This is a start at some of my notes/thoughts on the business books I’ve been reading. Ramblings in no particular order:
Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose
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Author: Tony Hsieh |
| This book starts out being an auto biography and quickly you see Tony is a life long entrepreneur. I like that it isn’t just a “how good am I” book, he talks a lot about the lessons from not so good things too. Good contrast of risk, strategy and ideals. After all the business stuff the book turns to general exploration of happiness and happiness frameworks. Another book to make you want to quit your job, and this time apply for a job at Zappos. | |
Long Tail, The, Revised and Updated Edition: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More
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Author: Chris Anderson |
| I’m still reading this book, description coming soon. | |
Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t
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Author: Jim Collins |
| This book gives some good examples of real strategies from real companies. Also if you believe the research, they have managed to make a pretty nice set of models that represent these strategies and how you can apply them to any company. I think this book is useful for general business strategy, leadership and things like insight in to competitive situations. Well worth a read. | |
Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make Competition Irrelevant
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Author: Renée Mauborgne / W. Chan Kim |
| This book explores why some business can’t or won’t expand past their current market or products, sticking to what they know – the red ocean. It proposes that the blue ocean is a untapped market that any business should be able to use to grow and/or move away from competition. Easy to read and does give lots of real world examples that you can relate to. | |
Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
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Author: Seth Godin |
| A self improvement book that doesn’t tell you that you need to quit your job. Godin’s story is one of how we’ve got to where we are (why people are often fed up with their jobs) and what you can do to overcome these roadblocks in an organisation. He gives examples of how people can become linchpins at any level of an organisation and of any organisation type. In a way it is quite idealistic and I think lacks some exploration of politics in organisations, the real-world is often quite different to the easy “stop being a cog” message in this book. Some good insight in to why and how working smarter and building better relationships is more beneficial than just working harder or longer hours. | |
Rework
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Author: Jason Fried / David Heinemeier Hansson |
| A very “tight” book. Small chapters very clear ideas, which I like. Easy to read, easy re-world examples. Although it is written by a software company the ideas are very broad and applicable to pretty much any business. Lots of ideas do throw away the old rule book and give a breath of fresh air to how a working environment should be, and hopefully some ideas to get it in to practice. Ideas range from stuff on hiring and motivation through to product development (e.g. use it yourself first, byproducts). A lot of these ideas reinforced what I was already thinking/doing, and gave me lots of good ideas to drive some more efficiency. | |
The 4-Hour Workweek
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Author: Tim Ferriss |
| Another book that might make you want to quit your job. The basic idea of the book is to take you out of a situation/job you don’t enjoy and get you to a point where you can live how you want, do what you want, and have the income automated to do it. The first part of the book was introduction/background about the idea and motivation, this wasn’t that applicable to me as I was already half way there in the flexibility of my job (working from home). Great tips on preparing for travel. The core of the business usefulness of this book comes from two other parts. Firstly the fundamentals of creating and taking product/idea from conception to testing and then to automation. The second part is to do with overall automation, batching, outsourcing. Both these business aspects aren’t just specific to individual entrepreneurs, but to people in large enterprises too. Also, lots of the organisation batching/time-saving stuff can be applicable to personal life. Definitely do (most of) the comfort zone exercises, very interesting. I’ve gone back and re-read parts of the book at times, for example referring to useful email outlines. | |
| The Art of War | Author: Sun Tzu |
| Ancient Chinese war strategy book. The original translated version is good to read in short bursts (they are small chapters anyway), and spend some time after each chapter considering how those tactics apply to business. You have to use your imagination to work out what would be implied in business when he refers to having hills on one side and your enemy on low ground, but it kinda makes sense. | |
Power Base Selling: Secrets of an Ivy League Street Fighter
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Author: Jim Holden |
| Description to be completed | |
Crush It!: Why NOW Is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion
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Author: Gary Vaynerchuk |
| How to build your brand, your business, take your idea, and build it using social networking. Even if you’re not thinking an end goal of quitting your job to build a product online, there are some interesting concepts around general social-media in business (big enterprise or sole trade), personal motivation and how to develop ideas. | |
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
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Author: Stephen R. Covey |
| Description to be completed | |
| Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs | Author: Carmine Gallo |
| I could not get in to this book. The author spent a lot of time talking about how great Steve Jobs is, which was acceptable in chapter 1, but when he said he would stop referring to his personality and success and concentrate on his presentation secrets, he didn’t. I lost it in the 3rd chapter. I’d maybe want to read a Steve Jobs biography, but this wasn’t that either. Do not waste your money on this book. | |
Not books
http://www.businesspundit.com/20-must-see-business-ted-talks/
