Reading List

 

FOUR LEADERSHIP BOOKS

(the first two provide general ideas. The last two apply to managing small teams or individuals)

Good To Great, Jim Collins, 2001, HarperCollins, 218 pages plus appendices.
Collins, the author of Built to Last, compares good companies to good companies that became great. Collins’ team of researchers began by sorting through a list of 1,435 companies, looking for those that made substantial improvements in their performance over time. They finally settled on 11--including Fannie Mae, Gillette, Walgreens, and Wells Fargo--and discovered common traits that challenged many of the conventional notions of corporate success. Making the transition from good to great doesn't require a high-profile CEO, the latest technology, innovative change management, or even a fine-tuned business strategy. At the heart of those rare and truly great companies were several people, culture, and thought-process issues. Peppered with dozens of stories and examples from the great and not so great, the book offers a well-reasoned road map to excellence that any organization would do well to consider.

First, Break All the Rules: What the World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently. Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman, 1999, Simon & Schuster; 271 pages.
The authors, Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman, based on Gallup's interviews over a period of 25 years with about 1 million staff and 80,000 managers from over 400 companies pinpoint "four keys" to evaluate the performance of an organization in general. This reflects the competence of the managers to get the best in terms of: - Selecting the staff for talent (not just for experience, which can be acquired and needs be updated with rapid change in technology), - defining the right results expected (and should be clearly understood by the individual), - focusing on strength of employees (leaving scope for their professional growth), and - finding the right fit for all of them.

 

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable, Patrick Lencioni, 2002, Jossey-Bass (Division of Wiley), 220 pages.
Once again using an astutely written fictional tale to unambiguously but painlessly deliver some hard truths about critical business procedures, Patrick Lencioni targets group behavior in the final entry of his trilogy of corporate fables. And like those preceding it, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team is an entertaining, quick read filled with useful information that will prove easy to digest and implement. This time, Lencioni weaves his lessons around the story of a troubled Silicon Valley firm and its unexpected choice for a new CEO: an old-school manager who had retired from a traditional manufacturing company two years earlier at age 55. Showing exactly how existing personnel failed to function as a unit, and precisely how the new boss worked to reestablish that essential conduct, the book's first part colorfully illustrates the ways that teamwork can elude even the most dedicated individuals--and be restored by an insightful leader. A second part offers details on Lencioni's

 

The One Minute Manager, Kenneth Blanchard and Spencer Johnson, 1983, Berkley Pub Group, 111 pages.
The One-Minute Manager sold more than a million copies and is a parable about a young man in search of world-class management skills. The authors’ message is so simple it’s brilliant: a “One-Minute Manager” achieves positive results with a minimum of time and effort by being communicative and consistent. Areas covered include goal-setting, motivating, training, praising and even reprimanding employees.

 

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FIVE GENERAL MARKETING BOOKS

 

The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing, Violate Them At Your Own Risk, Al Ries and Jack Trout, 1994, Harperbusiness, 160 pages. [Note from Prof Lilly: the reviews on Amazon are quite positive. A lot of material in this book can be counter argued, and the authors a stretching a bit. However, it's very readable and contains a lot of good advice presented in simple language.] (link to website with reviews plus more)

 

The End of Marketing As We Know It, Sergio Zyman, 2000, 1995 (reprint date), Harper Collins [Note from Prof Lilly: I considered grouping this book with company stories, because this book is somewhat rooted in Coca Cola experiences. But the author does a good job phrasing messages in generalized terms.] (link to website with TOC plus more)

 

Marketing Myths That Are Killing Business: The Cure for Death Wish Marketing, Kevin J. Clancy and Robert S. Shulman, 1995 (reprint date), McGraw-Hill   [Note from Prof Lilly: this book presents common misconceptions and then short discussions that clarify. For example, a misconception is that the focus group is a good serious marketing research gool. the authors say, yes but... and then discuss instances where focus groups are misused.] (link to website with TOC plus more)

 

Predatory Marketing: What Everyone in Business Needs to Know to Win Today's American Consumer, C. Britt Beemer and Robert L. Shook, 1997, Bantam Doubleday Dell Pub, 304 pages. [Note from Prof Lilly: this book illustrates the benefit of using simple and informal marketing research to study consumers and to make practical managerial recommendations. A leading consultant basically discusses some of his experiences.] (link to website with reviews plus more)

 

Big Brands Big Trouble: Lessons Learned The Hard Way, Jack Trout, 2001, Wiley, (p), 210 pages. [Note from Prof Lilly: read this a little at a time… the ideas jump around a lot, so this is not like a story where you will be captivated for long periods of time. But I challenge you to find another small book that has so many marketing truisms.] (link to website with reviews plus more)

 

 

OTHER BOOKS SPANNING VARIOUS TOPICS

 

Blink, Malcolm Gladwell, 2005, Little, Brown & Co., 254 pages.
[Note from Prof Lilly: this book discusses intuition versus analytic thinking; which is better

and when. Nice examples of analysis in Market Research exist, contrasted by examples

where intuition appears to win. The Amazon synopsis is:] Blink is about the first two seconds of

looking--the decisive glance that knows in an instant. Gladwell, the best-selling author of

The Tipping Point, campaigns for snap judgments and mind reading with a gift for translating

research into splendid storytelling. Building his case with scenes from a marriage, heart attack

triage, speed dating, choking on the golf course, selling cars, and military maneuvers, he

persuades readers to think small and focus on the meaning of "thin slices" of behavior. The

key is to rely on our "adaptive unconscious"--a 24/7 mental valet--that provides us with

instant and sophisticated information to warn of danger, read a stranger, or react to a new idea.

 

The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement, Eliyahu M. Goldratt and Jeff Cox, 1994,

North River Press, 275 pages.
[Note from Prof Lilly: this is a nice production management story but really provides only one

or two key learning items.] From an Amazon reader: Goldratt originally wrote the book in the

late '80's and it has become a cult classic in b-schools, and especially on the plant floor. If

you are seriously interested in the way companies "should" work in the 21st century, you

must read this book...and be sure you "get" it.

 

The Armchair Economist, Steven Landsburg, 1995, Free Press, 231 pages.
[This synopsis was posted to Amazon's page by a reader.] Economics the way it should have

been taught to you. Ever wondered whether mandatory seatbelts really save lives? Why

almost everything you buy is priced $X.99 (there's more than psychology to it)? If the death

penalty really has an effect on potential murderers? Well, if that's the case, this wonderful

book is for you. In The Armchair Economist, Mr Landsburg, a teacher at the University of

Chicago, uses simple and fun examples to explain some of the most fundamental principles

of economics. Read it and you'll understand why deficits may not be that bad after all and,

a lot more important, why popcorn is so expensive at the movies.

 

The Winner's Curse: Paradoxes and Anomalies of Economic Life, Richard H. Thaler,

1994, Princeton University Press, (200-300) pages.
Richard Thaler challenges the received economic wisdom by revealing many of the paradoxes

that abound even in the most painstakingly constructed transactions. He presents literate,

challenging, and often funny examples of such anomalies as why the winners at auctions are

often the real losers - they pay too much and suffer the "winner's curse" - why gamblers bet

on long shots at the end of a losing day, why shoppers will save on one appliance only to pass

up the identical savings on another, and why sports fans who wouldn't pay more than $200

for a Super Bowl ticket wouldn't sell one they own for less than $400. He also demonstrates

that markets do not always operate with the traplike efficiency we impute to them.

 

 

The World is Flat by Thomas L Friedman   Read the book review by J. Ben Arbaugh

 

 

Blue Ocean Strategy by Kim and Mauborgne   Read the book review by Bryan Lilly

 

 

Managers not MBAs by Henry Mintzberg (link to website with TOC plus more)

 

The Toyota Way by Jeffrey K. Liker (link to website with TOC plus more)

 

 

The Informant: A True Story by Kurt Eichenwald-- the international price-fixing scandal

of Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), the largest processor of food staples. There were two

mottos at ADM: "The competitors are our friends" and "The customers are our enemies."

(read excerpt from the book cover)

 

 

Conspiracy of Fools: A True Story by Kurt Eichenwald -- A blow-by-blow description

of the Enron implosion. (read excerpts from the book)