A Brief Guide to Business Classics

An entertaining, accessible guide to 70 classic business texts, covering every aspect of business and a broad span of time. From Sun Tzu's venerable The Art of War to Sheryl Sandberg's contemporary bestseller Lean In, a concise and insightful guide to 70 of the most influential business books ever published The world of business publishing is a curious place where one can find everyone from respected legends like Warren Buffett, Steve Jobs and Elon Musk to the most spectacular failures such as Enron and the sub-prime market. There are geniuses, strivers, academics and entrepreneurs; also charlatans and hucksters. There's even room for Donald Trump. This very readable guide examines the best of thousands of business books, covering every aspect of commerce and a broad time span. It includes some that might not be seen as 'business books' but nevertheless contain examples of the most powerful - or entertaining - insights into the world of business. Some of the books provide expert advice based on solid research; others, dubious management manuals that take a single flawed idea and stretch it to the point of absurdity. A 'speed read' for each book delivers a bite-sized impression of what the writer is like to read and a highly compressed summary of the main points of each book. The world of business books is a curious place where one can find everyone from great businesspeople like Warren Buffett, Steve Jobs and Elon Musk, to the most spectacular business failures such as Enron and the sub-prime business market. There are geniuses, hard workers, academics and entrepreneurs as well a few charlatans and hucksters. There's even room for Donald Trump. The 70 titles covered were chosen with various parameters in mind: to cover a range of areas of business, from sales and marketing to negotiation, entrepreneurship to investing, leadership to innovation, and from traditional and corporate models of business to start-up manuals and alternative angles on the subject. Obvious bestselling titles such as How to Make Friends and Influence People or 7 Habits of Highly Effective People have been included, but there are also those books of more questionable value often included on recommended lists of business classics, included here by way of warning. The chosen books also cover a wide span of time and acknowledge that some of the most powerful or entertaining insights into business can be found in texts that aren't perceived as being 'business books', for instance The Art of War, Microserfs, Thinking Fast and Slow and The Wealth of Nations.The selection includes a good range of the most recent successes in business publishing with which readers may be less familiar. The titles are arranged chronologically, allowing the reader to dip in, but also casting an intriguing light on how trends in business titles have changed over the years. Among these titles, you will find expert advice, based on solid research (for instance The Effective Executive or Getting to Yes), and inspirational guides to setting up businesses and running them on sound foundations (such as True North, Crucial Conversations, or We) alongside dubious management manuals that take a single flawed idea and stretch it out to the point of absurdity. The hope is that the reader will be inspired to read the best of these titles, ignore the worst of them, and will come away with at least a basic idea of what each has to teach us about business.