Books that had influence on me

At work, I was asked a question - What business books did you read recently?

My answer was like, I haven't read so many books in that topic recently. I had read a lot during my student time, I read online articles of different kinds which I find interesting for business field.

Today I finished reviewing my reading history based on my Amazon book purchases. For online article readings, I have no clear memory for the last 20 years, during which I am sure I have read a lot.

Anyhow, with a list of my (partial) books, I try to summarize findings about my own experience.

Here is the list of some of what I have read and had impact on me, which I could trace by tracing my purchase history for at least some business relevance.

• Practical C Programming: Why Does 2+2 = 5986?, Steve Oualline
• Business Process Re-engineering - Hammer, Champy
• Six Sigma for Managers 2007 - Greg Bruce
• The Welch Way 2007 - Jeffrey Krames
• 全図解トヨタ生産工場のしくみ - 青木 幹晴
• 藤巻健史の実践?金融マーケット集中講義 - Fujimaki
• 日本電産永守イズムの挑戦: すぐやる必ずやる出来るまでやる - Nikkei Shimbun
• トヨタ対ＶＷ (日本経済新聞出版) - Nakanishi
• 働き方―――「なぜ働くのか」「いかに働くのか」 - Inamori
• The Hundred-Year Marathon: China's Secret Strategy to Replace America as the Global Superpower - Michael Pillsbury
• Competing for the Future - Hamel
• グローバリズム以後　アメリカ帝国の失墜と日本の運命 (朝日新書) - Emmanuel Todd
• 失敗の本質: 日本軍の組織論的研究 (中公文庫 と 18-1) - Tobe, Teramoto, Kamada, Suginoo, Murai, Nonaka
• 決算書がスラスラわかる 財務3表一体理解法 - Kunisada
• ものづくり経営学: 製造業を超える生産思想 - Fujimoto
• Japan's Total Empire: Manchuria and the Culture of Wartime Imperialism: Manchuria and the Culture of Wartime Imperialism Volume 8 - Louise Young
• The Knowledge-Creating Company: How Japanese Companies Create the Dynamics of Innovation - Takeuchi, Nonaka
• Can Japan Compete??- Porter, Takeuchi, Sakakibara
• Makers - Chris Anderson
• 歴史家が見る世界史 - 入江昭
• 隷属なき道 - Rudgar Bregman
• 資本主義と論理 - 岩井克人　その他
• トヨタ形成システムの研究 - 日野 三十四
• 働き方 - 稲盛和夫

With having this list, I started my reflection.

I was trying to understand, I still do today, what a business can be, what its impact on the society can and should be. I want to learn the methodology, the historical development, and also on the philosophical and social justice.

As a teenager, probably when I had 13 years in my age, I had started to think what I wanted to be. That time, I wanted to be richer than what I was, I had set my target to be as rich as Bill Gates, so that I can finance whatever interest I would come up with, as Bill did with his foundation.

A few years later, I assembled my first PC with AMD K5 and ATI 3D Rage 128. At first I installed windows 98 or sth, then installed FreeBSD, later BeOS. I bought MS Visual Studio (who remembers J++), and started to learn C language, then I miserably failed to materialize anything. Partly I was due to the fact that the book for C language I bought was shitty, it was written by an asocial engineer who couldn't really write in a productive way.

Since then, I have read news article of IT topics on the daily basis, learning about some famous figures and companies in this industry, all the 'cutting edge' technology of that time, which technology succeeded and which failed, etc.

Anyhow, the experience as a teenager have lingered until today, my motivation to do something with the power of IT.

Not in my book list, but in the early 2000's I was reading a lot of Lawrence Lessig articles posted on CNET.

Those who know the name, it's obvious. He is an political activist, who had run for a US presidential campaign in 2016, a progressive figure for his 'copy left', 'creative commons' and other progressive idea. It had opened a door to me, that I don't need to do everything myself, I should embrace the community based idea.

Now finally coming to my book list, I can sum up the several directions in my experience.

1. Try to understand the technology, the methodology for manufacturing
2. Try to understand the power of finance, a little bit of practical accounting methods
3. Try to understand what the automotive industry is about (with a bit of understanding of IT industry for a comparison)
4. Try to understand the 'Corporate Japan' is (while working in Germany)
5. Try to understand how a human organisation was, is, can and will be

It's kind of interesting to review my own actions with data, as I had a lot of bad memory when I did it, how intensive or less intensive my effort was and such.

Reflection requires time, which I often neglect despite I know the importance.

There are so many things not included in my book list and the description above.

For me, it's important to have some 'issues' which I want to solve when I read a business relevant book or online article. And I am aware some topics are so complex, intertwined so that they require interdisciplinary approach.

By reading, I feel I had learned how 'small' I am. One person cannot solve many issues, other people might have different insights and ignorances.

By working with others, I realised that working with talented and motivated people can multiply my outputs, working with people who have given up learning new things don't bring much results unless a market situation is favourable in the environment.

What book have I read in recent days?

Less business book. A lot on the books which deals with the 'human nature' from different perspectives.

I have never been good with reading the minds of other people, but I want to be good at it. I keep trying.

Please let me know, if you have a book recommendation to help me improve my human skills.