Steve's Top 10 Business Must-Reads

Top 10 Business Must-Reads

As we enter into this new decade, it’s important to reflect on all the things that have challenged and inspired us.

Books have always been a way for me to make sense of the world. From history, with a strong focus on engineering, science, and medicine, to our Presidents and how they dealt with the strain and pain of war, books have given me the opportunity to learn more and experience more. 

With this in mind, I thought I’d share the books that are my go-to when it comes to business and leadership.

These 10 must-reads provide not only superb insights on some of the greatest companies that have ever existed but also thought-provoking entertainment.

1. Dealers of Lightning: Xerox PARC and the Dawn of the Computer Age

Michael A. Hiltzik

A fascinating journey of intellectual creation. In the 1970s and '80s, Xerox Corporation brought together a brain-trust of engineering geniuses, a group of computer eccentrics dubbed PARC. The group created several monumental innovations that triggered a technological revolution, including the first personal computer, the laser printer, and the graphical interface (one of the main precursors of the Internet), only to see these breakthroughs rejected by the corporation. Yet, instead of giving up, these determined inventors turned their ideas into empires that radically altered contemporary life and changed the world.

2. In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America's Best-Run Companies

Tom Peters and Robert H. Waterman Jr. 

One of the "Greatest Business Book of All Time" (Bloomsbury UK), In Search of Excellence has long been a must-have for the boardroom, business school, and bedside table. Based on a study of forty-three of America's best-run companies from a diverse array of business sectors, In Search of Excellence describes eight basic principles of management -- action-stimulating, people-oriented, profit-maximizing practices -- that made these organizations successful.

3. The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron

Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind

Meticulously researched and character-driven, Smartest Guys in the Room takes the reader deep into Enron's past—and behind the closed doors of private meetings. Drawing on a wide range of unique sources, the book follows Enron's rise from obscurity to the top of the business world to its disastrous demise. It reveals as never before major characters such as Ken Lay, Jeff Skilling, and Andy Fastow, as well as lesser-known players like Cliff Baxter and Rebecca Mark. Smartest Guys in the Room is a story of greed, arrogance, and deceit. Above all, it's a fascinating human drama that will prove to be the authoritative account of the Enron scandal.

4. Too Big to Fail: Inside the Battle to Save Wall Street 

Andrew Ross Sorkin

In one of the most gripping financial narratives in decades, Andrew Ross Sorkin—a New York Times columnist and one of the country's most respected financial reporters—delivers the first definitive blow-by-blow account of the epochal economic crisis that brought the world to the brink. Through unprecedented access to the players involved, he re-creates all the drama and turmoil of these turbulent days, revealing never-before-disclosed details and recounting how, motivated as often by ego and greed as by fear and self-preservation, the most powerful men and women in finance and politics decided the fate of the world's economy.

5. Behind the Cloud: The Untold Story of How Salesforce.com Went from Idea to Billion-Dollar Company-and Revolutionized an Industry

Marc Benioff

How did salesforce.com grow from a start-up in a rented apartment into the world's fastest-growing software company in less than a decade? Marc Benioff, the visionary founder, chairman, and CEO of salesforce.com tells how he and his team created and used new business, technology, and philanthropic models tailored to this time of extraordinary change. Showing how salesforce.com not only survived the dotcom implosion of 2001, but went on to define itself as the leader of the cloud computing revolution and spark a $46-billion dollar industry, Benioff's story will help business leaders and entrepreneurs stand out, innovate better, and grow faster in any economic climate.

In Behind the Cloud, Benioff shares the strategies that have inspired employees, turned customers into evangelists, leveraged an ecosystem of partners, and allowed innovation to flourish.

6. The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine

Michael Lewis

The #1 New York Times bestseller: "It is the work of our greatest financial journalist, at the top of his game. And it's essential reading."―Graydon Carter, Vanity Fair

The real story of the crash began in bizarre feeder markets where the sun doesn't shine and the SEC doesn't dare or bother, to tread: the bond and real estate derivative markets where geeks invent impenetrable securities to profit from the misery of lower- and middle-class Americans who can't pay their debts. The smart people who understood what was or might be happening were paralyzed by hope and fear; in any case, they weren't talking.

7. Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco 

Bryan Burrough and John Helyar

“One of the finest, most compelling accounts of what happened to corporate America and Wall Street in the 1980’s.” —New York Times Book Review

A #1 New York Times bestseller and arguably the best business narrative ever written, Barbarians at the Gate is the classic account of the fall of RJR Nabisco. An enduring masterpiece of investigative journalism by Bryan Burrough and John Helyar, it includes a new afterword by the authors that brings this story of greed and double-dealings up to date twenty years after the famed deal. The Los Angeles Times calls Barbarians at the Gate, “Superlative.” The Chicago Tribune raves, “It’s hard to imagine a better story...and it’s hard to imagine a better account.” And in an era of spectacular business crashes and federal bailouts, it still stands as a valuable cautionary tale that must be heeded.

8. The Great Bridge: The Epic Story of the Building of the Brooklyn Bridge

David McCullough

 The dramatic and enthralling story of the building of the Brooklyn Bridge, the world’s longest suspension bridge at the time, a tale of greed, corruption, and obstruction but also of optimism, heroism, and determination, told by master historian David McCullough.

This monumental book is the enthralling story of one of the greatest events in our nation’s history, during the Age of Optimism—a period when Americans were convinced in their hearts that all things were possible.

9. The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914

David McCullough

The National Book Award-winning epic chronicle of the creation of the Panama Canal, a first-rate drama of the bold and brilliant engineering feat that was filled with both tragedy and triumph, told by master historian David McCullough.

In The Path Between the Seas, acclaimed historian David McCullough delivers a first-rate drama of the sweeping human undertaking that led to the creation of this grand enterprise.

10. Presidents of War: The Epic Story, from 1807 to Modern Times

Michael Beschloss

From a preeminent presidential historian comes a “superb and important” (The New York Times Book Review) saga of America’s wartime chief executives.

 “Fascinating and heartbreaking . . . timely . . . Beschloss’s broad scope lets you draw important cross-cutting lessons about presidential leadership.”—Bill Gates

 Presidents of War combines this sense of immediacy with the overarching context of two centuries of American history, traveling from the time of our Founders, who tried to constrain presidential power, to our modern-day, when a single leader has the potential to launch nuclear weapons that can destroy much of the human race.

Which business book is your favorite? Add your insights below in the comments.

?Citation: Amazon.com