Recommended Reading

New Yorker columnist James Surowiecki explores a deceptively simple idea that has profound implications: large groups of people are smarter than an elite few, no matter how brilliant. 

Zag follows the ultra-clear “whiteboard overview” style of the author’s first book, The Brand Gap, but drills deeper into the question of how brands can harness the power of differentiation.

A New York Times best-selling author of both fiction and nonfiction, Anne Lamott was also the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship. As much a guide to writing as an exploration of the emotional challenges of being a writer, Bird by Bird offers a candid and often humorous look at how to tackle these varied obstacles.

The man Business Week calls “the ultimate entrepreneur for the Information Age” explains “Permission Marketing” — the groundbreaking concept that enables marketers to shape their message so that consumers will willingly accept it. 

The old saying is wrong-winners do quit, and quitters do win. Every new project (or job, or hobby, or company) starts out exciting and fun. Then it gets harder and less fun, until it hits a low point-really hard, and not much fun at all.

Built to Last, the defining management study of the ’90s, showed how great companies triumph over time and how long-term sustained performance can be engineered into the DNA of an enterprise from the very beginning.

What happens to “orphan” diseases that aren’t big enough profit centers for the pharmaceutical industry or get caught in the web of government funding and academic research? 

What are the basics of managerial success? Two of the most important are pride in one’s organization and enthusiasm for its works.

Even the smartest among us can feel inept as we fail to figure our which light switch or oven burner to turn on, or whether to push, pull, or slide a door. The fault, argues this fascinating, ingenious—even liberating—book, lies not in ourselves, but in product design that ignores the needs of users and the principles of cognitive psychology.

Grove reveals his strategy for measuring the nightmare moment every leader dreads–when massive change occurs and a company must, virtually overnight, adapt or fall by the wayside–in a new way.

When scholars write the history of the world twenty years from now, what will they say was the most crucial development in the first few years of the twenty-first century?

Forget supply and demand. Forget computers. The old rules are broken. Today, communication, not computation, drives change. 

In this book W. Edwards Deming details the system of transformation that underlies the 14 Points for Management presented in Out of the Crisis.

A new edition of Sun-Tzu’s classic treatise on military strategy, The Art of War, excerpted from the 1910 translation by Lionel Giles (1875-1958).

A searching vision of an unequal, technologically-advanced future where humans are genetically bred, socially indoctrinated, and pharmaceutically anesthetized to passively uphold an authoritarian ruling order–all at the cost of our freedom, full humanity, and perhaps also our souls.

George Orwell depicts a gray, totalitarian world dominated by Big Brother and its vast network of agents, including the Thought Police – a world in which news is manufactured according to the authorities’ will and people live tepid lives by rote.

Juan Enriquez puts you face to face with a series of unprecedented political, ethical, economic, and financial issues, dramatically demonstrating the cascading impact of the genetic, digital, and knowledge revolutions on your life.

This book ponders how will artificial intelligence change our world within twenty years.

While many people talk about how great it is to start a business, very few are honest about how difficult it is to run one. Ben Horowitz analyzes the problems that confront leaders every day, sharing the insights he’s gained developing, managing, selling, buying, investing in, and supervising technology companies.

Malcolm Gladwell looks at why major changes in society happen suddenly and unexpectedly. Just as a single sick person can start an epidemic of the flu, so too can a few fare-beaters and graffiti artists fuel a subway crime wave… 

What does your company do better than anyone else? What unique value do you provide to your customers? How will you increase that value next year? Drawing on in-depth studies and interviews with the top CEOs in the country, renowned business strategists Michael Treacy and Fred Wiersema reveal that successful companies do not attempt to be everything to everyone.

In this classic best seller – one of the most influential business books of all time – innovation expert Clayton Christensen shows how even the most outstanding companies can do everything right – yet still lose market leadership.

Explains how mistrust poisons the corporate culture, identifies causes of mistrust, and suggests solutions, including reorganization and performance measures.

This how-to text is for the business or marketing manager who has to plan and implement an Internet business. It contains step-by-step planning templates, as well as case studies and practical examples of successful Internet commerce ventures.

This introduction to theories of learning focuses on major schools such as behaviorism, Gestalt, cognitivism, and information processing as well as major intellectual figures including Thorndike, Pavlov, Guthrie, Hull, Tolman, Skinner, and Estes.

Stephen R. Covey is an internationally respected leadership authority and founder of Covey Leadership Center. He received his M.B.A. from Harvard and a doctorate from Brigham Young University, where he was a professor of business management and organizational behavior for 20 years. 

One of the most inspiring and impactful books ever written, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People has captivated readers for nearly three decades. It has transformed the lives of presidents and CEOs, educators and parents—millions of people of all ages and occupations.

Dr. Bob Rotella will show you how to identify and cultivate the qualities that lead to success, prosperity and happiness. He is the nation’s premier sports psychologist and performance enhancement consultant.

Based on a study of forty-three of America’s best-run companies from a diverse array of business sectors.

Fading charmer Tommy Wilhelm has reached his day of reckoning and is scared. In his forties, he still retains a boyish impetuousness that has brought him to the brink of chaos: he is separated from his wife and children; at odds with his vain, successful father; failed in his acting career (a Hollywood agent once placed him as “the type that loses the girl”); and in a financial mess. 

The idea that companies succeed by selling value is not new. What is new is how customers define value in many markets.

Starting from scratch, simply by picking stocks and companies for investment, Warren Buffett amassed one of the epochal fortunes of the twentieth century—an astounding net worth of $10 billion, and counting.

Kobe Bryant’s personal perspective of his life and career on the basketball court and his exceptional, insightful style of playing the game―a fitting legacy from the late Los Angeles Laker superstar.

 Based on a study of 150 strategic moves (spanning more than 100 years across 30 industries), the authors argue that lasting success comes not from battling competitors but from creating “blue oceans” – untapped new market spaces ripe for growth. 

The safety zone has moved. Conformity no longer leads to comfort. But the good news is that creativity is scarce and more valuable than ever. So is choosing to do something unpredictable and brave.

Seth Godin has written more than two million words and shaped the way we think about marketing, leadership, careers, inno­vation, creativity, and more. Collected here are six years of his best, most entertaining, and most poignant blog posts, plus a few bonus ebooks.