The 100 Best Business Books of All Time: What They Say, Why They Matter, and How They Can Help You

576 Pages·2016·12.47 MB·English

by  Jack Covert

PORTFOLIO / PENGUIN
THE 100 BEST BUSINESS BOOKS OF ALL TIME
JACK COVERT is the founder and former president (retired) of 800-CEO-READ,
a specialty business book retailer that began as a subsidiary of the Harry W.
Schwartz Bookshops. Jack still offers his hard-won business and book acumen to
the company as a consultant. He lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with his wife of
forty-plus years.
TODD SATTERSTEN helps business experts create and publish business books. He
lives in Portland, Oregon, with his wife and three children.
SALLY HALDORSON is the general manager of 800-CEO-READ and has worked
for the company in many different roles for 20 years. She has an M.A. in English
and Creative Writing, and lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with her husband and
son.
Visit www.100bestbiz.com

PORTFOLIO / PENGUIN
An imprint of Penguin Random House LLC
375 Hudson Street
New York, New York 10014
penguin.com
First published in the United States of America by Portfolio / Penguin 2009
Published in paperback with new material and revisions 2011
This paperback edition with further new material published 2016
Copyright © 2009, 2011, 2016 by Jack Covert and Todd Sattersten Copyright © 2016 by Sally Haldorson
Penguin supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes free speech,
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This page constitutes an extension of this copyright page.
ISBN 9781101992388 (ebook)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Covert, Jack, author. | Sattersten, Todd, author.
| Haldorson, Sally, author Title: The 100 best business books of all time : what they say, why they matter,
and how they can help you / Jack Covert, Todd Sattersten, Sally Haldorson.
Other titles: One hundred best business books of all time Description: Third Edition. | New York :
Portfolio/Penguin, 2016. | Revised edition of The 100 best business books of all time, 2009.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016019222 | ISBN 9780143109730 (paperback) Subjects: LCSH: Business—
Bibliography. | Management—Bibliography. | Businesspeople—Books and reading—United States. |
Executives—Books and reading—United States. | Best books—United States. | BISAC: BUSINESS &
ECONOMICS Reference. | BUSINESS & ECONOMICS Management.
Classification: LCC Z7164.C81 C85 2016 HF1008 | DDC 016.65—dc23
Cover design: Based on an original design by Joy Panos Stauber and Joseph Perez
Version_1
I dedicate this book to A. David Schwartz, who saw something in
me that I didn’t, and who is either really proud or is rolling over
in his grave. Either way, thanks!
Jack Covert
To Eric and Sue Sattersten—For your love and support from the
very beginning.
Todd Sattersten Thank you to Jack and Todd for the opportunity
to work on this book with you and for sharing your expansive
business knowledge with me over the years.
Sally Haldorson
CONTENTS
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
TITLE PAGE
COPYRIGHT
DEDICATION
PREFACE TO THE REVISED PAPERBACK EDITION
INTRODUCTION
YOU
Improving your life, your person, and your strengths. Flow · Getting Things Done ·
The Effective Executive · The Gifts of Imperfection · The 7 Habits of Highly
Effective People · How to Win Friends and Influence People · Swim with the
Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive · The Power of Intuition · What Should I Do
with My Life? · The First 90 Days · Oh, the Places You’ll Go! · Chasing Daylight
Jack Covert Selects · Expanding the Conversation: Five to Read ·
| SIDEBARS:
Business Books for Kids of All Ages
LEADERSHIP
Inspiration. Challenge. Courage. Change. On Becoming a Leader · Up the
Organization · The Leadership Moment · The Leadership Challenge · Leadership
Is an Art · The Radical Leap · Control Your Destiny or Someone Else Will ·
Leading Change · Questions of Character · The Story Factor · Lean In
| SIDEBARS:
Leadership in Movies · The Economist
STRATEGY
Nine organizational blueprints from which to draft your own. In Search of Excellence ·
Good to Great · The Innovator’s Dilemma · Only the Paranoid Survive · Who
Says Elephants Can’t Dance? · Discovering the Soul of Service · Execution ·
Competing for the Future · Beyond the Core The Best Route to an Idea
| SIDEBARS:
· Learn From Experience
SALES AND MARKETING
Approaches and pitfalls in the ongoing process of creating customers. Influence ·
Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind · A New Brand World · Selling the
Invisible · Zag · Crossing the Chasm · Secrets of Closing the Sale · How to
Become a Rainmaker · Why We Buy · The Experience Economy · Purple Cow ·
The Tipping Point · Little Red Book of Selling Best-Selling Business
| SIDEBARS:
Books · Selling on the Silver Screen · >1000 Words · Four {Super} Powerful
Writers
RULES AND SCOREKEEPING
The all-important numbers behind the game. Naked Economics · Financial
Intelligence · The Balanced Scorecard · What the CEO Wants You to Know
|
1982: Waking a Giant (Genre)
SIDEBAR:
MANAGEMENT
Guiding and directing the people around you. The Essential Drucker · Out of the
Crisis · Toyota Production System · Reengineering the Corporation · The Goal ·
The Great Game of Business · First, Break All the Rules · Now Discover Your
Strengths · The Knowing-Doing Gap · The Five Dysfunctions of a Team · Six
Thinking Hats · The Team Handbook Peter Drucker Said · Deming’s 14
| SIDEBARS:
Points of Management · Choose Your Approach
BIOGRAPHIES
Eight lives. Unlimited lessons. Titan · My Years with General Motors · The HP Way
· Personal History · Moments of Truth · Sam Walton: Made in America—My
Story · Losing My Virginity · A Business and Its Beliefs Classics
| SIDEBAR:
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Eight guides to the passion and practicality necessary for any new venture. The Art of
the Start 2.0, · The E-Myth Revisited · The Republic of Tea · The Partnership
Charter · Growing a Business · Guerrilla Marketing · The Monk and the Riddle ·
The Lean Startup Making Choices
| SIDEBAR:
NARRATIVES
Seven industry tales of both fortune and failure. Too Big to Fail · American Steel · The
Force · The Smartest Guys in the Room · When Genius Failed · Moneyball · The
Lexus and the Olive Tree Found in Fiction · Industry in Depth
| SIDEBARS:
INNOVATION AND CREATIVITY
Insight into the process of developing new ideas. Orbiting the Giant Hairball · The
Art of Innovation · Jump Start Your Business Brain · A Whack on the Side of the
Head · The Creative Habit · The Art of Possibility · Thinkertoys
| SIDEBARS:
Conferences to Attend · Fresh Perspectives Not in a Bookstore Near You
BIG IDEAS
The future of business books lies here. The Age of Unreason · Out of Control · The
Rise of the Creative Class · Emotional Intelligence · Thinking, Fast and Slow ·
To Engineer Is Human · The Wisdom of Crowds · Made to Stick · More Than
You Know ChangeThis · Your Favorites
| SIDEBARS:
THE LAST WORD
HOW TO READ A {BUSINESS} BOOK
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
INDEX
READING CHECKLIST
PREFACE TO THE REVISED PAPERBACK EDITION
WRITING
The 100 Best Business Books of All Time was the
culmination of my twenty-five years of reading, reviewing, and recommending
business books. It thrills me that the book has continued to sell consistently and
has been reprinted in ten languages. Of course, over the past years, we’ve gotten
some pointed questions and concerns about our choices, which we expected
when we placed this stake in the ground, and the business book world has
changed quite a bit in the intervening years. But I am happy to say that as we
updated the material for this paperback, I am still excited by every book, every
nugget of information we’ve included here.
Since publishing The 100 Best, it would be an understatement to say that a lot
has changed in the world. Economically, we have survived a worldwide
financial tsunami and continue to struggle amid its aftermath. Globally, we have
watched as countries were smashed by real tsunamis and other environmental
disasters. On a smaller scale, the publishing industry has faced the wave of e-
books and e-readers as its “tipping point” (read Malcolm Gladwell, here) has
clearly been reached. The digital book will continue to radically change the way
people get information and will continue to mold the look of the publishing
industry in the future. Our small company has felt the impact of these swells. We
have reacted to these changing times by staying lean and differentiating
ourselves through our customer service and ability to customize. In order to
adapt, we’ve applied many lessons learned from the books recommended here.
The trends in business books are also shaped by the economy, by necessity,
by the demands of busy readers who can download business information
immediately. Over the past few years, the number of big-thinking, investigative
books about the economy has soared. Books encouraging entrepreneurs to
venture out independently and create something new (as Todd has done, leaving
the company in 2009) are incredibly popular. Social media books now come in
every flavor. While we still believe The 100 Best is a definitive list, among these
recent trends, there have been many worthy and meritorious books published.
We created the 800-CEO-READ Business Book of the Year award to celebrate
them.
In this newest revised paperback edition, you may note one particular
difference in authorship. As I have been retired for two years now, the burden of
writing and updating this book fell to Todd and 800-CEO-READ’s general
manager, Sally Haldorson, who had a significant role in shaping this book. They
have updated the list with some new selections. Almost ten years have passed
since we formulated the original list for The 100 Best, and there were ample new
titles to consider. We chose five books that we felt deserved inclusion and
improved the quality of this resource. The Gifts of Imperfection by Brené Brown
adds heart. Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg adds courage. Eric Ries’s The Lean
Startup shows that entrepreneurship has become a management practice.
Andrew Ross Sorkin’s Too Big to Fail provides the closest thing we have to an
oral history of the economic collapse of 2008. And finally, Daniel Kahneman’s
Thinking, Fast and Slow deftly illuminates decision-making. These new books
sit alongside a collection of works that will make any businessperson better at
what they do.
Thank you for reading, Jack Covert, Founder and former President of 800-
CEO-READ