« Arm Hair for Children | Main | New Ascent: Acatenango »
November 18, 2004
Business Book Roundup
Chad G. / Merrill Lynch
Obviously I'm not in consulting, but here are some books others outside my industry (finance) have found interesting:
A Random Walk Down Wall Street by Burton Malkiel
- A must for anyone who invests or saves for the future, whether independently or in a 401K...layman’s terms of how Wall Street thinks and explains why the general public is at a disadvantage.
The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
- Just read them, it will all make sense then.
Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in the Markets and in Life by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
- How we perceive and deal with luck in business and life, extremely entertaining
The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey
- Been around forever but still very relevant and interesting read
When Genius Failed by Roger Lowenstein
- Seems like a fictional drama, difficult to put down. The scary thing is it is all true and happened just over six years ago
Varun T. / UIUC
(Personal Experience)
Consulting Demons, The Art of the Deal, Liar's Poker
(Consulting)
Flawless Consulting, McKinsey Way, McKinsey Mind, Clients for Life, Outsourcing: A CIO's Perspective, the SAP Handbook
(Finance)
Not a book, but a great resource - Warren Buffett's Letters to Shareholders on berkshirehathaway.com, Fixed Income Securities/Mathematics (I actually met the author, Frank Fabozzi - tremendous individual)
Ron A. / JPMC
As for reading suggestions, I read McKinsey Mind a LONG time ago, and I’m sure that you found it to be as commercial and common sense as I did. Here is what I have been reading lately, and I recommend all of them to you, because I think our minds and approaches are similar.
The real good McKinsey books can never be written, because they are too busy working. However, the new book on Enron is interesting to me, as lately I’ve been fascinated with markets in general.
Must Read:
Fooled By Randomness, Taleb - An excellent book on randomness from a traders perspective, a must read.
The Tipping Point - forget the author, you and I want to run our own companies, this too is a must read as marketing will be more than half the adventure. On a side note, everyone I speak with that has tried a Segway would give an arm for one, yet they are nowhere. I’m reading a lot of banking and financial theory books, most of which are for my edification and offer really no value of important things.
I have heard the series First Break all the Rules (FBATR) is great.
There is a follow up to that book I believe, Now Discover Your Strengths.
John H. / Bain
Consulting / Business books (mainly Bain books... go figure):
□ Beyond the Core (Chris Zook)
□ Aligning the Stars (Tierney, et al)
□ A Passion for Ideas: How Innovators Create the New and Shape Our World Mastering the Merger (Sam Rovit)
□ Loyalty Rules! How today's leaders build lasting relationships (Reichheld)
□ When Genius Failed
□ Barbarians of the Gate
□ Monkey Business
Other random books, mainly recco's from friends:
□ Rich Dad, Poor Dad
□ Fast Food Nation
□ Life of Pi
□ How full is your bucket?
□ Born to Buy: The Commercialized Child and the New Consumer Culture
Books I've already read that I'd really recommend:
□ Tipping point, by Malcolm Gladwell
□ Consulting Demons, by Lewis Pinault
Evan H. / Deloitte
I haven’t read any of these books (besides some of Covey’s books), but my dad does a lot of work in Organization Change and Leadership, and here’s what he recommended:
Two books by Dr. Jim Collins: Built to Last and Good to Great. These books by Collins are very good. Here are a few others:
- Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done by Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan
- What Really Works: The 4 + 2 Formula for Sustained Business Success by William Joyce, Nitin Nohria and Bruce Robertson
- Grow Your Own Leaders: How to Identify, Develop and Retain Leadership Talent by William C. Byham, Audrey Smith and Mathew Paese.
- Also the books by Stephen Covey: The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, First Things First, and Living the Seven Habits
- Books by Ken Blanchard. His are quite good.
- Let’s Get Real or Let’s Not Play: The Demise of Dysfunctional Selling and the Advent of Helping Clients Succeed by Mahan Khalsa
- Leading at the Edge by Dennis N.T. Perkins
Oren L. / Hewitt Associates
1 – Leadership by Rudy Giuliani
I read this a while back; it's a fairly well written book that pieces together his overall leadership strategies with good real-life anecdotes to illustrate his points. Not that we're mayors or anything, but his focus on analysis and planning is a good model to emulate.
2 – Moneyball by Michael Lewis
Currently reading this one; baseball teams aren't really that much different from your typical client- managers making decisions without real facts, old methods & people vs. new, and how technology can be a catalyst for change.
Trent F. / Accenture
The 48 Rules of Power
The Art of War
Influence : The Psychology of Persuasion -Robert B. Cialdini
- Quick read, marketing slant.
The Project Manager's Desk Reference - James P. Lewis
- Decent reference for "checking" yourself as a project is in process.
Fiction: Snow Crash by Neil Stephenson
Matt M. / Mars & Co. Consulting
Required reading for new associates:
Business Overview:
Competitive Advantage - Michael Porter
Strategy:
Wharton on Dynamic Competitive Strategy - Georges Day and David Rebstein
Competing Against Time - Georges Stalk and Thomas Hout
Corporate Level Strategy - Goold, Campbell, and Alexander
Thinking Strategically - Avinash Dixit and Barry Nalebuff
Six Sigma - Mikel Harry and Richard Schroeder
Value Migration - Adrian Slywotzky
The Alchemy of Growth - Baghai, Coley, and White
Organizational Strategy:
Foundations of Organizational Strategy - Michael Jensen
Reengineering the Corporation - Michael Hammer and James Champy
The Balanced Scorecard Strategy - Robert Kaplan and David Norton
Finance/Economics:
Valuation- Copeland, Koller and Murrin
Strategic Cost Management - Shank and Govindarajan
Security Analysis - Graham and Dodd
Power Pricing - Robert Dolan and Hermann Simon
Competitive Intelligence:
Competitive Intelligence - Larry Kahamer
Manufacturing:
The Goal - Goldratt
Technology:
The innovator’s Dilemma - Clayton Christensen
Unleashing the Killer App - Downes and Mui
Posted by Jeff at November 18, 2004 07:57 AM