top management teams of leading companies around the world, he has had a front-row seat to observe the cause and effect of leadership practices and behaviors.
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24. Success Built to Last: Creating a Life That Matters by Jerry Porras, Mark Thompson, Stewart Emery: Imagine discovering what successful people have in common, distilling it into a set of simple practices, and using them to transform your life and work. Authored by three legends in leadership and self-help — including Built to Last co-author Jerry Porras — it challenges conventional wisdom at every step. Success Built to Last draws on face-to-face, unscripted conversations with hundreds of remarkable human beings from around the world. Meet billionaires, CEOs, presidents of nations, Nobel laureates and celebrities — the rich, the famous and the unknown.
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25. Green to Gold : How Smart Companies Use Environmental Strategy to Innovate, Create Value, and Build Competitive Advantage by Daniel Esty, Andrew S. Winston:This book explores what every executive must know to manage the environmental challenges facing society and business. Based on the authors' years of experience and hundreds of interviews with corporate leaders around the world, Green to Gold shows how companies generate lasting value, cutting costs, reducing risk, increasing revenues, and creating strong brands, by building environmental thinking into their business strategies. Daniel C. Esty and Andrew S. Winston provide clear how-to advice and concrete examples from companies like BP, Toyota, IKEA, GE, and Nike that are achieving both environmental and business success.
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26. Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done: by Larry Bossidy, Ram Charan: Bossidy, an award-winning executive at General Electric and Allied Signal, came out of retirement to tend to Honeywell (and bring it back to prominence) after it failed to merge with General Electric. Charan has taught at Harvard and Kellogg Business Schools. Collaborating with editor and writer Burck, they present the viewpoint that execution (that is, linking a company's people, strategy, and operations) is what will determine success in today's business world. Bossidy and Charan aver that execution is a discipline integral to strategy, that it is the major job of any business leader hoping not just to be a success but to dominate a market, and that it is a core element of corporate culture.
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27. Bag the Elephant: How to Win & Keep Big Customers by Steve Kaplan: Bag the Elephant is all about how smart businesspeople can woo and keep those all-important elephants—the big, make-or-break customers. Like its companion, the New York Times bestseller Be the Elephant, it is filled with dynamic advice and real-life examples, delivered in an energetic, straight-shooting fashion that gets right to the core of its powerful idea—how to land the account that will put you over the top. Here are six keys to achieving the elephant mindset and understanding the big customer. How to map and use a big company's red tape to your advantage. Why the elephant needs you as much as you need it. Preparing yourself and your pitch.
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28. Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture by John Battelle: What does the world want? According to John Battelle, a company that answers that question—in all its shades of meaning—can unlock the most intractable riddles of business and arguably of human culture itself. And for the past few years, that’s exactly what Google has been doing. But The Search offers much more than the inside story of Google’s triumph. It’s a big- picture book about the past, present, and future of search technology and the enormous impact it’s starting to have on marketing, media, pop culture, dating, job hunting, international law, civil liberties, and just about every other sphere of human interest.
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29. Talent Is Never Enough: Discover the Choices That Will Take You Beyond Your Talent by John C. Maxwell: Leadership expert Dr. John C. Maxwell knows that people are never successful by talent alone, and in this book he outlines the 13 crucial things you can do to maximize your natural talents and become a "Talent-plus" person. There are 13 chapters on maximizing your talent, each helping build on the foundation of your abilities.
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30. Leader's Legacy by James M. Kouzes, Barry Z. Posner: In this provocative book, leadership experts and authors of the best-selling The Leadership Challenge, Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner take on a unique challenge and explore the question of leadership and legacy. Kouzes and Posner examine in twenty-two chapters the critical questions all leaders must ask themselves in order to leave a lasting impact. These powerful essays are grouped into four categories: Significance, Relationships, Aspirations, and Courage. In each essay the authors consider a thorny and often ambiguous issue with which today’s leaders must grapple issues.
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31. The Speed of Trust: The One Thing that Changes Everything by Stephen M. R. Covey: In the riveting style of The Tipping Point, Stephen M. R. Covey uncovers the overlooked and underestimated power of trust in a gripping look into what he calls "the one thing that changes everything." Groundbreaking and paradigm-shifting, The Speed of Trust demonstrates that trust is a hard-edged, economic driver -- a learnable and measurable skill that makes organizations more profitable, people more promotable, and relationships more energizing.
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