BOOK TOPICS
Products
Innovation Network's Recommended Book
List
Best Business & Management Books
of All Time
(from Inc. Magazine)
For the complete article that lists Inc. Magazine's Best Business & Management Books of All Time, Click Here. The article is by Jim Collins, co-author of Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies.
The
Social Psychology of Organizing by KARL E. WEICK (1979)
This book has had a very large behind-the-scenes influence on management
thinking. Published nearly 20 years ago, it establishes the foundations
of what today we call "learning organizations" and does so
more cogently than any other book you can read. The book is also a brilliant
treatise on managing an organization amid chaos, paradox, and dramatic
change.
Read more about the book or purchase it through Amazon.com for $38.70
by Clicking
here.
Diffusion
of Innovations by BY EVERETT M. ROGERS (1962)
Rogers presents the definitive exploration of how new innovations are
accepted by the general public, why some superior innovations fail to
be accepted while inferior innovations become standards, and why some
innovations take decades to establish themselves while others spread
seemingly overnight.
Read more about the book or purchase it through Amazon.com for $32.95
by Clicking
here.
The
Human Side of Enterprise
by DOUGLAS MCGREGOR (1960)
This masterwork has had a profound effect on the trajectory of management
thinking and is as relevant today as when it was written, more than
35 years ago. McGregor established the foundations of humanistic management
and argued that how well an organization performs is directly proportional
to its ability to tap human potential. That ability, in turn, relies
on rejecting the Theory X view of people and embracing the Theory Y
view of people.
Read more about the book or purchase it through Amazon.com for $28.00
(you save $12.00) (by Clicking
here)
The
Soul of a New Machine
by TRACY KIDDER (1981)
Read The Human Side of Enterprise and The Soul of a New
Machine simultaneously; they complement each other very well. Kidder's
book shows the dynamics of high-performance work teams and of Theory
Y management at its best by telling the true story of a project team
working with limited resources to design a new computer in less than
a year.
Read more about the book or purchase it through Amazon.com for $11.55
(you save $6.40) (by Clicking
here)
The
Practice of Management by PETER F. DRUCKER (1954)
Drucker stands as the most significant management thinker of the
20th century. Enlightened and, above all, effective management is to
him the central skill needed in all parts of a free society. Effective
management dispersed throughout society--in business, in nonprofits,
in education, in local government--made the triumph of the free world
and the end of the Cold War possible and is the only workable alternative
to a resurgence of tyranny or dictatorship. Drucker's goal is to make
society more productive and more humane. He strives to lift us to a
higher standard, not merely to help us be successful or amass wealth.
Read more about the book or purchase it through Amazon.com for $13.60
(you save $3.40) (by Clicking
here)
Competitive
Strategy by MICHAEL PORTER (1980)
Michael Porter's work focuses not on planning but on thinking
and understanding. His most powerful and useful contribution is a set
of conceptual frameworks for understanding the realities and forces
of the external environment.
Read more about the book or purchase it through Amazon.com for $26.25
(you save $11.25) (by Clicking
here)
Out
of the Crisis by W. EDWARDS DEMING (1982)
Deming, the man, probably had greater influence than his book. Most
people gained exposure to his ideas by reading about his work or by
hearing him talk, not by reading his work directly. That's unfortunate
because Out of the Crisis is one of the two key texts of the quality
movement (the other being J.M. Juran's Juran on Planning for Quality,
1988) and is also an eminently readable book full of vivid examples
that bring powerful ideas to life.
Read more about the book or purchase it through Amazon.com for $29.50
by Clicking
here.
Creativity
in Business by MICHAEL RAY AND ROCHELLE MYERS (1986)
Ray and Myers wrote a book and built a course around "live
with" assignments, whereby you take a concept and spend an entire
week trying to live--to act out--the concept. The live-with assignments
rest on the assumption that all human beings have a creative resource
within, which gets stunted as we grow up and become socialized. The
key, therefore, lies in removing the barriers to the creativity that
we already possess, not to "acquiring" creativity through
techniques.
Read more about the book or purchase it through Amazon.com for $10.36
(you save $2.59) (by Clicking
here)
In
Search of Excellence by TOM PETERS AND BOB WATERMAN (1982)
67 weeks on the New York Times best-seller list, 30 weeks at number
one; more copies sold in one year than the Bible; the most talked-about,
reviled, and praised management book ever written.
Read more about the book or purchase it through Amazon.com for $12.79
(you save $3.20) (by Clicking
here)