100 Books Like Corporate Lifecycles

This book is by the founder of a company that has successfully navigated the stages of growth from a start-up to a sustainably successful organization and become a global champion or recognized leader in its space. Accordingly, the book is from the “horse’s mouth.” Schultz and his coauthor take the reader on the journey of the development of one of the classic entrepreneurial successes of our time. He details the challenges, his thinking, and the responses that were made to create the Starbucks of today. The book provided s the reader with a rare opportunity to participate in the Starbucks journey from a vision to the reality of building a great company. 

Jim Collins’ best book is the most pragmatic and most useful business book I’ve ever read. Period. From “getting the right people on the bus” to “the hedgehog concept” and more, the fundamentals entailed in creating a truly great business are all here. What more need I say? 

This book presents the historical story of another great company that rose to dominate its industry from the perspective of the man who led the company and was the architect of the strategic battle to create it. Alfred P. Sloan was an MIT-trained engineer when he was selected to lead General Motors, which was at the time “an also ran” to the once mighty Ford Motor Company led by the legendary visionary of the industry, Henry Ford. Yet Sloan, who even today is less well known than Henry Ford, crafted a strategy and organization that ultimately surpassed Ford not only in market share, but also in all aspects of operations so that General Motors and not Ford became the dominant colossus of the Automotive industry for more than a half-century. 

The book gives readers an opportunity to see the nature and evolution of Sloan’s plans and actions that slowly and… show more.

In the corporate world out there, the managers are actual people: men and women enter the stage under quite unequal conditions. I loved how this book throws light on a game that is far from fair from the outset and the odds are stacked against the women who enter it.

This is a classic that ages well–time changes, waves of equal opportunity policies are introduced, but still, I felt the basic mechanism this book reveals stays very much the same. I was fascinated by this book’s striking depiction of how men and women are dealt dissimilar cards but expected to perform just as well–and to act as if their conditions were fair and only merit mattered.

“The best and brightest” is a myth and not an inspiring one. 

I love gutsy books by outsiders, and Ms. Saxena, as a woman of color working in the Ivy League and the worlds of artificial intelligence and Big Data, is very much an outsider.

That makes her deep knowledge and insights into how AI and Big Data are changing business even that much more interesting. Plus, this is one of the only books I’ve read that explains how artificial intelligence works in a clear, direct way that doesn’t assume the reader already knows about things like machine learning and neural nets. 

What I most enjoyed about this book is the core message that business relationships, even successful and productive ones, are not meant to last forever. There is a season for everything. Far too often, partners enter into business relationships in the same way they enter a marriage, thinking that it will or should last forever. But there is a reason that the ceremony and the vows associated with the consummation of a marriage are missing from the formation of a business relationship.

This book advocates for beginning with the end in mind. It also helps readers understand that sometimes, ripping the band-aid off and ensuring the short-term pain is the only way to heal and prosper.

Reading this book had a profound impact on me–as did the author himself. I had the privilege of meeting Colin Mayer in his wood-paneled office and interviewing him for my own book—an experience that deepened my respect for his thinking. I found myself nodding in agreement as he laid out how far corporations have drifted from their true purpose.

I was struck by his call to move from ownership to stewardship and how closely it aligned with my own belief that purpose must sit at the heart of business. His critique helped sharpen my understanding of corporate governance and reaffirmed my beliefs in the need for a better way forward for business and its relationship with society.

One of the risks that the Compliance Officers oversee is the risk of money laundering; depending on how it is managed, it is possible to minimize reputational risk. This book helped me pinpoint precisely the necessary elements that must be included in a compliance plan to achieve strong corporate responsibility and compliance culture. By having those controls in place, money laundering and even any other white-crime risk are minimized and, incidentally, reputational risk. If you apply this, the company you work for it's going to be protected, and your boss is going to be happy, a win-win for everyone!

Many people know that American democracy and capitalism have been on a downward spiral for decades. The system is rigged, former Secretary of Labor Robert B. Reich sounds the alarm throughout his excellent book The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It. He goes deep into these questions as he supports the provocative thesis that despite acrimonious partisan polarization, the real contest is not between the right and left but between democracy and oligarchy; and that the vast majority of citizens (Republicans, Democrats, and Independents) are getting poorer and wield “near-zero” political power. Oligarchs—JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon is their embodiment—have amassed enormous sums of capital and political power, which allows them to further rig the system through campaign contributions, successful lobbying, and even criminal actions for which, if caught, they only pay nominal fines.

Warren Buffet, the famous investor, is also revered as a master communicator. His annual Letters to Berkshire Hathaway Shareholders are models of clear, transparent writing. They are the best showcases I know for the impact of presenting difficult material in “plain English.” Buffet makes financial information accessible and even interesting to the layperson with an unassuming colloquial tone, humor, anecdotes, and language based on the concrete short words of natural speech. He always delivers substance, even acknowledging his own poor decisions.

The enviable result: he generates trust, the critical ingredient of persuasion. I love introducing students to Buffet’s writing and seeing them analyze what works so well. The letters are available online, but this book usefully collects them along with other Buffet writings and commentary.